APP
User Name/Nick: Col
User LJ: carnivalesque ((Dorian's journal will be here, at devils_bargain ))
AIM/IM: carnivalesque
E-mail: carnivalesq@gmail.com
Other Characters: None, currently.
Character Name: Dorian Gray
Series: The Picture of Dorian Gray (novel by Oscar Wilde)
Age: 39 years.
From When?:
At the end of his life, though he did not know that it was to be his end, he decides he must destroy the painting, the last evidence of his sin and the embodiment of his soul. This goes horribly wrong, and Dorian assumes the horrific image the painting had grown to, while the painting restored to its former glory. Dorian is brought aboard the barge in the moments after the knife has plunged into canvas, and on board the barge regains once again his youth.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate.
Dorian has long been a prisoner, but the cell was named hedonism and the bars were built of youth and beauty. His soul has been held captive on canvas, his sins worn in the sweeps of oil painting the aged and decayed features of his likeness. His mind has been held captive by insidious ideas and unspeakable desires. His body has been held in the balance, an empty vessel beyond consequence, seeking new sensations, a pleasure that will satiate.
If nothing can cure the soul but the senses, and nothing can cure the senses but the soul, what does one do when the soul is corrupt beyond any repair the senses could hope to serve? When the senses have warped and bent in on themselves beyond the realm that is curative? When instead of being haunted by what we have fearfully not indulged, we are haunted by memories that should never have occurred. In this end, there seems no hope for a cure, for nothing can condemn the soul like the senses, as nothing can destroy the senses like the soul.
Abilities/Powers:
Previously, Dorian's physical appearance remained unchanged throughout the years while the portrait alone bore the burden of years and sins. On board the barge, curse broken, he is stripped of endless summer and cast into uncertain territory. While he initially still appears to be twenty one years of age, lost time will begin to catch up with him. He is entirely normal. Well, as normal as a selfish murderer can be.
Personality:
In many ways, Dorian Gray is a paradox. He is self-centered and vain, thoughtless and distant, cold and manipulative. He knows how to get what he wants, and sees other people as a means to an end; a provider of a service, a lover for the night, a tool, a scape goat, or a pawn. But there is more to him, beneath the surface. There are the broken remains of his innocence, a boy lost somewhere between childhood and a curse. There is, or at least there was, sweetness, humor, and a kind heart. More importantly, there is still some part of Dorian that yearns for these lost things, innocence and beauty, and that falls in love with them in others.
Dorian is easily influenced, stirred by commanding personalities and new ideas, taking for truth the cynicism of his friend and mentor, Lord Henry. He is not a free thinker, he listens and takes and follows, rather than choosing to evaluate and deconstruct. He follows so well that he thinks he leads, his endless youth allowing him to delve so much deeper than those whose footsteps he walks in.
He is selfish and given to boyish moods at the best of times, indulging in any and all passing desires and vices thoughtless to their effects at the worst of times, as he has never known any consequence to his actions.
He seeks new sensations, new pleasures, and there is no cost. When one sensation fails to please, another is taken up like a silk bound book and tossed aside at whim. His desires have passed from lily-white to black, dark unspeakable things lurching behind locked doors. Sense and pleasure are the drug; as tolerance increases so must stimulation.
Path to Redemption:
Dorian wants to change. He goes back and forth between wanting to change and just wanting to hide the evidence of his sins, but there is part of him that wants to change for the better, even if his motives are still skewed. He is very self-centered, and does not see other people's pain as real or of any concern to him. His method of justifying his actions often involves distancing himself from the consequences and viewing them as the "beautiful tragedy" of plays and art, rather than as real events that harm real people. A big step in his path to redemption would be in getting him to recognize other people as having feelings and emotions and value as much as he does.
Dorian needs to hold himself accountable for his actions. He justifies his actions according to hedonism, a philosophy introduced to him by Lord Henry. Also, he blames anyone but himself for his actions; he blamed Basil, who painted his portrait, for the path his life has taken (for without it he wouldn't have realized his personal beauty, its power, and how briefly he would have had it for) and in fact, blamed the knife with which he killed Basil for Basil's death.
Dorian needs to realize that there is more in life that is good than just his own pleasure. He needs to see that the end does not justify the means, and that often his pursuit of pleasure (and his pursuit of concealing his shameful actions) has caused others very great pain.
