R EADING C LASSICS

The Picture of
Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

Teachers Book
by DOROTHEA BARRETT

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Activities while Reading

Pre-reading Activities
1. The Preface consists of twenty-four propositions that, taken together,
form an artistic manifesto or statement of belief. To what extent it is
sincere, given Wildes rejection of sincerity, or to what extent it is ironic
and provocative is open to question. Briefly put, the Preface maintains
that the purpose of literature is not moral instruction as many
Victorians believed (see the eighth, eleventh and twelfth propositions):
the excellence of literature, like that of music, consists in the
perfection of its form (see the eighth, sixteenth and twenty-fourth
propositions). The Preface leads the reader to expect a deliberately
artificial novel with no pretensions to imitate life; we expect, instead,
that the aim of this novel will be its own structural and poetic
perfection.
2. Other Gothic tales that students are likely to have read or heard of are
Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, the stories of Edgar Allan Poe and Robert
Louis Stevensons The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In Gothic
tales you expect to find unnatural or supernatural events, passionate
and obsessive characters, mystery and horror. The buildings in which
Gothic tales are set often have secret rooms or passages. Much of the
action takes place at night, in darkness or semi-darkness, and with
storms blowing outside.
3. Many Victorian novelists were particularly concerned with inculcating
moral values. In Dickens, for example, this often took the form of a
plea for social reform on the basis of compassion for the poor. This
moral dimension was shared by Christian and non-Christian authors.
Even non-believers like George Eliot were concerned with extending the
sympathies, making their readers feel the misfortunes of others more
vividly. Trollope and George Eliot both saw the role of the novelist as
that of a secular priest, a moral guide to the reader. This moral
earnestness, seriousness and sincerity is also evident in less didactic
writers like Charlotte Bront.

Chapter I
Chapter Summary
Basil Hallward, a painter, and his friend Lord Henry Wotton discuss the
portrait Basil is painting. Basil does not wish to exhibit it, and, in explaining
why, he tells Lord Henry of his secret worship of the sitter, Dorian Gray.
Dorian Grays arrival is announced at the end of the chapter.

1. SIMILES:
pp. 5-6 The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant
organ.
p. 10 like a blue thread a long thin dragon-fly
p. 13 the little clouds that, like ravelled skeins of glossy white silk,
METAPHORS:
p. 9
The sunlight slipped over the polished leaves.
p. 10 a long thin dragon-fly floated past on its brown gauze wings.
p. 13 the hollowed turquoise of the summer sky.
p. 17 the green lacquer leaves of the ivy.
2. He believes that thought makes one ugly and therefore that to be
beautiful one must be brainless.
3. c. curiosity

Chapter II
Chapter Summary
Lord Henry meets Dorian Gray. While Basil paints, Lord Henry speaks to
Dorian of the power of youth, of enjoying youth while it lasts, of fulfilling
ones desires and of how unfulfilled desires poison the soul. His words
have a strong effect on Dorian. When Lord Henry and Dorian look at the
finished painting, Dorian is overcome with sadness that his image in the
portrait will be young forever, whereas he himself will grow old. He swears
he would give his soul for the opposite to be true, for the painting to age
and he himself to remain young. Seeing how the painting has affected
Dorian, Basil takes up a knife to destroy his work, but Dorian prevents him.
Dorian and Lord Henry leave together.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

1. Adjectives:
low, musical, graceful, characteristic, Eton, fresh, Hellenic, Hellenic,
bravest, afraid, tragic, sick, monstrous, monstrous, unlawful, great,
great, rose-red, rose-white, afraid, sleeping.
The repetition of Hellenic emphasizes the connection between beauty
and hedonism (see p. 28) that Lord Henry wishes to impress upon
Dorian, as opposed to the medieval and Victorian view that hedonism is
connected to corruption.
The repetition of afraid emphasizes Lord Henrys unorthodox view that
conscience and cowardice are really the same things (see p. 11).
The repetition of monstrous redefines what is monstrous. Lord Henry
maintains that not the sins themselves, but the laws that forbid them,
are truly monstrous.
The repetition of great: the parallel between great events and great
sins encourages the unorthodox view that sins can be great in the
same positive sense that events can be great.
2. In Lord Henrys view, the aim of life is the realization of ones own
nature. Influence is therefore a bad thing because it seeks to change or
reform the nature of the person who is influenced. Fear of incurring the
disapproval of others, and fear of incurring the wrath of God are the
greatest influences that distort the development of the individual in
Victorian Britain.
3. This is an example of both an epigram and an aphorism. An epigram is
a short witty saying, an aphorism is a short wise saying: this is a short
saying that is both witty and wise.

Activities while Reading

Chapter III
Chapter Summary
Lord Henry goes to visit his uncle, Lord Fermor, to ask him about Dorians
family. Lord Fermor tells him the story of Dorians mother, the beautiful
Margaret Devereaux, who fell in love and ran off with a penniless young
man. A few months after the wedding, the young man was killed by a
Belgian in a duel. It was rumoured that Lord Kelso, Margarets father, had
paid the Belgian to insult his son-in-law in public and so indirectly to kill him
in the duel. Lord Kelso brought Margaret back to England, but she never
spoke to him again, and she died within a year. Lord Henry then goes to
lunch at his aunts house, where Dorian is among the guests. Lord Henrys
speaks brilliantly and provocatively of the philosophy of pleasure. Lord
Henry and Dorian leave together.

1. He sees philanthropists as hypocrites who recommend that the poor

practice virtues that the philanthropists themselves do not need to
practice (p. 17). He believes that philanthropy is based on a morbid
sympathy for pain, that the true aim of life, on the contrary, is to
sympathize with beauty. He also believes that philanthropic efforts are
too trivial to make any difference to the poor (p. 47).
2. He seems to admire the character and style of American women
(pp. 41-2). He has a low opinion of American novels (dry goods: p. 45)
and of America itself as a place to live (pp. 41-6). He despises
absolutely reasonable people (Sir Thomass description of
Americans: p. 46).

4.

CHARACTER

ADJECTIVES

Lord Henry

charming, fascinating, eloquent, witty, cultured,

flippant, sophisticated, satirical, ironic.

