The Picture of Dorian Gray Activity: Shmoop Amongst Yourselves

You might have noticed that Shmoop loves asking questions. So much so that we've come up with a new way to do it: we've created a boatload of videos to get your literary juices flowing. In this activity, you'll watch a Shmoop-created video about the text and then—well, you'll Shmoop amongst yourselves.

Step 1: You're about to watch a video in class, and it's not one of those boring gazelles-getting-eaten-by-cheetahs clips, either. No, this is a Shmoop-style video. So put on your glasses, sit back, and enjoy. Oh, and bonus: you shouldn't be taking any notes (at least not yet). Here is the video.

Step 2: Hopefully you got a few laughs, but we want to dig a little deeper. What is the video asking? That's right—what's the question? Here are a few things to think about and discuss together as a class:

• You've probably noticed that there are actually two questions in the video: one at the beginning and one at the end. Is the opening question the same as the closing question?
• What is each question asking?
• Is the question about a theme? A character? A quote? Something else entirely?

Step 3: Now that you've got that all figured out, it's time for take 2. This time, you can (and should!) take notes: what do you see or hear in the video that can help you answer the question at hand? A little reinforcement never hurt anyone, so viewing number two will give you the chance to digest a bit.

Step 4: It's finally time to Shmoop amongst yourselves. Break into small groups, and discuss your thoughts on the question being asked by the video. You can start with these questions, but let the spirit of analysis take you where it may:

• Do you agree with Shmoop's thoughts on the topic?
• What did Shmoop leave out? What other possibilities are there?
• Can you relate this topic or argument to other specific moments in the text?
• How would you answer the question?

One important thing: Make sure you have the text in front of you while you're chatting. Pull quotes from the text to back up your arguments or point to specific moments in the story to refute what Shmoop has laid out for you. Anything goes!

 
Step 5: Sharing is Shmooping (and caring, to boot), so get back together as a class and tell each other what you discussed. We bet you'll get a bunch of different ideas that you hadn't come up with yourselves.