He has gone so far into his self-serving hedonism that he has entirely forgotten life prior to meeting and being influenced by Lord Henry. He would do well to explore his past and revisit the pain he suffered by his grandfather's hand, and have this used as a lens to understand the harm he has caused others. (I underlined this because its basically the key, his experience of pain being linked to the pain he caused others will be the only way he can look at his actions in any context of consequence and have it make sense to him. It will take him some time before this happens.)
History:
Much of the details of Dorian’s youth are unknown. Partly this is due to the story, and also due to differing versions of the text. Dorian was orphaned when he was a young child, and was raised by his grandfather, Lord Kelso. There are some allusions in the text to childhood abuse. The attic room was created by Lord Kelso for Dorian when he was a child to keep him out of Lord Kelso's sight (The recent film alludes to physical abuse, which is a logical next step, considering that he had spent much of his childhood locked in the attic).
As a young man of twenty or twenty one, he inherits the mansion after Lord Kelso dies. He meets Basil Hallward, who paints his portrait and unwillingly introduces him to Lord Henry Wotton, at which point the novel begins. He proclaims he would give anything, even his own soul, if he were to stay young as the portrait is. He gets his wish and shortly after meets and falls in and quickly back out of love with Sybil Vane, a brilliant but lower class actress. She commits suicide when he spurns her affections. Dorian spirals downwards in the pursuit of pleasure, picking up shady vices along the way, including sex, drugs and wild parties with crazy international music (wrong era for sex, drugs and rock and roll, but the same basic idea). He is a Victorian rock star, the embodiment of their ideal; beautiful and unchanging.
After killing Basil Hallward, he blackmails Alan Campbell, an ex-friend to dispose of the body. Shortly after, Alan commits suicide. Dorian feebly makes an effort to "be good," and Lord Henry's response to this gives him pause to reflect on his own motives. He chooses instead to conceal the remaining evidence of his sins by destroying the painting, which breaks the spell and he dies in the gross image the painting had grown to reveal, while the painting restores to its original splendor.
Sample Journal Entry:
[After several minutes spent struggling to figure out how the communicator works, has managed to switch it to voice and is talking aloud to fill the silence of his cabin, and to avoid having to type on the tiny, foreign keyboard.]
What curious hell is this that I have earned?
From what I can tell, destroying the portrait had a very unforeseen effect. I remember the moment the knife tore the canvas; I felt my body distort horribly while the painting returned to its - my - former glory. It all happened in but a moment, however I feel certain I must have died.
It seems clear that I am no longer living, and yet still I breathe. My youth is restored; the twisted horror which that painting had inflicted upon me has gone. Hopefully, it has gone permanently. My room here is my own bedroom, however it is freed of the confines of the house and has become lodged within this barge, as have I.
From what I can tell, this barge is not hell, but hell bound. There are others, like myself, inmates of the afterlife, and still others who, I suppose, are charged with ensuring we do not escape this prison. Or perhaps I am still down by the docks. I have dreamt up far stranger things in those dens.
[Hoping he will awake in an opium den, Dorian presses buttons at random in an effort to turn off the communicator. Failing to do so, he has actually switched on Video, and sets the device down. Dorian pinches himself firmly, mouth settling into a hard frown as the pain leads him to believe he is both awake and still alive.] Where am I?
Sample RP: [3-5 paragraphs, 3rd Person POV]
This room was his own, yet the feeling of it was all wrong. He could hear sounds beyond the walls that were foreign to his ears, people walking the corridor, a quiet creaking, a low hum.
He had not been wholly listening when this was explained to him. A barge, that is what lay beyond his room. He was an inmate. So this was a prison? Again, he had been distracted when it was all explained. Dying will do that to a person. But was he dead?
He moved to the mirror, but he did not take comfort in his reflection. Like his bedroom, his face, his body was the same as always and yet something felt different. His image was that impossible reflection of a man who had escaped age, yet he knew he had aged. His bones held the memory of frailty, his skin crawled with a prickle of disease, a touch of death. His body remembered dying.
He raised his hand to his face, to reassure himself of his continued existence. He was deeply unsettled. It was impossible, all this. To have died, and be still alive. To be in his room, and yet also on board some great ship. Dorian had not felt fear like this in thirty years. What was going to happen to him in this vast, unknown limbo?
