“The Rhodora” vs. “Design”

Thesis: Emerson’s “The Rhodora” and Frost’s “Design” both address the question of why things exist and they have a similar first half, but the second halves of the poems highlight the contrasting views of the two speakers.

Imagery

            “The Rhodora”

“I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, / Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook” (2-3).

            “Design”

“I found a dimpled spider, fat and white, / On a while heal-all, holding up a moth” (1-2).

In both of the above quotations the speaker is describing something that they see in nature.  In “The Rhodora” the speaker is describing where he sees the flower and what it is doing.  In “Design” the speaker is describing the location of the spider, heal-all, and moth in relation to each other.  Each of the quotations above are just one example the the extensive imagery used throughout the first eight lines of each poem describing the complexities of each scene.

Shift

            “The Rhodora”

“Rhodora! if the sage’s ask thee why” (9).

The shift occurs in the audience.  The audience during the first eight lines of the poem doesn’t play a major role; the scene is just being described.  However, in the second half of the poem the audience shifts to become the rhodora.  The apostrophe shows a respect for the flower and it humanizes the flower to an extent, adding to the idea displayed in the end of the poem.

            “Design”

                        “What had that flower to do with being white” (9).

The shift in this poem occurs in the content of what the speaker is saying.  In the first eight lines the speaker describes what he sees.  In the second half of the poem the speaker is questioning why what he saw exists.  The speaker asks a series of questions relating directly to what he observed in the first half.  These questions then lead the speaker to his final conclusion of why these things exist.

Contrasting Ideas

            “The Rhodora”

                        “The self-same Power that brought me there brought you” (16).

The capitalization of “Power” is meant to indicate that the power is God because whenever God is referenced the word being used is capitalized because it is acting as a proper noun.  With the power being God, it can be concluded that the speaker believes that the same God who brought him to Earth brought the Rhodora.   This speaker believes that God creates things having a well-intentioned purpose in mind; he believes that beauty itself is a good enough reason for existence. 

            “Design”

“What but design of darkness to appall? - / If design govern in a thing so small (13-14).

The speaker claims that the designer, God, has only created the situation with the spider, moth and heal-all to appall.  This idea goes against the more commonly accepted idea that God creates things for good.  The speaker believes that things only exist because God makes them, but he also thinks that the small and insignificant things are made to be bad.

The Picture of Dorian Gray #4; Dorian’s ‘Progression’

            In the latest reading of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian undergoes more changes.  Dorian’s biggest change so far in the novel has been his adaption of hedonism because of Lord Henry’s influence.  This change is not portrayed in a positive light and the reader is led to believe that hedonism is bad for Dorian.  This hedonism is highlighted when Dorian is talking with Sibyl after her awful performance; Dorian tells Sibyl that her acting was horrible “‘It was dreadful.  Are you ill?  You have no idea what it was.  You have no idea what I suffered’…‘My friends were bored.  I was bored’” (Wilde 89-90).  Dorian is being extremely selfish and rude to Sibyl because all he cares about is that he is happy and when Sibyl performs poorly in front of his friends he becomes unhappy.  Dorian becomes so unhappy when watching the performance and talking with Sibyl that he tells her, “‘You have killed my love!...You are nothing to me now.  I will never think of you.  I will never mention your name’” (91).  The new Dorian, created by Lord Henry is highlighted here as Dorian only cares about how Sibyl can please him.  When that aspect of her disappears he immediately loses his interest in her because he no longer feels any pleasure in her presence.  

            After Dorian escapes his confrontation with Sibyl and returns home he starts to feel regret for how he treated her.  Dorian is portrayed to be once again undergoing a change.  This time however, the reader is led to believe it is a positive change.  Dorian realizes how awfully he treated Sibyl the night before and he blames his actions on Lord Henry’s influence.  Once he realizes how Lord Henry’s influence has affected him, he vows that “He would not see Lord Henry any more – would not, at any rate, listen to those subtle, poisonous theories that in Basil Hallward’s garden had first stirred within him the passion for impossible things.  He would go back to Sibyl Vane, make her amends, marry her, try to lover her again” (96).  Dorian shifts away from hedonism back into the Dorian that Basil knows, the Dorian that cares about other people.  Dorian wants to set right what he did to Sibyl and part of that is to eliminate his hedonism and Lord Henry.  However, Lord Henry is not absent from Dorian’s life for long.

            On the same day that Dorian vows never to speak to Lord Henry, Lord Henry inputs more of his philosophies on Dorian and they make plans to go see the opera.  Dorian fully embraces Lord Henry again and it seems as if he has fallen back into Lord Henry’s influence.  All progress that Dorian had made towards bettering himself disappears when he tells Lord Henry, “‘I am awfully obliged to you for all that you have said to me.  You are certainly my best friend.  No one has ever understood me as you have’” (108).  Once again, Dorian falls into Lord Henry’s influential trap.  The relationship between Dorian and Lord Henry is similar to an abusive relationship; the tension building stage would be when Lord Henry preaches his philosophy’s to Dorian, the explosion would be when a situation like the one with Sibyl happens and Dorian blames Lord Henry for his own wrongdoing, and the honeymoon period would be the current stage where they embrace ach other and become best friends again.  No matter what he does it seems that Dorian cannot escape the grasp of Lord Henry.