Basil

serious, passionate, sincere, sensitive, honest,

earnest, impulsive, proud, scrupulous.

Dorian

open, candid, passionate, innocent, petulant,

wilful, flirtatious, impressionable, sensitive.

3. 1. An idea as a bird. At the beginning of the passage Lord Henrys idea

is represented as a fantastic bird, which he is both teasing (let it
escape and recaptured it) and creating (made it iridescent with
fancy, and winged it with paradox). The bird, which is the praise of
folly soars into a philosophy.
2. Philosophy as a Bacchante. Philosophy is personified as a
Bacchante or Maenad, running over the hills of life, banishing
facts (Facts fled before her like frightened forest things) and
treading grapes for wine, believing, like Omar, that we should drink
and be merry while we can, because life is short.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

4.
Lord Henry

brilliantly, ironically

Activities while Reading

Chapter V
Chapter Summary

Mrs Vandaleur

sincerely, timidly
speaks

Sir Thomas

sincerely, gravely

Mr Erskine

ironically, infrequently

Sibyl and her mother discuss Dorian. Sibyl calls him Prince Charming,
telling no one his real name. She is simply happy and in love. Her mother is
concerned to make money out of the connection. Sibyls brother Jim is
going to sea. He is worried about leaving his sister undefended. Jim swears
that he will kill Dorian if Dorian ever hurts Sibyl.

1.

Chapter IV

CHARACTER

ADJECTIVES

Chapter Summary

Sibyl

naive, sincere, affectionate, impulsive,

optimistic, fanciful, trusting, passionate

Mrs Vane

jaded, mercenary, worldly, shallow, vain,

prudent, cunning, selfish, snobbish, unhappy,
affected, melodramatic

Jim

serious, surly, worried, suspicious, vindictive,

unforgiving, pessimistic, straightforward, loyal,
impatient, sullen, self-conscious, sulky, gloomy,
morose

After Dorian meets Lord Henrys wife, Lord Henry tells Dorian never to
marry. Dorian says that he is in love with an actress called Sibyl Vane. Lord
Henry talks about faithfulness, disparaging it as lethargy, lack of
imagination and the desire for property. Dorian talks of Sibyls genius as an
actress. That night Lord Henry receives a telegram from Dorian saying that
he is engaged to marry Sibyl Vane.

1. They represent good and bad angels, the voice of conscience and
virtue (Sibyl) as opposed to the voice of temptation (Lord Henry). It is
open to question which, if either, is endorsed by the implied author.
2. Key nouns: psychology, science, Experience, Moralists, warning,
efficacy, character, power, cause, conscience, future, past, sin,
method, analysis, passions, subject, results, love, phenomenon,
curiosity, desire, instinct, imagination, sense, reason, origin, motives.
Summary: Despite what moralists say, we do not learn from experience.
Dorian an interesting subject for scientific analysis. Dorians love for
Sibyl is part curiosity and part sensuous instinct, but the latter has
been transformed by imagination into something ideal, so that he is
unconscious of his motives. Unconscious motives are the strongest.
3. b. scientific interest
Lord Henry sees himself as a scientist and Dorian as the subject of his
experiment. The science is psychology, often the underlying subject of
Gothic novels.

2. Jim says as sure as there is a God in heaven, if he ever does you any
wrong, I shall kill him (p. 78). The vow will be difficult to carry out
because Jim has never seen Dorian and does not know his name.
3. b. protective

Chapter VI
Chapter Summary
Lord Henry, Basil, and Dorian dine together before going to the theatre to
see Sibyl act. Dorian describes his love as a love taken out of poetry. He
sees Sibyl as all Shakespeares heroines in one person. Lord Henry is
sceptical. Dorian, with Basils support, speaks for love as opposed to Lord
Henrys theories of pleasure. Basil feels he has lost Dorian.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Activities while Reading

1. Basils joke is a pun on the word whitewashing. The word literally

means painting with a white chalky liquid (whitewash), but it is also
used figuratively to mean covering up mistakes or faults in order to
preserve or restore ones reputation. No one in the House of
Commons is handsome enough to be a good subject for a painting, but
many of them have faults and have made mistakes that should be
covered up.

1. Dorians description of the manager is a negative stereotype. Lord

Henry, on the other hand, says that he rather likes the manager and
admires him for having gone bankrupt producing Shakespeares plays.
As with all Lord Henrys opinions, it is open to question whether he
really feels this. Even so, he presents a view of the manager that is the
opposite of the stereotype of the avaricious Jew.

2. a. elated
c. excited
3.
Lord Henrys
attitude to women

Women are wonderfully practical, it is always

the women who propose to us.

Dorians attitude
to Sibyl

I love Sibyl Vane, I want to place her on a

pedestal of gold, the woman who is mine,
Her trust makes me faithful, her belief makes
me good, the mere touch of Sibyl Vanes hand
makes me forget you and all your wrong,
fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories.

4. Lord Henry thinks that women manipulate the passions of men to get
what they want, in this case marriage. Dorian, on the other hand,
idealizes women (he wants to place Sibyl on a pedestal), but he also
considers women property (the woman who is mine).

Chapter VII
Chapter Summary
At the theatre, Basil and Lord Henry are impressed with Sibyls beauty, but
her acting is very bad. Lord Henry and Basil leave after the second act.
Dorian stays to the end, then goes backstage to talk to Sibyl. Sibyl explains
that now that she knows what love really is, she can no longer act it. Dorian
tells her she has killed his love for her, and leaves her crying on the floor.
Back at his own house, he sees that the face in his portrait has changed:
there is a touch of cruelty in it that was not there before. He realizes he has
been cruel to Sibyl and decides that he will marry her after all.

