A Series of Worksheets for A Picture by Clive Duncan

Kristina Leitner and Andrew Milne-Skinner, Austria

E-mail: Andrew.Milne-Skinner@uibk.ac.at

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Pre-reading activities
While-reading activities
Post-reading activities
Following up

Pre-reading activities

1. Looking at the title of the play, what kind of ‘picture’ comes to your mind? What kind of play might you expect?
2. Look closely at the name ‘Dorian Gray’. Which associations do you have with the word ‘gray’?
3. Between which colours is ‘gray’? (black and white – what do black and white mean in moral terms?)
4. What is meant by a ‘gray area’? (not fully defined)
5. What can ‘gray’ also refer to? (weather, person, mood)
6. What sort of person is a ‘man in a gray suit’? (usually someone who does administrative work – not very exciting)
7. Research question: Find out what the French adjective ‘doré’ means from the noun phrase ‘d’or’. (of gold – therefore, Dorian means golden)
   In the play Dorian is referred to by the American film director as being the ‘golden boy of all the glossy magazines’, who smiles ‘winningly and charmingly’ (Scene 10). (In Ancient Greece, ‘Dorian’ meant ‘of Doria’. The name suggest classical beauty and the Hellenic ideal.)
8. In how far do the two names, Dorian + Gray, fit naturally together, or is there a tension/contrast?(a golden boy walks into the gray areas of life, and possibly corruption)
9. Who were the ‘Sybils’ in classical mythology? (they were Greek women prophets)
   [P.S.After reading the play, does the name Sybil take on a further significance? (she seems to anticipate, if not predict, her own death)]
10. Vane: the word ‘vane’ is normally used in the phrase ‘a weather-vane’. What is a weather-vane?
11. If someone is described as being ‘like a weather-vane’, what is s/he like? (unstable, always shifting positions, easily influenced, potentially weak)
12. But ‘vain’ can be a homophone (words which are pronounced the same, but have a different spelling). ‘Vain’ can mean either ‘self-conscious’ or ‘self-centred’ while, on the other hand, it is used as in ‘a vain attempt’(meaning pointless or useless).

While-reading activities

Scene 1 – The Oscars

13. Reading the opening lines, what kind of scene do you expect?
14. How does the host introduce the nominees?
    Imagine you are the host at the Oscar ceremony this year, how would you welcome the audience and introduce the nominees for a category? (To help you, access some of the former openings of the Oscars on youtube.)
15. What sort of film, do you think, is Darkest before Dawn?
16. Act out the scene from Darkest before Dawn. Think of costume, stance, gesture, facial expression, breathing, movement, sound effects, etc.

Scene 2 – The Party

17. Dorian is on his phone. From his opening words on his mobile, who do you think Christina could be? (his agent in England)
18. ‘Why don’t you and it just get married?’ Why does Baz say this to Dorian? (because he has a close relationship to his mobile and is always using it)
19. What is Baz’s tone of voice when he asks this? (ironic,presumably)
20. How does Baz treat Dorian? (‘You’re a bad boy’ – like a naughty child and again later when saying: ‘It’s way past your bedtime’.)
21. How does Sybil take the initiative in approaching and addressing Dorian?
22. What kind of relationship does Dorian seem to have with a) Christina, and b) his mother?
23. Why does Baz say that Dorian is crazy? (because he is expected to accept immediately the offer from the famous American agent Henry Wooten)
24. ‘...if you could put the waitress down for a moment.’ What does Baz mean by ‘put down’ here? (put aside, leave alone, ignore)
25. What else can ‘put down’ mean, when used of a dog or cat? (to kill)
26. What is the meaning of ‘picture’? What else can it refer to?
27. Which advice does Henry give Dorian?(‘You’re going to have to play the Hollywood game’.)
28. In which ways should Dorian play the ‘Hollywood game’?
29. ‘Be careful what you wish for, it may come true.’Come back to this statement when you get to the end of the play. In retrospect, what does it mean? (it serves to foreshadow or prefigure what happens later)
30. Why does Dorian want to switch places with the Dorian in the film?
31. What does Sybil do at the very end of the scene, and what might this reflect?

