Tags
Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, You only live once, Youth
Hello again! So I am reading a novel called “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, perhaps you may have heard of it? It was written by the famous playwrite Oscar Wilde and is considered a literary classic. It follows the story of a young beautiful man named Dorian Gray who swaps his soul for his youth and beauty to remain unchanged. He leads a fraudulent double life, while still remaining a gentleman in the eyes of society. His friend Lord Henry Wotton, who’s influence first lead his life on this corrupt path, says to him; “… but we will never get back our youth. The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty, becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to. Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!”
And it got me thinking, is he right? Is the best time of our life the time when we were young and free and able to do whatever we want without boundaries and responsibilities? Or, is the best time of our lives the times when we are older and wiser; when we have had more time to make mistakes and learn from them?
Some argue that the best time in our lives is when we are children in primary school. There is room for mistakes and nothing is as complicated as career choices or friendship meltdowns because you and your friends don’t really care about anything you do; any fight would not last for very long. Others say that the best times of our life is when we are middle aged and we have our lives sorted out and all we need to do is keep going until we grow old and die.
I believe that Lord Henry is right; there really is nothing in the world quite like youth. When you are a young adult you have the best time in the world because you are young enough to still be able what you want to do, but old enough to have some common sense and knowledge. So I say, go out there and have some fun; You only live once (YOLO! as they say). However, that doesn’t mean you should drink and take drugs and do other stupid things. It means that you should live life to the fullest, taking everyday as a new opportunity to make your life better.
So there you go, something for you to ponder. I have stated my opinion, now what is yours? Is there really “nothing in the world but youth!”?