Dorian Gray starts out as a very handsome, open-hearted young man. Painter Basil Hallward sees him as a muse, while Lord Henry Wotton feeds him clever talk about how youth and pleasure are all that matter. Under this spell, Dorian wishes that his portrait would grow old and show his sins while he stays young and perfect. The wish takes hold.
After that, his charm turns into a kind of act. He fills his life with luxury and thrill, treating people and moments like things to sample. When he’s unkind, he calls it honesty. When he does a good deed, he wonders if it’s just for show. Hidden away, the portrait changes and records what he refuses to face.
Dorian is both led and leading. Lord Henry gives him words and excuses, but the choices are his. He wants to be good without giving up any pleasure, and he keeps trying to have it both ways. His remorse is real but brief, soon drowned out by the desire to feel nothing bad at all.
In the novel, Dorian becomes a warning about beauty without responsibility. He draws people in and hurts them not with loud cruelty, but by refusing to see the results of what he does. His tragedy isn’t only that youth can’t last forever; it’s that worshipping it can hollow a person out, until the bright surface is all that’s left and the truth is locked away somewhere he won’t look.
I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me… If it were I who were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old!
fromThe Picture of Dorian GraybyTo become the spectator of one’s own life, as Harry says, is to escape the suffering of life… I am different, but you must not like me less. I am changed, but you must always be my friend.
fromThe Picture of Dorian GraybyI am perfectly happy now… It is the divinest thing in us. Don’t sneer at it, Harry… I want to be good. I can’t bear the idea of my soul being hideous.
fromThe Picture of Dorian GraybyYes… you have killed my love. You used to stir my imagination. Now you don’t even stir my curiosity… I loved you because you were marvellous… You have thrown it all away. You are shallow and stupid… You are nothing to me now… Without your art, you are nothing.
fromThe Picture of Dorian GraybyI don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.
fromThe Picture of Dorian GraybyHow sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June… If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!
fromThe Picture of Dorian Grayby