Scene 3 – Hopes and Dreams

32. What does Sybil’s brother think of her being an actress?
33. Locate Iraq, Afghanistan, Kandahar, and Bagdad on a map.
34. In which ways are these current references?
35. Summarize what we have learnt so far about Sybil’s life.(By the end of the play, offer a biographical picture or profile.)
36. Why does Sybil say that Brits are ‘cool customers’?
    1. Here the word ‘cool’ is used metaphorically. Sybil seems to suggest that British people are calm, collected, reserved and tend to use understatement.
    2. Word thermometer:
       The word ‘cool’, when used literally, refers to a lowish temperature.
       Label the thermometer from hottest down to coldest.The first one (0) is given and serves as an example.
       

       scorching _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______

Key: 0.scorching 1. boiling hot 2. hot3. warm4. fresh5. cool6. chilly7. cold8. freezing9. icy 10. arctic

37. Find other intercultural differences in the play as a whole.
38. How does the Oscar give Dorian power?

Scene 4 – The Signing

39. In this scene Henry states: ‘All publicity is good publicity’. What is meant by this slogan? Discuss.
40. How does the ‘Hollywood game’ work?
41. In which ways is the ‘Hollywood game’ typical of media manipulation today? Discuss.
42. Why do you think the film Social Networkis mentioned?
43. Why does Henry say ‘timing is everything’?
44. Find out about Tinsel Town. What does the term refer to? How does it relate to the play here?

Scene 5 – Screen Test

45. Act out the first part of this scene. Follow the stage directions closely. Underline the action verbs and adverbs in the text.
    In groups of three, act out the scene between Sybil and Baz. The third person in the group acts as stage director for the performance in the role-play.
46. In which ways, according to Baz, can Sybil not act? Identify the characteristics of a ‘good’ actor or actress. Offer various dos and don’ts.
47. Re-express what Baz says in a more tactful and gentle way. Imagine Baz is addressing a highly sensitive actress. He tells her in tactful and supportive terms where and how she can improve. (e.g. It would be better if...)
48. We have, perhaps, the first sign of a change in Dorian’s attitude towards Sybil. Identify some evidence for this. (Dorian seems to accept that Sybil should stick to waitressing and seems to lose faith in her.)
49. Why, according to Henry, should Dorian ‘cool it for a while’?

Scene 6 – Farewell Party

50. DORIAN:They said... you haven’t got it.
    SYBIL: Was I being seen for a role?
    What does Sybil understand by ‘it’? (a role, a part)
    What does Dorian mean by ‘it’? (theskill or the ability to be a good actress)
51. Why might it be a good idea if Dorian and Sybil did not see each other for a while?
52. Which examples can you find of the ‘Hollywood lifestyle’?

Scene 7 – Damage Limitation

53. In which ways is the end of this film extract different from the first version at the beginning of the play?
54. Why do you think Dorian stares at the picture of Derrith smothering Angelica?
55. Speculate how Sybil has died.
56. Which information has Henry released to the press, and why?
57. Why do you think he wants to buy the rights of the film?
58. Why does Dorian not want to see the film again?
59. Has Dorian’s attitude towards Sybil changed in any way?

Scene 8 – CNN: A Hero Mourns

60. How is news usually presented on CNN?
61. Identify the different experiences Vane has had in Afghanistan and Iraq.
62. Which tense does he use, and why? (present perfect, with the notion of expressing experience in the past)
63. Which voice of the verb is used in Vane’s opening statement?
64. Which voice of the verb does Vane use in the following statements? (contrast between the passive voice, in which Vane has been a victim of horrific circumstances; active voice, expressing what he has achieved, experienced and done)
65. Carry out a mini-research project on the ‘War against Terrorism’ and the war in Iraq.

Scene 9 – The Poker Game

66. ‘I bet you get plenty of action, eh, Dorian?’ Which type of action is Alice referring to?
67. What is meant by a ‘win-win situation’ in a business negotiation?
68. In which way has Dorian’s life become corrupted and debauched?
69. You might like to relate this scene to the main theme of the film Indecent Proposal. In the film a ménage àtrois sees a married couple lose their entire life savings in a Las Vegas casino. At this point a tycoon offers one million dollars to spend the night with the wife.

Scene 10 – Baz’ New Picture

70. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in a soliloquy after trying to seduce Lady Anne, a widow of Edward, Prince of Wales, utters the words:
    
    Was ever woman in this humour wooed?
    Was ever woman in this humour won?
    I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long.
    What? I that killed her husband and his father
    To take her in her heart’s extremest hate.
    