2. It might be argued that Sibyl, who lives in the world of acting, is being
totally natural. Dorian, under Lord Henrys influence (and remember
Lord Henry thinks that being natural is simply a pose p. 9), is acting
throughout his relationship with Sibyl.
3. c. the narrators
The thought cannot be Sibyls since the sentences before and after it
refer to Dorian. It is unlikely to be Dorians because it puts his reaction
in a negative light. It must therefore be the narrators thought.
4. In the first paragraph, the slums of London are described as evil and
their inhabitants as bestial. This kind of description is very common in
the Victorian novel. Compare the first paragraph of Chapter XVI.
In the second paragraph, as in Chapter I, the similes and metaphors
compare things in the real world to the products, materials, or effects
of art or craftsmanship, especially the making of jewellery and ornate
furniture. The sky hollowed itself into a perfect pearl, the polished
empty street, jade-green piles of vegetables, the sky was pure opal
now, roofs glistened like silver, the nacre-coloured air.
Considered as the sequel to the scene with Sibyl preceding it, the
description evokes that feeling of emptiness and calm that follows any
great emotional turmoil. The calmness of the description might suggest
either that Dorian is completely callous and unfeeling or that he is in
shock from the violence of his argument with Sibyl. Compare the
description of the view from the balcony after the murder (p. 175).
5. The best Gothic fiction often uses horror stories to talk about the
subconscious. Even though on the literal level the portrait has changed,
on the symbolic level the novel is about the effects of guilt and
conscience (see Lord Henrys comments on pp. 23-4).

The Picture of Dorian Gray

10

Activities while Reading

11

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter Summary

Chapter Summary

The next day, Lord Henry comes to Dorians house and tells him that Sibyl
has killed herself. Dorian is disturbed to find that he does not feel the
tragedy deeply, but Lord Henry persuades him to see the episode as an
interesting and aesthetically pleasing experience. Dorian decides that he
will live for pleasure. He goes to the opera with Lord Henry.

The next morning Basil comes to comfort Dorian and is shocked to find that
Dorian has quite recovered from the news of Sibyls death. Basil asks to
see the portrait; he wants to exhibit it in Paris. Dorian refuses to let him
see or exhibit the portrait. Basil tells Dorian the reason why he earlier felt
reluctant to exhibit the portrait.

1.

1. Basils reaction is the conventional one, but it is also represented as

totally sincere. The contrast raises interesting questions about
conventionality and unconventionality. It might be that Basil, by
insisting that Dorian obey the conventions of mourning, is upholding a
tradition of hypocrisy. It might be that Lord Henry is more honest in
admitting his indifference to the deaths of others and accepting what
he thinks is Dorians indifference. But, on the other hand, it might be
that the tradition Basil is upholding is a good one, and that by
abandoning it Lord Henry is encouraging the expression of a
fundamentally egoistical and inhumane human nature.

SENSE

DESCRIPTIVE PHRASE

Sight

blue-dragon bowl

Sound

buzzed

Smell

laden with spices

Touch

cool water

Taste

light French breakfast

2. For some readers, this is the first time that Lord Henry is seen as truly
shallow and unlikeable (another time is his reaction to Basils
disappearance on pp. 233-4). His ideas, that seemed charming in
theory, are here put into practice. The reader begins to think that Basil
was wrong to believe that Lord Henry was basically a good man. There
are of course other possible interpretations.
3. As is clear in the rest of the speech, he means that she was never real
to Dorian, that Dorian was in fact in love with Shakespeares heroines,
so the death of Sibyl is irrelevant to him.
4.

SCENE

MENTAL STATE

At breakfast

happiness

Over coffee

fear, dread

Looking at the picture

scientific interest, fear, horror

Writing to Sibyl

self-reproach, relief

When Harry enters

happiness

When Dorian hears of Sibyls death

horror, detachment, relief

2. Reading on the level of the Gothic horror story, if Dorian is the devils
bargain and Harry is the devil, Dorian owes him his soul. Reading on
the level of realism, Harry has moulded Dorians personality by the
exercise of influence over him (see p. 66 To a large extent the lad was
his own creation).
3. On p. 65, Lord Henry speaks of good artists and bad artists. The bad
artist lives the poetry that he cannot write. This in turn raises
interesting questions about Oscar Wildes own life and work. Lord Henry
himself is living rather than writing his art, as is implied when
Mr. Erskine says You talk books away on p. 50. On p. 67 Lord Henry
thinks of Dorians life as an elaborate masterpiece, and on p. 238
Lord Henry says of Dorian Life has been your art. You have set
yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.

12

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Activities while Reading

13

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter Summary

Chapter Summary

Dorian has the portrait taken up to the attic room that had been his
schoolroom when he was a boy. He locks it in and puts the key in his
pocket. Returning to the library, he finds a newspaper report of the inquest
on Sibyls death and a novel that Lord Henry has sent him, describing the
life of the senses. The novel fascinates Dorian.

This chapter covers eighteen years and describes the influence the novel
had on Dorians life. We are told of the various interests Dorian developed
over these years, in Catholicism, the Darwinismus movement, perfumes,
music, jewels, embroideries, and ecclesiastical vestments. We are told of
the rumours and scandals that circulate about him and of the portrait that
grows more and more ugly as the sinful years pass.

1. He hides it in the schoolroom, which is an attic room and which was

where he spent much of his time throughout his lonely childhood. The
room has not been opened since the death of Lord Kelso, Dorians
hated grandfather. The place, then, is full of psychological significance.
The attic was often used as a symbol of the subconscious in Victorian
fiction (in Jane Eyre, for example). Furthermore, this attic was the scene
of his lonely childhood, the time when his character was being formed.
The schoolroom was also built by Lord Kelso, as the purple pall that
Dorian uses as a cover for the picture was bought by Lord Kelso.
2. The reader might have the impression that Dorians personality, and
thus his destiny, was formed by Lord Henrys influence. In these two
quotations, however, the implication is that Dorians temperament was
poisonous before Lord Henry influenced him. The placing of the
portrait in the attic-schoolroom also implies that the root of his
problems is to be found in his loveless childhood and in the evil act of
his grandfather before his birth (see p. 39). Hints of the same sort can
be found on p. 24.
3. b. paranoid
c. guilty
4. It is a psychological novel in which the hero seeks to experience all the
passions and ways of thinking of past centuries. The novel is written in
an elaborate ornamented style that is both detailed and allusive. It
develops a philosophy of the senses. Most importantly, the poetry of its
language has a seductive and hypnotic effect on the reader. All these
things can also be said of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

1. The description evokes the life of the senses in a way that will not
offend the Victorian reading public. Dorians fascination with the
fragrances, sounds, colours and textures of the objects of his study
serves as a metaphor for other unmentioned sensuous enjoyments. We
are told of scandal concerning him, but the nature of his sins is not
explained. This is effective because it leaves the reader to imagine the
sins. Many of the people mentioned in the chapter are famous for the
decadence and sensuality of their lives. The description also evokes
sensual pleasure by the sensuousness of its language, many of the
words are unfamiliar, even to native speakers of English, but sound
beautiful. This connects the description to Dorians thoughts on the
power of words (pp. 24-5), Lord Henrys opinion of the importance of
names (p. 215) and the claim of the preface that the only morality of
art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.
2. Forgetfulness, escape, fear, degradation, joyousness, absorption,
pride.
3. There seems to be a contradiction between these sentences and the
eighth proposition of the Preface. A book that has poisoned has
certainly influenced the reader, and on p. 23 Lord Henry says all
influence is immoral. We will return to this problem in the activities for
Chapter XIX.

