Dorian Gray Character Quotes

A portrait like this would set you far above all the young men in England, and make the old men quite jealous, if old men are ever capable of any emotion.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Lord Henry’s eyebrows are raised when Basil tells him that he won’t be sending his portrait of Dorian to the Grosvenor or anywhere else for public display. Urging him to do so, he tells Basil that it is "the best thing you have never done" and such a portrait would make him the envy of others throughout England. Basil is seen in the novel as the artist metaphor for Oscar Wilde himself.

Your rank and wealth, Harry; my brains, such as they are – my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray’s good looks – we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Basil tells Lord Henry that it is better not to be different than one’s fellows. He warns that Lord Henry, Basil and Dorian will suffer for the gifts the gods have given them – position and wealth, art, and good looks. There is a great deal of foreshadowing here of tragic consequences to come.

A curious sensation of terror came over me. I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward, Chapter 1. Dorian Gray has a huge influence on Basil Hallward’s entire being. The painter describes his reaction to seeing Dorian for the first time at a party thrown by Lady Brandon. The "terror" he experiences and his sudden fascination and obsession with Dorian is foreshadowing of the dangerous relationship he will develop with the young man, which will end badly for both.

But in some curious way – I wonder will you understand me? – his personality has suggested to me an entirely new manner in art, an entirely new mode of style. I see things differently, I think of them differently. I can now recreate life in a way that was hidden from me before.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Here Basil is describing his first meeting with Dorian Gray and his influence on him as a person and an artist. Dorian apparently brings out the best of Basil’s art skills and Basil is completely besotted with him. This passage was part of a larger extract from the novel read out and used against Wilde in the famous libel trial at London’s Old Bailey by lawyer Edward Carson. In his brutal 1895 cross-examination of the author Sir Edward asked Wilde: "Now I ask you, Mr. Wilde, do you consider that that description of the feeling of one man towards a youth just grown up was a proper or an improper feeling?" To which Wilde replied: "I think it is the most perfect description of what an artist would feel on meeting a beautiful personality that was in some way necessary to his art and life."

Because, without intending it, I have put into it some expression of all this curious artistic idolatry, of which, of course, I have never cared to speak to him.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. While Basil has put all of his "idolatry" of Dorian into his portrait, he has never spoken to Dorian about this. His idolization of his subject suggests that he has more that just an artistic interest in Dorian, but a love interest in him also. This is one of the the homoerotic passages in the novel, which sparked such controversy and opposition to it when published.

As a rule, he is charming to me, and we sit in the studio and talk of a thousand things. Now and then, however, he is horribly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer’s day.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Artist Basil is describing his friend and sitter Dorian to Lord Henry. Neither Henry nor the readers have met Dorian yet. But this passage refers to signs of a vanity and thoughlessness in Dorian, foreshadowing his later cruelty and embrace of evil.

"Dorian Gray is my dearest friend," he said. "He has a simple and a beautiful nature. Your aunt was quite right in what she said of him. Don’t spoil him. Don’t try to influence him. Your influence would be bad. The world is wide, and has many marvelous people in it. Don’t take away from me the one person who gives to my art whatever charm it possesses: my life as an artist depends on him. Mind, Harry, I trust you." He spoke very slowly, and the words seemed wrung out of him almost against his will.
"What nonsense you talk!" said Lord Henry, smiling, and taking Hallward by the arm, he almost led him into the house.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. This passage shows how artist Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton will be the two conflicting characters throughout Wilde’s only novel. Here Basil speaks to Lord Henry before Dorian comes into his home studio. Wary of the bad influence Henry would have on Dorian’s innocent and beautiful nature, Basil asks him not to influence his young friend Dorian. The cynical Henry smiles and gives Basil a non-commital reply, saying that Basil is talking nonsense.

Lord Henry looked at him. Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his 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. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. In one of the most important chapters of the novel, we are introduced to Dorian Gray. Lord Henry meets the young man in Basil’s studio for the first time and is struck by his incredible physical beauty. He also has the innocence and purity of youth. Henry is not surprised Basil worships him.

Mr. Gray, you yourself, with your rose-red youth and your rose-white boyhood, you have had passions that have made you afraid, thoughts that have filled you with terror, day-dreams and sleeping dreams whose mere memory might stain your cheek with shame.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Wilde uses many metaphors in his novel in order to enhance the vitality of the story. They include two here used by Lord Henry, which compare Dorian’s freshness of youth to a red rose and his boyhood purity to a white rose. But Lord Henry wants to win Dorian over as a convert to hedonism and so taps into his potential for pleasure seeking. He speaks of passions and desire which make Dorian afraid and thoughts that give him terror. Henry wants the boy to throw off the shackles of conventional morality and give into these.