    How might these lines from Shakepeare’sRichard IIIrelate to Dorian’s situation?
71. In which sense is Dorian ‘bankable’? (he is well worth investing in)
72. In which ways has Dorian changed?
73. Which two sides to Dorian now become apparent?
74. In which way is the third version of the film scene different from the two previous versions?
75. What are Dorian’s ‘ugly tastes’?
76. In what sense is Faulkner Dorian’s own soul?
77. Why must no one ever watch this film again?
78. Mini-research project: In which other texts are ‘Heaven’ and ‘Hell’ found to be in one person? Think about ‘Doppelgänger’ figures in literature.(e.g. R.L. Stevenson’sDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
79. Enact the scene between Baz and Dorian.
    1. How is the dramatic tension built up by the end of the scene?
    2. What makes the atmosphere tense?
    3. Study closely the physical details in the struggle.
80. Can you describe in what way the film scene from Darkest before Dawn becomes reality?

Scene 11 – A Downtown Bar

81. Why does Vane introduce himself as the ‘angel of vengeance’? Note the same first syllable in James’ surname and the type of angel he is.
82. Identify both the literal and the metaphorical meanings of ‘cut up’. What might Vane have in mind? (killing Dorian)
83. How does Dorian explain to Vane why his sister died?
84. From what we have learnt in the play so far, how truthful is Dorian?
85. Enact the final part of this scene from ‘a door bell sounds’.
86. How does Dorian try to shift the blame for Sybil’s death ontoBaz Ward?

Scene 12 – The Academy Awards

87. How does the title of the film Fight Club echo what has happened in the final scene?
88. Greta Lipinski summarizes Dorian’s career to date. Using the bare bones of this story, give it muscle and flesh by filling in details.
89. How does Dorian reveal himself to be cynically hypocritical?
90. In winning ‘Best Actor Award’ at the Oscars, Dorian has reached the pinnacle of his success. In how far could this be a possible ending to the story?
91. In Scene 2 Henry asks Dorian: ‘... but once you’ve won Best Actor, where do you go from there?’ Now having won Best Actor, where do you think Dorian might go from there?
92. Later in Scene 2 Henry tells Dorian that the movie star lifestyle ‘takes its toll’. Which price did Dorian have to pay for his ultimate success? (the price of his soul)
93. Find out about Mickey Rourke’s lifestyle and how he partied.
94. What does Henry mean by ‘The only way is down’? (1. to ‘down’ the glass of champagne, 2. decline is only possible after the summit has been reached)
95. ‘I’ve changed, Henry. I’ve decided I’m going to be good.’ Do you think it is really possible for Dorian to change now and be good?
96. What is Henry’s attitude of mind and tone of voice when he says ‘it’s called an autobiography’?
97. What is meant by ‘dirty laundry’ when you refer to someone’s life?
98. What does it mean ‘to bring something out of a closet’? (to reveal some hidden secrets)‘Once you bring the dirty laundry out of the closet’ this is actually a mixed metaphor!

Scene 13 – Delete

99. What is the number ‘thirteen’ normally associated with?
    In what way is version number four of the film extract different from the three previous versions?
100. Why do you think Faulkner has been transformed into a vampire?
101. Why does Dorian want to delete the film? (e.g. to delete his evil past?)
102. What happens to Dorian after he has deleted the files?
103. What does Derrith think he has won?
104. In which sense has Dorian ‘deleted’ his soul?

Scene 14 – Eulogy

105. Which different meanings of ‘star’ can you find?
106. Follow through the image of ‘bright star’ in what Henry says.
107. In which way does the play come full circle?

Post-reading activities

A Contextualising

Who said this, to whom, and when?

• Jeez, you and your phone – why don’t you and it just get married? (Baz)
• I exaggerate, of course, although it would mean dismissal, but, hey, it is the Oscars and it’s not every day I get to be in a room with so many big shots. (Sybil)
• That’s so cute - film! Aw, you must get that all the time... (Sybil)
• Seriously, kid, enjoy the moment – Best Newcomer – it can only happen the once. It has to be the finest moment in an actor’s life. (Henry)
• Be careful what you wish for, it may come true. (Henry)
• You said it yourself – this little boy changes things for me. Whilst it lasts people want to know me. It gives me power. (Dorian)
• All publicity is good publicity. (Henry)
• If you want to be a movie actor you have to live that life. (Henry)
• It is the most devastating thing that has happened to me. (Vane)
• I want to work with talent. I don’t want to work with celebrity or, worse – notoriety. (Baz)
• It doesn’t get better than this. Unless you’re talking about your private life. (Henry)

B Characterizing

1. Draw a sociogram that shows the interrelationships between the various characters, both those physically present and those only referred to.
2. Personality profile of Dorian:
   1. In which ways does Dorian’s personality change? Find specific examples.
   2. Identify the growing splits in Dorian’s character through the play. Draw a graph to show the growing divergence between Dorian’s core personality and his film ego.
3. Past habits – present state Compare what Dorian used to be like before with what Dorian is now.
   