Chapter XII
Chapter Summary
Basil comes to see Dorian. He plans to go from Dorians house to the
station to take the midnight train to Paris. He tells Dorian of the dreadful
things that are being said about him in London.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Activities while Reading

1. Basil tells Dorian that, as he was leaving Dorians house, he told the
servant to go to bed. He also tells Dorian that he plans to leave for
Paris by the midnight train (p. 163). Basil says he will be in Paris six
months, and that he has sent on all his luggage (p. 164). All this
information suggests that if Basil were to disappear his absence would
not be discovered for a long time.

2. Mary Shelleys Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevensons Dr Jekyll

and Mr Hyde, for example. It is a recurring idea of psychological fiction,
usually represented as conscious good intentions in conflict with
subconscious evil desires. In The Picture of Dorian Gray it is
represented as the potential for good and evil that was in Dorian at the
beginning.

2. Basil asks why all the lives of Dorians young male friends end in
shame and failure. Dorian argues that he is not responsible for his
friends mistakes. He says that the people who gossip about him do so
simply because he is distinguished and from a higher social class than
they, and that England is a country of hypocrites. Basil agrees that
English society is hypocritical but argues that for that reason he wishes
Dorian to be a good man. He says that the fact that Dorian has a bad
influence on his friends proves that he is not good. The interesting
thing about this argument is that both are right, neither one seems to
have more endorsement from the implied author than the other.

3. p. 174: uncontrollable feeling, mad passions, the man, wildly,

Something.
p. 175: the black seething well of darkness, The thing, strangely
calm.
p. 176: the dead thing, it was like a dreadful wax image.

14

3. that the man who had painted the portrait was to be burdened
for the rest of his life with the hideous memory of what he had done
(p. 169) suggests that the is no conscious intention at this point.
A strange sense of fear, for which he could not account, came over
him (p. 163) implies an unconscious knowledge of the danger. That
the night was foggy is symbolic of this unconscious motive, and after
the murder has been committed in Chapter XIII we are told the wind
had blown the fog away (p. 175).

Chapter XIII
Chapter Summary

15

4. a. to provide himself with an alibi

Chapter XIV
Chapter Summary
Dorian sends for Alan Campbell, a former friend of his and a scientist
working in chemistry and biology. He asks Campbell to destroy Basils
corpse. Campbell refuses. Dorian then blackmails Campbell into helping
him. Campbell goes up to the schoolroom and, using nitric acid and fire,
destroys the corpse.

1. p. 179: Suddenly he remarked that every face that he drew seemed to

have a fantastic likeness to Basil Hallward.
p. 180: the cold yellow hand du supplice encore mal lave,.
p. 181: Basil had been with him, monstre charmant.

Dorian takes Basil up to the schoolroom and shows him the hideouslyaltered portrait. Basil begs Dorian to pray and repent. Dorian, seized by a fit
of hatred for Basil, takes a knife and stabs him to death. He leaves Basils
body in the locked schoolroom, leaves the house and enters it again,
waking his servant to provide himself with an alibi. Dorian decides to
contact Alan Campbell.

2. Time crawling with feet of lead, monstrous winds, the jagged

edge of some black cleft of precipice, as though he would have
robbed the very brain of sight, The brain had its own food, the
imagination , twisted and distorted as a living thing by pain, danced
like some foul puppet, Time that blind, slow-breathing thing,
horrible thoughts raced nimbly in front, dragged a hideous future
from its grave, made him stone.

1. as men do instinctively at night, fantastic shadows, A rising wind

made some of the windows rattle, A cold current of air, the light shot
up for a moment in a flame of murky orange, He shuddered.

3. In Chapter I, Lord Henry says Conscience and cowardice are really the
same things (p. 11). The point of interest is whether this sentence
expresses the narrators judgement or whether it is the narrator simply
telling us how Dorian, under Lord Henrys influence, saw his mood.
4. c. by blackmailing him

16

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Chapter XV
Chapter Summary
That evening Dorian goes to a party where Lord Henry is present. Dorian is
unusually quiet and nervous. He leaves the party early and returns home,
where he burns Basils coat and bag. Afterwards, Dorian disguises himself
and takes a cab to an opium-den.

1. Men who have a future are men who will do well in their professions.
Women who have a past are women who have had interesting love
affairs in the past. A petticoat party is a party of women only. The
suggestion is that in London there are many women who have a past
but no men who have a future.
2. It appears that the narrator despises Mr Chapman and his kind, and
ridicules him and his ideas in this paragraph. Words and phrases such
as solemnly, in a loud voice, guffawed, explosions, and bulwark
for Society serve to represent him as self-important, blustering, and
arrogant. The irony of He hoisted the Union Jack on the pinnacles of
Thought, achieved through the exaggerated metaphor and the
capitalization of Thought, suggests that Mr Chapman is stupid.
However, the beginning of the next paragraph, A smile curved Lord
Henrys lips, makes it unclear whether the judgement of Mr Chapman
is the narrators or Lord Henrys.
3. He compares the Duchess to a gold image but claims that the gold (the
Duchesss attractiveness) is only valuable if it is seen in contrast to the
feet of clay (some weakness, which the Duchess lacks). White
porcelain is a conventional metaphor for Victorian ladies skin, but Lord
Henry uses it in an original way by comparing the fire that bakes or
hardens porcelain to the Duchesss experiences, which have
hardened her.