User LJ: carnivalesque ((Dorian's journal will be here, at devils_bargain ))
AIM/IM: carnivalesque
E-mail: carnivalesq@gmail.com
Other Characters: None, currently.
Character Name: Dorian Gray
Series: The Picture of Dorian Gray (novel by Oscar Wilde)
Age: 39 years.
From When?:
At the end of his life, though he did not know that it was to be his end, he decides he must destroy the painting, the last evidence of his sin and the embodiment of his soul. This goes horribly wrong, and Dorian assumes the horrific image the painting had grown to, while the painting restored to its former glory. Dorian is brought aboard the barge in the moments after the knife has plunged into canvas, and on board the barge regains once again his youth.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate.
Dorian has long been a prisoner, but the cell was named hedonism and the bars were built of youth and beauty. His soul has been held captive on canvas, his sins worn in the sweeps of oil painting the aged and decayed features of his likeness. His mind has been held captive by insidious ideas and unspeakable desires. His body has been held in the balance, an empty vessel beyond consequence, seeking new sensations, a pleasure that will satiate.
If nothing can cure the soul but the senses, and nothing can cure the senses but the soul, what does one do when the soul is corrupt beyond any repair the senses could hope to serve? When the senses have warped and bent in on themselves beyond the realm that is curative? When instead of being haunted by what we have fearfully not indulged, we are haunted by memories that should never have occurred. In this end, there seems no hope for a cure, for nothing can condemn the soul like the senses, as nothing can destroy the senses like the soul.
Abilities/Powers:
Previously, Dorian's physical appearance remained unchanged throughout the years while the portrait alone bore the burden of years and sins. On board the barge, curse broken, he is stripped of endless summer and cast into uncertain territory. While he initially still appears to be twenty one years of age, lost time will begin to catch up with him. He is entirely normal. Well, as normal as a selfish murderer can be.
Personality:
In many ways, Dorian Gray is a paradox. He is self-centered and vain, thoughtless and distant, cold and manipulative. He knows how to get what he wants, and sees other people as a means to an end; a provider of a service, a lover for the night, a tool, a scape goat, or a pawn. But there is more to him, beneath the surface. There are the broken remains of his innocence, a boy lost somewhere between childhood and a curse. There is, or at least there was, sweetness, humor, and a kind heart. More importantly, there is still some part of Dorian that yearns for these lost things, innocence and beauty, and that falls in love with them in others.
Dorian is easily influenced, stirred by commanding personalities and new ideas, taking for truth the cynicism of his friend and mentor, Lord Henry. He is not a free thinker, he listens and takes and follows, rather than choosing to evaluate and deconstruct. He follows so well that he thinks he leads, his endless youth allowing him to delve so much deeper than those whose footsteps he walks in.
He is selfish and given to boyish moods at the best of times, indulging in any and all passing desires and vices thoughtless to their effects at the worst of times, as he has never known any consequence to his actions.
He seeks new sensations, new pleasures, and there is no cost. When one sensation fails to please, another is taken up like a silk bound book and tossed aside at whim. His desires have passed from lily-white to black, dark unspeakable things lurching behind locked doors. Sense and pleasure are the drug; as tolerance increases so must stimulation.
Path to Redemption:
Dorian wants to change. He goes back and forth between wanting to change and just wanting to hide the evidence of his sins, but there is part of him that wants to change for the better, even if his motives are still skewed. He is very self-centered, and does not see other people's pain as real or of any concern to him. His method of justifying his actions often involves distancing himself from the consequences and viewing them as the "beautiful tragedy" of plays and art, rather than as real events that harm real people. A big step in his path to redemption would be in getting him to recognize other people as having feelings and emotions and value as much as he does.
Dorian needs to hold himself accountable for his actions. He justifies his actions according to hedonism, a philosophy introduced to him by Lord Henry. Also, he blames anyone but himself for his actions; he blamed Basil, who painted his portrait, for the path his life has taken (for without it he wouldn't have realized his personal beauty, its power, and how briefly he would have had it for) and in fact, blamed the knife with which he killed Basil for Basil's death.
Dorian needs to realize that there is more in life that is good than just his own pleasure. He needs to see that the end does not justify the means, and that often his pursuit of pleasure (and his pursuit of concealing his shameful actions) has caused others very great pain.