   

   Dorian before innocent and shy loyal and kind towards others wanted to help was respectful ...

   Dorian now ruthless and cruel only interested in his own advantage/benefit does not care much how others are ...

   Example: Dorian used to be innocent and rather shy, but now he is cruel and acts ruthlessly.
4. Fill in the chart below, putting each of the adjectives from the list in the spaces provided next to the appropriate character. Some adjectives may apply to more than one character. Add any other appropriate adjectives you can think of.

Adjectives:

C Analysing drama

1. Identify all incidents of foreshadowing in the play. (For an explanation of ‘foreshadowing’ look at the drama terms below.)
2. Drama terms
   Choose the correct definition from the list (A–K) for each drama term (1-9). There is one extra definition that you should not use. Write your answers in the spaces provided next to the definition. The first one (0) is given and serves as an example.

Key: 0. A / 1. E / 2.H / 3.B / 4.G/ 5.D / 6.I / 7.J / 8.F / 9. C

1. The play reflects a classic structure: rising action – turning point – falling action. Draw a graph showing the rise/fall movement. Mark the various turning points.
2. Drama activities
   According to Scrivener (Learning Teaching, 2011), there are different types of drama activity commonly found in English language teaching classrooms.
   You might like to try and adapt some of these activities in working withA Picture.
   Among these are such activities as:
   Role-play: Students act out small scenes using role cards they have produced based on a close reading of the text.
   Simulation: This is really a large scale role-play. e.g. the ‘trial’ of Dorian Gray with prosecution – defence – witnesses called – newscast reports
   Acting a play script, with the following phases: presentation, discussion and interpretation, rehearsal, performance, evaluation
   Making a tableau: students take up different positions in a chosen scene. They then unfreeze the tableau and bring it to life by continuing the scene with improvised dialogue. After trying this out, they then compare their improvisation with the original playscript.

D Writing

1. Write a newspaper article reporting on the sudden death of Dorian Gray the day after the newscast, when further information has come to light.
2. Write a review of the performance of the play by Vienna’s English Theatre.

E Discussing

1. Discuss critically the main themes and ideas behind the play.
2. In which ways can the story be seen as a ‘Cinderella-tale’, with Sybil as Cinderella and Dorian as Prince Charming?

F Researching: Mini-research project

Find out about the ‘Gothic’: its origins, characteristics, frequent settings and scenarios, mood and atmosphere created, types of characters, outcomes. Offer examples of literature and film. (You might also like to consider how Vampirism relates to the tradition of the Gothic.)

G The Author Speaking

Study carefully Clive Duncan’s ‘Author’s Note’

1. From his anecdote as a young teenager, what conclusion can you draw?
2. In how far does your conclusion differ from Clive Duncan’s?
3. In the third paragraph, Clive Duncan offers two questions
   1. What does Dorian do?
   2. What would you do?
      
   3. and answer them.
   d. Why does Clive Duncan think Wilde’s original novel is a ‘morality tale’?
e. Why has Clive Duncan moved the story to Hollywood and changed the oil painting (in Wilde’s original novel) into a movie?

H Backgrounding

1. The drama plays with cultural and linguistic differences between the US and GB? Can you find examples?
2. Hollywood: What comes to your mind? Draw your own individual mind-map of what you associate with Hollywood and what you know already about it. Pair up, share and compare.
3. There is a reference to Tinsel Town in the play
   Background information:
   The original meaning of “Tinseltown” is not complimentary. People have used the word “tinsel” since the 1600s to describe something that is showy or even gaudy, but ultimately worthless. When people referred to Hollywood as Tinseltown in the 1970s, they obviously meant to cast aspersions on the film industry and the people who powered it. The implication is that Hollywood is all celebrities and glitter, but no real substance. (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-tinseltown.htm)
   
   In which ways is such celebrity lifestyle and glitter reflected in the play?

Following up

Appendix I

Film scenes

Here are all five versions of the film extract from Darkest before Dawn.
Analyse them closely. In which ways is the end of the last film extract different from the first version at the beginning of the play?

Underline the changes that take place through all five scenes.

