DG Ch. 16-18

"The hideous hunger for opium began to gnaw at him" (190)

It is clear that now the portrait of Dorian is not the only thing feeling the effect of his actions. Before, Dorian was able to do whatever he wanted and never feel any sense of regret for anything. Now, it seems that Dorian is aware of what he has done and is ashamed of himself. He goes to the opium den to forget his troubles, but if Dorian did not feel any pain for what he has done, he would still feel great and would not need to go there. I think that Dorian changed the final time he spoke with Basil before he killed him. Dorian realized the pain he has caused others, and now he wants to forget everything bad that ever happened to him.

"We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret to life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible" (201)

I disagree with this statement by Lord Henry on a few levels. First, I do not think that we only have one great experience in life and that is it. We all have many great memorable experiences in our lives that are equally significant. Also, I do not think that the goal of our lives is to reproduce one experience, but to continually take advantage of new opportunities to have other experiences. We must step outside of our comfort zones and try new things to fulfill our existence on earth. Another disagreement I have with this statement is the term "reproduce". I feel that we should always try to remember tremendous experiences in our lives, but never try to reproduce them. We must accept that each moment in our lives is unique and we must treat them as such. By trying to reproduce our life experiences, we are living in the past and not opening ourselves up to the wonders of life yet to be explored.