He has gone so far into his self-serving hedonism that he has entirely forgotten life prior to meeting and being influenced by Lord Henry. He would do well to explore his past and revisit the pain he suffered by his grandfather's hand, and have this used as a lens to understand the harm he has caused others. (I underlined this because its basically the key, his experience of pain being linked to the pain he caused others will be the only way he can look at his actions in any context of consequence and have it make sense to him. It will take him some time before this happens.)
History:
Much of the details of Dorian’s youth are unknown. Partly this is due to the story, and also due to differing versions of the text. Dorian was orphaned when he was a young child, and was raised by his grandfather, Lord Kelso. There are some allusions in the text to childhood abuse. The attic room was created by Lord Kelso for Dorian when he was a child to keep him out of Lord Kelso's sight (The recent film alludes to physical abuse, which is a logical next step, considering that he had spent much of his childhood locked in the attic).
As a young man of twenty or twenty one, he inherits the mansion after Lord Kelso dies. He meets Basil Hallward, who paints his portrait and unwillingly introduces him to Lord Henry Wotton, at which point the novel begins. He proclaims he would give anything, even his own soul, if he were to stay young as the portrait is. He gets his wish and shortly after meets and falls in and quickly back out of love with Sybil Vane, a brilliant but lower class actress. She commits suicide when he spurns her affections. Dorian spirals downwards in the pursuit of pleasure, picking up shady vices along the way, including sex, drugs and wild parties with crazy international music (wrong era for sex, drugs and rock and roll, but the same basic idea). He is a Victorian rock star, the embodiment of their ideal; beautiful and unchanging.
After killing Basil Hallward, he blackmails Alan Campbell, an ex-friend to dispose of the body. Shortly after, Alan commits suicide. Dorian feebly makes an effort to "be good," and Lord Henry's response to this gives him pause to reflect on his own motives. He chooses instead to conceal the remaining evidence of his sins by destroying the painting, which breaks the spell and he dies in the gross image the painting had grown to reveal, while the painting restores to its original splendor.
Sample Journal Entry:
[After several minutes spent struggling to figure out how the communicator works, has managed to switch it to voice and is talking aloud to fill the silence of his cabin, and to avoid having to type on the tiny, foreign keyboard.]
What curious hell is this that I have earned?
From what I can tell, destroying the portrait had a very unforeseen effect. I remember the moment the knife tore the canvas; I felt my body distort horribly while the painting returned to its - my - former glory. It all happened in but a moment, however I feel certain I must have died.
It seems clear that I am no longer living, and yet still I breathe. My youth is restored; the twisted horror which that painting had inflicted upon me has gone. Hopefully, it has gone permanently. My room here is my own bedroom, however it is freed of the confines of the house and has become lodged within this barge, as have I.
From what I can tell, this barge is not hell, but hell bound. There are others, like myself, inmates of the afterlife, and still others who, I suppose, are charged with ensuring we do not escape this prison. Or perhaps I am still down by the docks. I have dreamt up far stranger things in those dens.
[Hoping he will awake in an opium den, Dorian presses buttons at random in an effort to turn off the communicator. Failing to do so, he has actually switched on Video, and sets the device down. Dorian pinches himself firmly, mouth settling into a hard frown as the pain leads him to believe he is both awake and still alive.] Where am I?
Sample RP: [3-5 paragraphs, 3rd Person POV]
This room was his own, yet the feeling of it was all wrong. He could hear sounds beyond the walls that were foreign to his ears, people walking the corridor, a quiet creaking, a low hum.
He had not been wholly listening when this was explained to him. A barge, that is what lay beyond his room. He was an inmate. So this was a prison? Again, he had been distracted when it was all explained. Dying will do that to a person. But was he dead?
He moved to the mirror, but he did not take comfort in his reflection. Like his bedroom, his face, his body was the same as always and yet something felt different. His image was that impossible reflection of a man who had escaped age, yet he knew he had aged. His bones held the memory of frailty, his skin crawled with a prickle of disease, a touch of death. His body remembered dying.
He raised his hand to his face, to reassure himself of his continued existence. He was deeply unsettled. It was impossible, all this. To have died, and be still alive. To be in his room, and yet also on board some great ship. Dorian had not felt fear like this in thirty years. What was going to happen to him in this vast, unknown limbo?