1
A bell tolls – followed by howling wind.Derrith, a vampire, appears in frame dressed in a long black greatcoat. He raises a hand high and twists – the howl of the wind becomes more high-pitched. Angelica, lost and frightened, stumbles in, her hands to her ears. She looks at Derrith, who opens wide his greatcoat. Angelica is drawn to him, like a sleepwalker – but as she is about to be swallowed up in the coat, Faulkner runs into frame.

Appendix II

A On Oscar Wilde’s original novel The Picture of Dorian Gray

Compare and contrast these two synopses.

1.
Can a painting of a person tell you more about him than the person’s own face? If itis painted with love, perhaps the painting will show more than just the outside of that person – perhaps it will show the inside.
We often say that a face is like an open book: ‘the face tells its own story,’ we say. When Dorian Gray sees the painting of his own face, he falls in love with his own beauty. Nothing must touch his beauty, nothing must hurt or change it – not love, not even time. And so he cuts the link between his face and his heart, between his outside and his inside. His face does not change; it stays young and beautiful. But the picture – painted with love – tells the true story. It shows the real Dorian Gray, who is growing old and ugly and full of hate.

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, Preface, Oxford Bookworms Library, Stage 3,

2.
In the opening scene, a beautiful young man has a wonderfully lifelike portrait painted of him by an artist who has fallen in love with his model. As the painting nears completion, the young man’s simple view of life is confused by the words of an onlooker, a clever aesthete, who eloquently urges him to realise his youth fully, and explore every avenue of thought and sensation, even (indeed, particularly) those which society oppressively forbids. The young man accordingly exclaims that he would give his soul if, in return, he might remain forever young and the picture grow old instead. This wish is magically granted, for, as time passes, the young man’s beauty remains undiminished, while the picture gradually, and hideously, changes. Sheltered, yet repelled, by this mask, and egged on by the influence of his clever mentor, the hero hides the painting and commences a life of sensation and self-expression, profligacy and crime (including the murder of the artist). Eventually his obsession with his secret drives him to destroy the painting in the hope of liberating himself from its visual reminder of past sins. The moment of destruction, however, becomes a moment of self-destruction as the magical relationship between the portrait and the man is tragically reversed, and horrified spectators arrive to discover the painting intact and the hero transformed into an old wrinkled monster, dead by his own hand. Drew, John M.L. Introduction.The Picture of Dorian Gray.By Oscar Wilde.Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 1992, xiii-xiv.

B Challenging slogans

In Oscar Wilde’s preface to his novel, we find the following statements. Discuss each critically.

• There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
• Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.
• All art is quite useless.

C Selected scenes from Wilde’s original novel

In the following section are several extracts from Duncan’s play, juxtaposed with extracts from Wilde’s novel. Compare and contrast Duncan’s play with Wilde’s original.

• How have the settings in Wilde’s novel been transposed in Duncan’s play?
• How has the focus changed?
• Underline certain phrases and statements in the play that correspond to Wilde’s novel.
• Try and visualise each of the corresponding scenes. In which ways are the images similar, in which different?

D Linking up

Look at these two paintings by the Irish artist Francis Bacon. In which ways is the human body distorted? How might this reflect an aspect of Wilde’s novel?

E Sorting out

Here is a list of various sayings and slogans from the play (P) and the novel (N). Identify which ones come from the play. To what extent to you agree or disagree with these sayings? Explain why and discuss.

1. All publicity is good publicity.
2. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
3. One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing.
4. Be careful what you wish for, it may come true.
5. To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
6. No woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.
7. Morals, like truth, are like modern art in a picture gallery - open to interpretation, depending on how you look at them and where you’re standing.

Key: 1. P / 2. N / 3.N / 4.P / 5.N / 6.N / 7. P

E Interpreting art

Read the following quote from the play.

HENRY: Morals, Dorian, like truth, are like modern art in a picture gallery - open to interpretation, depending on how you look at them and where you’re standing. Think about it.

Then study carefully each of these three art pictures by the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte. How does Magritte play with our visual perception? How do you interpret each of the three pictures?

F Interpreting a cartoon

Wilde’s novel is timeless and universal in its appeal. Take, for example, this cartoon, which appeared in Der Standard on May 9, 2012.

How do you ‘read’ this satirical political cartoon?

Appendix III

Adaptations

A Picture is ‘based on’ Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Other ways of expressing such an idea are: ‘adapted from’, ‘derived from’, ‘inspired by’, ‘re-worked from’, among others.

Adaptations can vary:

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Literature course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Methodology and Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the English for Teachers course at Pilgrims website.