Anglais 2de

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Unité de transition collège/lycée
1 • Generations living together
Ch. 1
Food for joy, food for ploy
Ch. 2
No future? No way!
2 • Working worlds
Ch. 3
Working in Silicon Valley
Ch. 4
STEM women rock!
3 • Neighbourhoods, cities and villages
Ch. 5
Ticket to ride
Ch. 6
South Afri...cans
Ch. A
Dreaming city stories - Digital content only
Ch. num
Diners and Pubs
4 • Representation of self and relationships with others
Ch. 7
Fashion-able
Ch. B
Inking the future - Digital content only
5 • Sports and society
Ch. 9
Spirit in motion
Ch. 10
Athletic scholarship
6 • Creation and arts
Ch. 11
“You see but you don’t observe!”
Ch. 12
From silent to talkie
Ch. C
Copying or denouncing? - Digital content only
7 • Saving the planet, designing possible futures
Ch. 13
Young voices of change
Ch. 14
Biomimicry: a sustainable solution?
Ch. num
National Parks
8 • The past in the present
Ch. 15
Twisted tales
Ch. 16
The Royals
Ch. num
The Royals 2.0 "Family Business"
Ch. D
All Hallows' Eve - Digital content only
Ch. num
Spooky Scotland
Fiches méthode
Précis
Ch. 18
Précis culturel
Ch. 19
Précis de communication
Ch. 20
Précis phonologique
Ch. 21
Précis grammatical
Verbes irréguliers
Rabats
Révisions
Unit 8
Reading corner

A deadly portrait

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Text document
He went in quietly, locking the door behind him, as was his custom, and dragged1 the purple hanging from the portrait. A cry of pain and indignation broke from him. He could see no change, save that in the eyes there was a look of cunning2 and in the mouth the curved wrinkle of the hypocrite. The thing was still loathsome3 — more loathsome, if possible, than before — and the scarlet dew that spotted the hand seemed brighter, and more like blood newly spilled. Then he trembled. Had it been merely vanity that had made him do his one good deed? Or the desire for a new sensation, as Lord Henry had hinted, with his mocking laugh? Or that passion to act a part that sometimes makes us do things finer than we are ourselves? Or, perhaps, all these? And why was the red stain larger than it had been? It seemed to have crept like a horrible disease over the wrinkled fingers. There was blood on the painted feet, as though the thing had dripped — blood even on the hand that had not held the knife. Confess? Did it mean that he was to confess? To give himself up and be put to death? He laughed. He felt that the idea was monstrous. Besides, even if he did confess, who would believe him? There was no trace of the murdered man anywhere. Everything belonging to him had been destroyed. He himself had burned what had been belowstairs. The world would simply say that he was mad. They would shut him up if he persisted in his story… Yet it was his duty to confess, to suffer public shame, and to make public atonement. There was a God who called upon men to tell their sins4 to earth as well as to heaven. Nothing that he could do would cleanse him till he had told his own sin. His sin? He shrugged his shoulders. The death of Basil Hallward seemed very little to him. He was thinking of Hetty Merton. For it was an unjust mirror, this mirror of his soul that he was looking at. Vanity? Curiosity? Hypocrisy? Had there been nothing more in his renunciation than that? There had been something more. At least he thought so. But who could tell?… No. There had been nothing more. Through vanity he had spared her. In hypocrisy he had worn the mask of goodness. For curiosity's sake he had tried the denial of self. He recognized that now.

But this murder—was it to dog him all his life? Was he always to be 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. He had cleaned it many times, till there was no stain left upon it. It was bright, and glistened. As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter's work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead, he would be free. It would kill this monstrous soul-life, and without its hideous warnings, he would be at peace. He seized the thing, and stabbed the picture with it.

There was a cry heard, and a crash. The cry was so horrible in its agony that the frightened servants woke and crept out of their rooms. Two gentlemen, who were passing in the square below, stopped and looked up at the great house. They walked on till they met a policeman and brought him back. The man rang the bell several times, but there was no answer.

Except for a light in one of the top windows, the house was all dark. After a time, he went away and stood in an adjoining portico and watched.

“Whose house is that, Constable?” asked the elder of the two gentlemen.

“Mr. Dorian Gray's, sir,” answered the policeman.

They looked at each other, as they walked away, and sneered. One of them was Sir Henry Ashton's uncle.

Inside, in the servants' part of the house, the half-clad domestics were talking in low whispers to each other. Old Mrs. Leaf was crying and wringing her hands. Francis was as pale as death.

After about a quarter of an hour, he got the coachman and one of the footmen and crept upstairs. They knocked, but there was no reply. They called out. Everything was still. Finally, after vainly trying to force the door, they got on the roof and dropped down on to the balcony. The windows yielded easily—their bolts were old.

When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, 1891.

1. pulled / took off 2. intelligence 3. disgusting 4. immoral acts

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, 1891.

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Questions
a) What feelings does Dorian Gray experience upon seeing his portrait?

b) How does the narrator describe the portrait through the eyes of Dorian Gray himself? Why? Focus on the words in bold letters for help.

c) Identify and list all the references to blood in the first paragraph

d) List the feelings and emotions presented in this paragraph.

e) What do you think of Dorian's plan? What is it?

f) Find three examples in the first three paragraphs showing that Dorian Gray is an evil man. Quote the text.

g) How do you understand and interpret the very end?
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Biography

Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death.
Placeholder pour Oscar WildeOscar Wilde
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Oscar Wilde
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Your time to shine!

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To celebrate the 120-year anniversary of Oscar Wilde's death, people around the world pay tribute to his work. You participate by writing a sequel to Dorian Gray.

1. Imagine the servant's reaction and conversation after discovering the body (180 words).

2. Write the synopsis of your own sequel to the novel (150 words).
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Tips

Discuss your own interpretation of the ending with your neighbours (l. 60-64).

Use the methodology tips.
  • Méthode je m'exprime à l'écrit
  • J'interagis à l'oral
  • Précis de communication

Use the lexical fields of beauty and appearance.

Use reflexive pronouns.
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