Activities while Reading

17

been the Prince Charming of eighteen years before. When Dorian has gone,
the woman from the bar tells James Vane that Dorian ruined her nearly
eighteen years before.

1. The first part has already been explained in the first paragraph of p. 24,
and could be paraphrased To cure the yearnings of the soul by means
of the indulgence of the senses. The second half could mean that the
senses can only be properly appreciated if they are spiritualized,
refined, and elevated (see p. 145).
2. the black masts of ships. clung like ghostly sails to the yards.
some huge merchantman. an outward-bound steamer
The descriptions of ships foreshadow the reappearance of James Vane,
who was going off to sea the last time we heard of him.
3. p. 211: my man, sir. Dorian speaks in a paternalistic tone of moral
superiority and reproof, Let this be a warning to you for example,
and James Vane accepts this tone, even though he thinks that Dorian
is much younger than him.
4. On p. 210 the point of view changes from Dorians to James Vanes in
the paragraph beginning James Vane hesitated, and we follow Vanes
point of view for the rest of the chapter.
5.

CHARACTER

ADJECTIVES

Adrian Singleton

listless, indifferent, weary, jaded

The woman

sneering, sarcastic, grasping, jaded

James Vane

vengeful, angry, violent

Chapter XVII
Chapter XVI

Chapter Summary

Chapter Summary

A week later, Dorians guests are assembled at his country house. Dorian,
the Duchess of Monmouth and Lord Henry discuss names, beauty, England,
love, happiness and pleasure. Dorian goes to chose an orchid for the
Duchess, a beautiful and intelligent woman who is the object of his interest
at the moment. In the conservatory, he sees James Vanes face pressed
against the window, looking in at him. Dorian faints.

Dorian goes to the opium-den, where he runs into Adrian Singleton, one of
the young men whom he has led into scandal and degradation. As Dorian
leaves the place, one of the women drinking there calls him Prince
Charming. James Vane, who has returned from sea, is also drinking there
and he overhears and follows Dorian. He attacks Dorian and charges him
with the death of Sibyl. Dorian escapes because he looks too young to have

18

The Picture of Dorian Gray

1. That they are stupid, vicious, hypocritical, mercenary and pushing.

(p. 215)
2. Realism seeks to describe the ugly as well as the beautiful, and we
know that Lord Henry believes that the less said about lifes sores
the better (p. 47). Here, however, he is talking about literary form
rather than content. Realism also seeks to describe things as they
are, rather than in the exaggerated, poetic style of romanticism and the
Gothic. A literary style that describes things as they are might well be
ugly because it values truth over beauty. Lord Henry, on the contrary,
values beauty over truth.
3. We have done great things refers to such things as the British
Empire, the Industrial Revolution, and the building of the railways. I
believe in the race and It has development, are common Victorian
uses of evolutionary theory: that the British have done great things,
survived, flourished and ruled over other people, proves, in this view,
that they are the fittest in the Darwinian sense of survival of the
fittest.
4. He has compared her to a burnt child who loves the fire, meaning that,
although love has brought her pain in the past, she is still willing to fall
in love. The Duchess then changes the metaphor to that of a moth or
butterfly flying too close to a flame (remember she compared herself to
a butterfly on p. 216). So, when Lord Henry says that the Duchess uses
her wings for everything except flight, he means that she uses her
flirtatious butterfly-nature to attract men but she never flees from a
romance (flight is the noun from both the verb to flee and the verb
to fly).

Chapter XVII

19

freed from his own potential killer, James Vane, who, it turns out, is
killed by Geoffreys shot. Notice the structural symmetry: Sibyls brother
is killed by Gladyss brother.
2. As when Sibyl died and when Basil disappeared, Lord Henry is
indifferent and unashamed of his indifference. It does not do to
pepper beaters means It is not socially acceptable to shoot beaters.
The verb pepper means to sprinkle over, as with pepper, and its use
here trivializes the accident by comparing gunshot to something
harmless.
3. Throughout the novel there are suggestions of how things might have
happened otherwise, as when Dorian asks Geoffrey not to shoot the
hare. For example, Dorian prevents Basil from destroying the portrait,
crying it would be murder (p. 33). Thus the cry that stops the action
that would have prevented the eventual murder also foreshadows that
murder (and Dorians own death as a result of stabbing the portrait).
When Dorian first sees Basil on the night of the murder, he tries to
pass by him unnoticed, but Basil sees him and cries What an
extraordinary piece of luck! (p. 163). It is a piece of bad luck for Basil,
who would otherwise have escaped with his life. On p. 209 we are told
In her dealings with man Destiny never closed her accounts and that
people who become dominated by the passion for sin lose the freedom
of their will. They move to their terrible end as automatons move. The
hints of how things might have happened differently suggest that the
way they happened was not the only possibility, but at the same time
they suggest that the pattern of the actual events is too artificial to be
pure chance.
4. c. because he feels relieved to have escaped Vanes vengeance

Chapter XVIII
Chapter Summary
Some days later, Dorians guests are hunting. The Duchesss brother
accidentally shoots and kills a man. Everyone assumes that the dead man
was one of the beaters, but that evening Dorians gamekeeper tells him
that the dead man was a stranger to him. Dorian goes to see the corpse
and finds that it is the body of James Vane.

1. Dorian himself is worried about being hunted and killed by James Vane,
so that when he sees the grace of the hare he unconsciously identifies
it with himself (another graceful hunted being) and asks Geoffrey not to
shoot. Ironically, had Geoffrey obeyed him Dorian would not have been

Chapter XIX
Chapter Summary
Dorian tells Lord Henry that he is going to be good, and that he has already
begun by renouncing the love of a village girl. Lord Henry tries to dissuade
him from renunciations. They discuss Basils disappearance and the
possibility that he was murdered. They discuss the portrait, and Lord Henry
asks Dorian how he has kept his youthful looks. Dorian does not answer.
He claims that Lord Henry poisoned him with a book, but Lord Henry
maintains that art has no influence upon action.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Activities while Reading

1. Lord Henry can seduce even a parrot into sensuous pleasure. That
even the animal world recognizes this quality in him tends to reinforce
the impression that Lord Henry is the devil.