There was something in his low languid voice that was absolutely fascinating. His cool, white, flowerlike hands, even, had a curious charm. They moved, as he spoke, like music, and seemed to have a language of their own.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Dorian gray is beginning to come under the spell of Lord Henry and cannot help but like him. As Henry speaks, Dorian uses a simile to compare the young aristocrat’s seductive moving hands to a flower and to music, suggesting that Henry’s preaching is making an impression on Dorian.

He had known Basil Hallward for months, but the friendship between them had never altered him. Suddenly there had come some one across his life who seemed to have disclosed to him life’s mystery. And, yet, what was there to be afraid of? He was not a schoolboy or a girl. It was absurd to be frightened.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Dorian says that his months long friendship with Basil had never altered him. But all of a sudden he is feeling the strong influence of Lord Henry, someone who has revealed to him "life’s mystery." Dorian appears on the brink of some transformative change and admits that he is frightened.

The gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they can quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes brings you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses. You will become sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Lord Henry continues to feed Dorian’s vanity about his physical attractiveness. He talks about the fleeting nature of beauty, warning that when his youth goes his beauty will go with it. Dorian does have such fears, and in a bid to preserve his beauty at all costs they will drive him to barter his soul for eternal youth. Lilies and roses are metaphors for Dorian’s beauty and his ability to love.

A look of joy came into his eyes, as if he had recognized himself for the first time. He stood there motionless and in wonder, dimly conscious that Hallward was speaking to him, but not catching the meaning of his words. The sense of his own beauty came on him like a revelation. He had never felt it before.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. This is the moment that Dorian first sees the portrait of himself which Basil has just finished. He is at once captivated and astonished. Is this the turning point where Dorian loses his innocence, as he drinks in the power of his own beauty and is overcome by a narcassistic vanity that will prove fatal?

How 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!

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Be careful what you wish for! Dorian’s life is forever changed when he wishes to remain always young and handsome like his portrait. Basil’s piece of art has captured Dorian’s remarkable beauty and he is astonished by the picture. Dorian grows immediately jealous of his portrait, because it will not grow old, as he will. In a climactic moment and fearing for his mortality, he wishes for the picture to grow old instead. He says that he would give his soul for eternal youth and so makes a Faustian bargain – Faust sold his soul to the devil in return for worldly knowledge and pleasure! This foreshadows that Dorian will lose his soul.

I know, now, that when one loses one’s good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything. Your picture has taught me that. Lord Henry Wotton is perfectly right. Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. While Dorian Gray is known for his breathtaking youthful handsomeness, he is very conscious of losing all of that one day. He agrees with Lord henry that youth is the only thing worth having, and vows to kill himself before old age steals that from him.

"I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose? Every moment that passes takes something from me and gives something to it. Oh, if it were only the other way! If the picture could change, and I could be always what I am now! Why did you paint it? It will mock me some day – mock me horribly!" The hot tears welled into his eyes; he tore his hand away and, flinging himself on the divan, he buried his face in the cushions, as though he was praying.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. The portrait of Dorian is a constant reminder to him of the fleeting nature of his youth and good looks and the inevitability of growing old. So Dorian is upset every time he looks at the picture because it is a reminder that this will happen. His joy at first seeing the painting is now replaced by anger and jealousy. This shows his ever-growing vanity. When Dorian says that the portrait will mock him horribly some day, this is foreshadowing his ultimate downfall and death.

The painter bit his lip and walked over, cup in hand, to the picture. "I shall stay with the real Dorian," he said, sadly.
"Is it the real Dorian?" cried the original of the portrait, strolling across to him. "Am I really like that?"
"Yes; you are just like that."
"How wonderful, Basil!"
"At least you are like it in appearance. But it will never alter," sighed Hallward. "That is something."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Basil calls his portrait of Dorian the "real" Dorian. And that exactly what it turns out to be. Dorian continues to keep the appearance of youth while the portrait changes to reflect his inner soul – in keeping with his Faustian deal to trade his soul for eternal youth.