The Picture of Dorian Gray #3: Basil’s Oblivion

            In the third night’s reading the reader becomes aware of how out of touch Basil has become with Dorian’s life.  Over the past couple of chapters the reader has seen Dorian dramatically change, but Basil has not been in contact with Dorian so he is not aware of the changes.  When Lord Henry informs Basil of Dorian’s engagement, Basil reacts: “‘Impossible! … Dorian is far too sensible’” (Wilde 77).  The Dorian that Basil used to know was a sensible guy, but with Lord Henry’s influence, Dorian has become hedonistic and few things he now does seem sensible to the outside observer; Dorian now only does things that please him rather than what makes sense.  Basil’s oblivion in regards to Dorian’s hedonism is shown when Basil says that Dorian “‘is not like other men.  He would never bring misery upon any one.  His nature is too fine for that’” (81).  Basil doesn’t realize that Dorian’s nature has changed; he is completely oblivious to the fact that Dorian is a hedonist that does things for his own pleasure and doesn’t care if his actions bring misery upon others as long as they don’t bring misery upon himself.  Another part of Dorian’s life that Basil is oblivious to is the influence Lord Henry has.  When Basil first finds out about Dorian’s engagement he mentions that he hopes it is a good girl because he doesn’t “want to see Dorian tied to some vile creature who might degrade his nature and ruin his intellect” (78).  The dramatic irony with this statement is that although Basil is talking about Dorian’s fiancé, the reader realizes that the description applies to Lord Henry’s influence, an influence that Basil has yet to realize.  Although Basil has yet to realize Lord Henry’s influence over Dorian, by the end of six he realizes that Dorian has changed and he feels “that Dorian Gray would never again be to him all that he had been in the past.  Life had come between them” (84).  Basil’s realization marks the end to his oblivion of how Dorian has changed although he is still not aware of why he has changed.

The Picture of Dorian Gray #2: Lord Henry’s Influence on Dorian Gray

            In chapters three and four the reader starts to see a change in Dorian Gray; ever since Dorian first met Lord Henry he has been influenced by Lord Henry’s intellect.  During their first meeting Lord Henry baffled Dorian with his view on beauty and youth and ever since Dorian has completely changed.  Lord Henry likes to “hear [his] own intellectual views echoed back to [him] with all the added music of passion and youth [of Dorian]” (Wilde 39).  The manner in which Lord Henry speaks to Dorian has persuaded Dorian to adopt Lord Henry’s points of view, fundamentally changing who Dorian is as a person.  Lord Henry believes that “there [is] nothing that one could not do with [Dorian]” (39).  Lord Henry takes advantage of Dorian’s youth and naivety to impart in Dorian his views on life.  Lord Henry seeks “to dominate” Dorian and has already partially done so (40).  Lord Henry is not attempting to have a traditional friendship with Dorian; Lord Henry is taking advantage of Dorian to make a more youthful and handsome copy of himself. 

Dorian is quite oblivious of the fact that Lord Henry is corrupting him.  When Lord Henry addressed the dinner crowd with controversial opinions, Dorian Gray “sat like one under a spell … wonder growing in his darkening eyes” (45).  Dorian is entranced by everything that Lord Henry says and wants to know more.  However, when Wilde chooses to describe Dorian’s eyes as “darkening,” it is to show the corruption and evil fervor that is growing within him yet Dorian is completely oblivious to this aspect of Lord Henry’s influence over him.  The epitome of Lord Henry’s influence over Dorian is in regards to Dorian’s relationship with Sibyl Vane.  When Dorian is first introduced he is portrayed as a handsome and ignorant young man who knows nothing about love and his future.  However, at the end of chapter four Dorian Gray is “engaged to be married to Sibyl Vane” (63).  Earlier in the chapter Dorian had said that he is not likely to marry because he is too much in love (51).  His change in attitude towards marriage came solely after a conversation with Lord Henry about his relationship and feelings toward Sibyl.  Lord Henry became fascinated by Dorian and Sibyl’s relationship on a psychological level and he believes that Dorian is a subject of his psychological studies that seems “to promise rich and fruitful results” (63).  Dorian is oblivious to that fact that Lord Henry is studying him psychologically and takes everything Lord Henry says to heart.  Dorian has evolved from a naïve boy to a man ready to become a husband after only knowing this woman for three weeks all because of Lord Henry’s influence that has caused him to go looking for answers to life.