1. The last sentence of the first paragraph could be either Dorians

opinion, or the narrators or both. Similarly, the entire fourth paragraph
could be voiced by either Dorian or the narrator. The fifth paragraph
from It was his beauty that had ruined him to the end could be either
Dorian or the narrator. This ambiguity allows the narrator to appear to
be a moralist without actually committing himself. There are very few
unambiguous narrative comments in the novel. Some of these are also
moralistic, but they may not be sincere. The fact that they contradict
the preface puts them in question.

20

2. dear, little, shabby-looking, vulgar, dramatic, rich, curious, wet,

uncouth, sickly, white, broken, dripping, wonderful, shrill, hysterical,
good, afraid.
This is one of the most striking descriptions in the novel. Part of its
appeal is its realism in contrast to the contrived artificiality of the rest
of the novel. It is realistic not only in the sense that it represents a
less privileged side of Victorian London life but also because it vividly
evokes the loneliness and sadness of the people who listen to the
preacher. Lord Henrys glib and fatuous final remarks are jarring in
contrast. It is the point in the novel when one feels most keenly a
distance between Lord Henry and the implied author.
3. The narrators comments at the beginning and end of Chapter XI place
him on Dorians side in the dispute. However, the eighth proposition of
the Preface is on Lord Henrys side. As with everything in this novel, the
implied authors stance is inscrutable. Lord Henrys alternative
explanation that we are what we are, and will be what we will be
again suggests determinism, that Destiny has decided Dorians fate
from the beginning. This point of view can be given a natural reading if
we remember the attic-schoolroom: Dorians fate may have been
dictated not by a supernatural Destiny but by the inevitable
consequences of his grandfathers acts.

2. At the beginning of the paragraph ending He would destroy it (p. 243),

it seems that the reason is that the portrait is evidence of the murder.
This is illogical in that the portrait is only evidence to him: it would
prove nothing to the police. Moreover, we have already been told that it
was not Basil Hallwards death that weighed most upon his mind. It
was the living death of his own soul that troubled him (p. 242). It would
appear that his main motive is the one given at the end of the
paragraph on p. 243: it had been conscience. Dorian is trying to kill
his own conscience, but as conscience is an intrinsic part of him, he
dies in the attempt. The fact that he has never been without
conscience suggests, in Christian terms, that Dorian is not absolutely
unredeemable.
3. At the moment when Dorian stabbed the portrait, the beauty of the
living man was restored to the portrait. The hideousness of the portrait
was transferred to the body to which it rightfully belonged. The knife
thrust into the painted breast on the canvas entered the living breast of
Dorian Gray. Presumably, Dorians soul went straight to hell in
fulfilment of his half of the devils bargain.

Chapter XX
Chapter Summary
At home alone, Dorian wonders if his new resolutions will gradually make
the portrait less horrible. He goes to the schoolroom, sees that the portrait
is unchanged and decides to destroy it to eliminate the only evidence of
his crime and to destroy his conscience and his past. He stabs the portrait,
but, in doing so, he himself dies. The servants, awakened by his dying cry,
enter the schoolroom, where they find the portrait restored to its original
beauty, and the unrecognisably hideous corpse of Dorian, with a knife in his
heart.

21

Idioms and Phrasal Verbs from the Text that are still in Use
1. Idioms
a. We all take such pains to over-educate ourselves (p. 16).
We all make such a careful effort to over-educate ourselves.
b. The country was going to the dogs (p. 38).
The country was being ruined.
c. He is going to be in the chair (p. 49).
He is going to direct the meeting.
d. [Mrs Vane] looks as if she had seen better days (p. 62).
[Mrs Vane] looks old and tired.
e. You would not turn a hair (p. 186).
You would not be upset or disturbed.

22

The Picture of Dorian Gray

2. Phrasal Verbs
a. Dont run down dyed hair and painted faces (p. 60).
Dont speak badly of dyed hair and painted faces.
b. You will only have one child now to look after (p. 81).
You will only have one child now to protect.
c. She insisted on going over the whole thing again (p. 114).
She insisted on discussing the whole thing again.
d. It was a small party, got up rather in a hurry (p. 192).
It was a small party, arranged rather in a hurry.
e. There is no pleasure in taking in a husband who never sees anything
(p. 193).
There is no pleasure in deceiving a husband who never sees anything.
3. a. The first time they met, Dorian took a fancy to Harry.
b. She has made up her mind to marry him.
4. a. Dorian forgot all that he had gone through.
b. The play dragged on.

Post-reading Activities
The Structure of the Novel
1. The novel begins on the day that Dorian makes his wish and ends on
the day the spell of the portrait is broken. Chapters I to X cover just
over one month, Chapter XI covers eighteen years and Chapters XII to
XX cover a few weeks. The main events of the last nine chapters
Basils death; James Vanes reappearance and death; and Dorians
death are results of action in the first ten chapters. Chapter XI,
therefore, functions as the turning point of the novel and also allows
Wilde to hint at Dorians sins without fully explaining them.
2. p. 6 whose sudden disappearance ;
p. 8 we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us;
p. 33 it would be murder.
3.
DORIAN

THE PORTRAIT

Paganism

Christianity

senses

soul

sin

conscience

crime

punishment

Settings
1. It is the beginning of the summer and the flowers in the garden are in
full bloom, just as Dorian is in the bloom of youth. Romantic poets and
other writers have used flowers as symbols of human youth and beauty,
which are destined to fade, and this is the subject of Lord Henrys
speech to Dorian. The garden is also the scene of the temptation of
Eve in the Book of Genesis and in Miltons Paradise Lost, and it is
therefore a fitting place to set the scene in which Lord Henry, the devil
figure of the novel, tempts Dorian.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

24

Post-reading Activities

2.

