| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: fresh material than she does from any enthusiasm for art, or from
any lofty passion, or from any great awakening of the human
consciousness. She develops purely on her own lines. She is not
symbolic of any age. It is the ages that are her symbols.
Even those who hold that Art is representative of time and place
and people cannot help admitting that the more imitative an art is,
the less it represents to us the spirit of its age. The evil faces
of the Roman emperors look out at us from the foul porphyry and
spotted jasper in which the realistic artists of the day delighted
to work, and we fancy that in those cruel lips and heavy sensual
jaws we can find the secret of the ruin of the Empire. But it was
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: all about it," the boy repeated. "She told me it was their idea.
So I guessed, ever so long ago, that they have had the same idea
with you."
"Zenobie was very sharp," said Pemberton. "And she made you so."
"Oh that wasn't Zenobie; that was nature. And experience!" Morgan
laughed.
"Well, Zenobie was a part of your experience."
"Certainly I was a part of hers, poor dear!" the boy wisely sighed.
"And I'm part of yours."
"A very important part. But I don't see how you know that I've
been treated like Zenobie."
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: burdened by his past? Was he really to confess? Never. There was
only one bit of evidence left against him. The picture itself--
that was evidence. He would destroy it. Why had he kept it so long?
Once it had given him pleasure to watch it changing and growing old.
Of late he had felt no such pleasure. It had kept him awake at night.
When he had been away, he had been filled with terror lest other eyes
should look upon it. It had brought melancholy across his passions.
Its mere memory had marred many moments of joy. It had been
like conscience to him. Yes, it had been conscience. He would
destroy it.
He looked round and saw the knife that had stabbed Basil Hallward.
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
