Time period of Dorian Gray
Victorian
Setting of Dorian Gray
London, England
The Preface of Dorian Gray says…
“All art is quite useless.”
Basil doesn’t wish to exhibit is portrait of Dorian because…
it has too much of himself reflected in the painting.
hedonism
(the pursuit of pleasure) Lord Henry’s philosophy summed up in one word
Dorian’s wish
That he would remain beautiful and the painting take on the burden of his age and sin
Lord Henry’s gift that greatly influenced Dorian
the yellow book
Who confronts Dorian about his behavior and the rumors?
Basil Hallward
Who confronts Dorian at an opium den?
James Vane
What does the first change in the portrait (after breaking up with Sibyl) make Dorian want to do?
apologize and get back together with her
What does Dorian resolve to do after breaking up with Hetty?
Live a better life
textual evidence for the superficial nature of society in Dorian Gray
“My dear boy, they have only been talking about it for six weeks, and the British public are really not equal to the mental strain of having more than one topic every three months.”
textual evidence for guilt in Dorian Gray
- “There was a wild recklessness of gaiety in his manner as he sat at table, but now and then a thrill of terror ran through him when he remembered that, pressed against the window of the conservatory, like a white handkerchief, he had seen the face of James Vane watching him….Yes: it had been merely fancy. Sibyl Vane’s brother had not come back to kill him….And yet if it had been merely an illusion, how terrible it was to think that conscience could raise such fearful phantoms.”
- “What sort of life would his be if, day and night, shadows of his crime were to peer at him from silent corners, to mock him from secret places, to whisper in his ear as he sat at the feast, to wake him with icy fingers as he lay asleep.”
textual evidence for the degradation of Dorian’s soul / sin
- “The more he knew, the more he desired to know. He had mad hungers that grew more ravenous as he fed them.”
- “‘To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by means of the soul.’ Yes, that was the secret….there were opium-dens, where one could buy oblivion, dens of horror where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new.”
- ” He would examine with minute care, and sometimes with a monstrous and terrible delight, the hideous lines that seared the wrinkling forehead….He would place his white hands beside the coarse bloated hands of the picture, and smile. He mocked the misshapen body and the failing limbs.”
- “[Vice] is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed….If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding of his hands even.”
textual evidence of purpose and idea of art in Dorian Gray
- “You and I are what we are, and will be what we will be. As for being poisoned by a book, there is no such thing as that. [Books have] no influence upon action….The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
- “I never heard such a voice. It was very low at first, with deep mellow notes, that seemed to fall singly upon one’s ear….One evening she is Rosalind, and the next evening she is Imogen….I have seen her in every age and in every costume. Ordinary women never appeal to one’s imagination….How different an actress is!….Her eyes opened wide in exquisite wonder when I told her what I thought of her performance, and she seemed quite unconscious of her power.”
textual evidence of the supremacy of youth and beauty in Dorian Gray
“[He had] finely-curved scarlet lips,…frank blue eyes…crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity.”
textual evidence of the negative consequences of influence in Dorian Gray
“Don’t spoil him. Don’t try to [sway] him. Your [guidance] would be bad.”