SETTINGS
Lady Narboroughs
drawing-room

PUBLIC LIFE

SECRET LIFE

BOTH

The opium-den

Dorians house in London

Selby Royal

Lord Henrys house

There is no doubt that the scene set in Lady Narboroughs drawing-room

(Chapter XV) is part of Dorians public life and that the opium-den is a
setting of his secret life. The scene in Lord Henrys house (Chapter XIX)
is on the borderline, because Dorian nearly confesses his secret life
there, but since he does not actually confess, it remains a scene from
his public life. Dorians two houses are settings for scenes from both
his private and public lives. The drawing-room of the house in London is
a setting for his public life. He has to take Basil to the attic schoolroom
to show him the truth of his secret life. But there is a secret drawer in
the drawing-room containing opium (p. 201), and in Chapter XIV he
confesses his secret to Alan Campbell in the drawing-room. Selby Royal,
his country house, is the setting of his public life in Chapter XVII, but
James Vane follows Dorian to Selby Royal and is killed there, and Basil
says that there are rumours about the decadent life that Dorian lives
when at his country house (p. 168). Both Dorians houses, especially
the London house, are symbolic of his personality. Generally speaking,
Dorian, like Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde, lives his public life among the upper
classes and his secret life among the poor. Because of this, both
stories can be seen as stories about the doubleness, hypocrisy and
guilty secrets of Victorian society as a whole, not simply of one man.

The Narrator
1. The distinction can be seen in the scenes that are not seen from
Dorians point of view or those in which he is not present, such as
Chapters I, III, V, and the end of Chapter XX; when the narrator reports
the thoughts of other characters, most frequently Lord Henry, as in
Chapter II and the end of Chapter IV; and when the narrative comment
clearly disagrees with Dorians own view, such as in Chapter VIII, when
Dorian writes to Sibyl, and the narrator tells us There is a luxury in selfreproach. (p. 108).

25

2. Among the most important differences that first-person narration would

have made are the following: we would not have known that the portrait
had really changed until Basil sees it in Chapter XIII; the closing scene
of the novel, after Dorians death, would have been impossible; we
would not have known of James Vanes vow until Chapter XVI; and we
would not have had access to Lord Henrys thoughts.
3. Convincing arguments could be made for any of these answers, so this
is a question eliciting students opinions rather than a particular
answer. For example, one could argue that if we are to take the Preface
seriously, all the apparently moralistic statements by the narrator, such
as Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book, must be ironic. On the
other hand it could be argued that the Preface is misleading and that
those statements are seriously intended and moralistic in tone. One
could also argue that because the two arguments above are equally
persuasive, the narrator is elusive, inscrutable and impossible to
evaluate.

The Characters
1. At the beginning Dorian is innocent, sensitive, impressionable,
flirtatious and, above all, open. His feelings show on his face, and he
seems incapable of deception. After the portrait changes in Chapter VII,
however, Dorian begins to lead a double life and to develop the arts of
deception necessary to live such a life. Experience hardens him so that
he is no longer impressionable or sensitive as he was at the beginning;
rather he becomes someone who exploits those characteristics in
others. He does remain sensitive in one respect, however: he is always
susceptible to fear and to guilt, and this one redeeming characteristic
leads to his eventual destruction.
2. In Chapters XII and XIII Basil becomes the voice of conscience. He
shows a strong moral sense of what is right and wrong both in relation
to society and in relation to God. In particular, when he sees the
changed portrait, he realizes the error of his early worship of Dorian and
of beauty.
3. His reaction to Sibyls suicide, Basils disappearance and the shooting
accident all suggest that he is quite serious, that he practices what he
preaches and that Basil is mistaken to think that he misrepresents
himself.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

26

Style
1. The sentences in Chapter XI tend to be longer. They are often
encyclopedic lists of the objects of Dorians study. There is no dialogue
in this chapter. Chapter XI is the most extreme example of the attention
given to the description of beautiful things and subtle emotions.
2.

STYLE

EXAMPLES

Melodramatic

when Dorian makes his wish (Ch. II); the scene

between James and his mother (end of Ch. V); the
murder scene (Ch. XIII); the scene between Dorian
and James (Ch. XVI); the end of Chapter XX.

Poetic

the opening description of Chapter I;

the description of Dorians walk home (Ch. VII);
the description of Dorians efforts to forget about
the murder (Ch. XIV).

Satirical

most of what Lord Henry says is witty and satirical,

for example his conversation with Basil in Chapter I
and his conversation with the Duchess in Chapter
XVII.

Philosophical

again it is Lord Henry who most frequently uses the

philosophical style in his thoughts and speeches,
for example his conversations with Dorian in
Chapters II and XIX.

Themes
1. Aestheticism
a. Many readers have found the novel beautiful (though it is also
hideous in its Gothic horror story). It certainly conceals the artist, in
that it is impossible to deduce the authors stance from the text
because it is so full of mutually contradictory elements. But the
main idea of the preface that art does not teach ethics is
consistent with the novel only if we see the moral of the story as a
parody of such moralism.
b. The novel is both lovely and unreal, but when Lord Henry uses the
term unreal he means not only fantastic but also having no
application to the real world, such as a moral to the story. In fact,
The Picture of Dorian Gray has a clear moral for those who want

Post-reading Activities

27

one, but it is expressed in such extravagant terms that those who

do not want a moral to the story can ignore it as part of the
insincerity of the narrator they can take it as a joke.
2. Victorian Society and Literature
a. The novel can be seen as a critique of Victorian society and values,
perhaps above all a critique of Victorian literary values. The Gothic
events with their heavy morality constitute a parody of the values
that are being criticized, the presumptuous and self-important
moralism that the implied author believes is damaging in society
and has no place in literature.
b. When Lord Henry rebukes Basil for his concern about sincerity, he
represents it as a fault of the English: How English you are,
Basil! (p. 14). According to Lord Henry, the English are both
sincere and hypocritical. That they are hypocritical is an opinion
shared by Dorian, Basil and the Preface (The nineteenth-century
dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in the
glass). The paradoxical combination of sincerity and hypocrisy is
also suggested in the narration. There is little doubt, for instance,
that Aunt Agatha sincerely believes she is doing good in the East
End, and there is just as little doubt that the only good she is doing
is in making herself feel virtuous. The choice of providing music for
the poor rather than food or clothing emphasizes the inefficacy of
her philanthropy. Lord Henry also sees the English as philistine:
Of all people in the world the English have the least sense of the
beauty of literature (p. 50). In this they are contrasted to the
French, and the beauty of French literature is referred to frequently.
In his conversation with Gladys in Chapter XVII, Lord Henry adapts
Napoleons claim that the English are a nation of shopkeepers,
linking their petty bourgeois mentality to hypocrisy. Meanwhile, in
what Lord Henry sees as the cowardice of Victorian people, their
fear of God and scandal, he contrasts them unfavourably with the
ancient Greeks, whose religion, philosophy, and art were consistent
with the pursuit of pleasure and self-development. The only nation
that receives harsher treatment than England in the novel is
America. Most of these views are voiced by Lord Henry, and so it is
open to question to what extent the implied author supports them,
but the only contrasting opinion in the novel is Gladyss (p. 215),
and her praise of England is given in Victorian clichs that have little
power of persuasion in contrast to Lord Henrys witty formulations.