Talking to him was like playing upon an exquisite violin. He answered to every touch and thrill of the bow…There was something terribly enthralling in the exercise of influence. No other activity was like it. To project one’s soul into some gracious form, and let it tarry there for a moment.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 3. Lord Henry reflects on how fascinating it is to influence Dorian, whom he admits playing like an "exquisite violin." What appears to be a growing friendship between Henry and Dorian is nothing more than an exercise by Henry in the corruption of innocence – Henry is bent on projecting his hedonistic soul into Dorian and turning the impressionable young man into an unremitting follower of pleasure.

Yes; he would try to be to Dorian Gray what, without knowing it, the lad was to the painter who had fashioned the wonderful portrait. He would seek to dominate him – had already, indeed, half done so. He would make that wonderful spirit his own. There was something fascinating in this son of Love and Death.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 3. Lord Henry has learned of the tragic fate of Dorian’s parents – his beautiful mother eloped with a penniless man who was lured into a duel and killed, his mother dying a year later. With Dorian’s lack of family, Henry decides to step in and mold and shape him into someone of his making, just like Basil turned Dorian’s physical beauty into a work of art.

I felt that this grey monstrous London of ours, with its myriads of people, its sordid sinners, and its splendid sins, as you once phrased it, must have something in store for me. I fancied a thousand things. The mere danger gave me a sense of delight…I don’t know what I expected, but I went out and wandered eastward, soon losing my way in a labyrinth of grimy streets and black grassless squares.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. London was the largest and most powerful city in the world in the 19th century, when the story takes place. The moral degeneration of the city and the ambivalent attitude of Victorians towards their capital’s decadence is reflected in Dorian’s description to Lord Henry of his stroll through the East End. The city’s East End with its "sordid sinners" and its "splendid sins" is like another character in the novel, its corruption represents the corruption that will soon be Dorian’s.

"You will laugh at me, I know, but I really went in and paid a whole guinea for the stage-box. To the present day I can’t make out why I did so; and yet if I hadn’t – my dear Harry, if I hadn’t – I should have missed the greatest romance of my life. I see you are laughing. It is horrid of you!"
"I am not laughing, Dorian; at least I am not laughing at you. But you should not say the greatest romance of your life. You should say the first romance of your life. You will always be loved, and you will always be in love with love. A grande passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do. That is the one use of the idle classes of a country. Don’t be afraid. There are exquisite things in store for you. This is merely the beginning."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. At this point Dorian still retains some of his youthful innocence. It hasn’t yet been completely taken away from him by the cynical Lord Henry. But on hearing of Dorian’s "greatest romance" with Sibyl, Henry is hell bent on changing all that. The Svengali-like Henry plays down the romance, tells Dorian that there are exquisite things in store for him, and continues to influence and manipulate him.

But Juliet! Harry, imagine a girl, hardly seventeen years of age, with a little, flowerlike face, a small Greek head with plaited coils of dark-brown hair, eyes that were violet wells of passion, lips that were like the petals of a rose.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian is captivated by the performance of Sibyl as Juliet in Shakespeare’s play. He describes her as a beautiful object. Her eyes are likened in a metaphor as "violet wells of passion" and lips are compared in a simile to the "petals of a rose." Dorian seems preoccupied with Sibyl’s physical appearance rather than her personality.

You know how a voice can stir one. Your voice and the voice of Sibyl Vane are two things that I shall never forget. When I close my eyes, I hear them, and each of them says something different. I don’t know which to follow.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian feels that he is at a crossroads. He doesn’t know whether to follow the voice of good, that of the girl he loves Sibyl Vane, or the voice of evil and the amoral Lord Henry, who exerts a strong influence over his protege young Dorian.

Ordinary women never appeal to one’s imagination. They are limited to their century. No glamour ever transfigures them. One knows their minds as easily as one knows their bonnets.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian Gray says that he has seen Sibyl Vane performing "in every age and every costume." While he has confessed love for Sibyl after seeing her on stage as Juliet he is clearly not in love with Sibyl the person. For she is not a real person to him, but a piece of art for him to admire. Ordinary women have no appeal to him, Dorian confesses. He goes on to say: "One can always find them. There is no mystery in any of them. They ride in the Park in the morning and chatter at tea-parties in the afternoon. They have their stereotyped smile, and their fashionable manner. They are quite obvious. But an actress! How different an actress is!" Notice how Dorian is starting to speak like the cynical Lord Henry, like in the quote above, reflecting Henry’s growing influence on the young man.
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