28

The Picture of Dorian Gray

3. Psychology
a. The novel can also be seen as primarily a psychological novel about
desire, repression and guilt. In this case the Gothic events are
metaphors for the horrors of the subconscious mind. Lord Henry
maintains that every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in
the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its
sin, for action is a mode of purification (p. 24). This suggests that
the individual who indulges his desires is consequently mentally
healthy and at peace with himself, but the novel does not bear out
Lord Henrys theory. Dorian indulges all his desires, yet the result is
a creeping madness and fear, a kind of mental hell he has created
for himself. It might be that Dorians problem is his inability to kill
his own conscience, that Lord Henrys theory is right so long as the
individual has freed himself completely from the fear of God and the
fear of scandal.
b. The implied author seems undecided as to whether this complete
freedom from guilt is either possible or desirable. On the one hand,
the novel expresses a yearning for a pre-lapsarian life in which there
are no such terms as sin and conscience, a return to the Golden
Age or the Hellenic ideal. On the other hand, in the
characterization of Basil and in the references to Miltons Paradise
Lost there is also the opposite suggestion: that paradise is only
interesting when it is lost, that a life without conscience would be a
shallow static life, lacking the dynamic that makes history, just as
without the portrait (symbolic of Dorians conscience) there would
have been no story to tell.
4. Women
Dorians attitude to women is the typical Victorian male attitude taken
to extremes: on the one hand, he wants to put Sibyl on a pedestal, on
the other he uses and discards women throughout the novel. In this he
considers women both superhuman (to be worshipped) and
subhuman, to be consumed as a pleasure like opium. Lord Henry
considers women devious, scheming to win advantage in their
disadvantageous position. He also considers women to be slaves by
nature (see p. 115). The narrators position is, as always, difficult to
identify, but both Sibyl and Gladys are presented as far more complex
personalities than either Dorian or Lord Henry appreciates. When Lord
Henry says of Gladys Her clever tongue gets on ones nerves, the
reader must remember that the same could be said of Lord Henry
himself, and one source of his irritation might be that she used her
clever tongue to question his theories. Gladyss claim that Lord Henry

Post-reading Activities

29

values beauty far too much (pp. 214-5) is borne out by the story, and
the fact that this insight is given to a woman suggests a higher opinion
of women in the implied author than in either Dorian or Lord Henry.
5. Social Class
The descriptions of the London slums (see p. 100 and the first
paragraph of Chapter XVI, for example) use the bestial and diabolic
imagery typical of such descriptions in Victorian literature. This imagery
suggests not only fear of the lower classes but also that the lower
classes are of a different race, almost a different species, from the
genteel observer. This is made explicit in the treatment of the common
people in the theatre, when Lord Henry says The same flesh and
blood as ones self! Oh, I hope not (p. 92). The narrators view differs
from Lord Henrys in that he seems to regret the sense of difference
and to suggest that the ruling classes are responsible for the
degradation of the lower classes, as in the second paragraph of
Chapter XVI where the slums are described as the sordid shame of a
great city. It could be argued that Lord Henrys attitude to the lower
classes is strongly disapproved of by the narrator, and that this
disapproval is shown in the contrast between the readers and Lord
Henrys impressions. When Lord Henry says of Sibyl that she never
really lived, and so she has never really died, the reader and the
narrator know that she has lived (in Chapter V). Similarly, the readers
knowledge of the rough but admirable character of James Vane makes
Lord Henrys glib remark It does not do to pepper beaters seem all
the more brutal.
6. The Nature of Language
a. Language is seen as seductive and dangerous, as both beautiful
and poisonous, as the most powerful and therefore the most real
phenomenon in life. It is important to keep in mind that, although it
is suggested from time to time that Lord Henry indulges in the
pleasures that are central to his philosophy, we never see him
indulging in any pleasure except that of the use of words to charm
and influence others or simply for his own delight in verbal
acrobatics. The power of Dorians words can be seen in the effect
of his speech to Sibyl and of the few words (which we are never
told) that he writes on a slip of paper and gives to Alan Campbell: in
both cases, words lead to suicide. In the second case, we are told
that the few words threatened to expose Campbell to scandal, and
the novel is full of the fear of scandal, of people talking behind
ones back and of concern about ones good name. The
discussions of sincerity and of literary realism in the novel suggest

30

The Picture of Dorian Gray

that words should be chosen for their beauty rather than their truth.
This increases their seductiveness and hides their danger. The
question of whether literature can be moral or immoral, of whether
one can be poisoned by a book, is left very much open: various
conflicting views are given by Lord Henry, Dorian, the narrator and
the voice of the Preface. This suggests that the implied author
refuses to take advantage of the power of his own words: he
declines to influence the reader one way or the other.
b. The first long discussion of sincerity is delivered by Lord Henry in
Chapter I, where he argues that the more insincere the man is,
the more purely intellectual will the idea be, as in that case it will
not be coloured by either his wants, his desires, or his prejudices
(p. 14). This view of sincerity as a kind of sentimentality that is
likely to blur rather than to clarify thought is repeated in the
treatment of philanthropy and of really good people in Chapter III.
In Chapter XI, the narrator seems to be of the same opinion, even
using the first person pronoun in declaring his support for
insincerity: Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is
merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities (p.
158). But in the next sentence, the narrator disowns this opinion
which had seemed to be unequivocally his, by saying Such, at any
rate, was Dorian Grays opinion. This teasing of the reader is in
itself a playful refusal to be sincere and suggests that we must be
wary of taking any of the narrative comments at face value.

1993 Cideb Editrice, Genoa

Black Cat Publishing is an imprint of Cideb Editrice.