Dorian Gray Influence Quotes

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 to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else’s music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Lord Henry speaks to Dorian about how all influence is immoral. If a person is influenced you take away who they are, they become "an actor of a part that has not been written for him." That is precisely what happens to Dorian, who begins to act on Henry’s words and even speak like him, as Henry sets out on a mission to reshape and mold Dorian to act and think like him. Basil takes notice of this when he observes in Chapter 4: "It was so unlike Dorian to speak like that."

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.

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2. Lord Henry is speaking to Dorian on sensorial experiences – this belief lies at the heart of Henry’s new hedonism. Just before this quote we read: "Lord Henry went out to the garden and found Dorian Gray burying his face in the great cool lilac-blossoms, feverishly drinking in their perfume as if it had been wine." Here Dorian is shown burying his head in lilac blossoms, drinking in their fragrance, suggesting that he is still someting of an innocent. But Henry sees this as a challenge to be overcome. The line about curing the soul with the senses foreshadows that Dorian will because of Henry’s influence abandon his innocence and embark on a life of sensual pleasure and vice with abandon.

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.

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.

"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.

The people who love only once in their lives are really the shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination. Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect – simply a confession of failure.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Lord Henry has no time for lifetime love or fidelity, he makes clear to Dorian. After hearing Dorian confess to loving a girl after knowing her just three weeks, Henry rubbishes being faithful to one love as a "confession of failure" and bad for your emotional life.

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.

Certainly few people had ever interested him so much as Dorian Gray, and yet the lad’s mad adoration of some one else caused him not the slightest pang of annoyance or jealousy. He was pleased by it. It made him a more interesting study.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Aristocratic puppet master Lord Henry wants to manipulate and control Dorian. The young lad’s "mad adoration" for actress Sibyl Vane doesn’t in the slightest make Henry jealous, but rather makes him an even more interesting challenge for Henry. But Dorian seems to be more of a guinea pig for him than just an "interesting study," as Henry puts it.

I love Sibyl Vane. I want to place her on a pedestal of gold and to see the world worship the woman who is mine. What is marriage? An irrevocable vow. You mock at it for that. Ah! don’t mock. It is an irrevocable vow that I want to take. Her trust makes me faithful, her belief makes me good. When I am with her, I regret all that you have taught me. I become different from what you have known me to be. I am changed, and the mere touch of Sibyl Vane’s hand makes me forget you and all your wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. The love-sick Dorian makes this response to Lord Henry’s teasing him about agreeing to marriage to Sibyl. Lord Henry is a surrogate for the Devil in the way he influences Dorian towards evil. But Sibyl is the very opposite, a magnet for good against the "poisonous" ideas of Henry on hedonism, whom Dorian confesses he still finds fascinating. Dorian feels that he is being pulled in two different directions in this crucial battle between good and evil, Sibyl vs Henry. At this point Dorian has not given in completely to the dark side, and still holds onto something of his purity and innocence, but it is sadly diminishing. He is at a critical turning point, and realizes it. Which way will he go?

"To be good is to be in harmony with one’s self," he replied, touching the thin stem of his glass with his pale, fine-pointed fingers. "Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others. One’s own life – that is the important thing. As for the lives of one’s neighbours, if one wishes to be a prig or a Puritan, one can flaunt one’s moral views about them, but they are not one’s concern. Besides, Individualism has really the higher aim. Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one’s age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality."
"But, surely, if one lives merely for one’s self, Harry, one pays a terrible price for doing so?" suggested the painter.
"Yes, we are overcharged for everything nowadays. I should fancy that the real tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self-denial. Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. Lord Henry makes this response when asked by Basil and Dorian what did he mean by good. Henry preaches the gospel of individualism, dismisses self-denial as something for the poor, rejects modern morality and says that beautiful sins are the privilege of the wealthy. He continues his efforts to weave his corruptive web of influence over Dorian, who just before this criticized Henry’s "poisonous" theories. The very moral Basil suggests that a person will pay a terrible price for living a completely selfish life.

You have killed my love. You used to stir my imagination. Now you don’t even stir my curiosity. You simply produce no effect. I loved you because you were marvellous, because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art. You have thrown it all away. You are shallow and stupid.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Dorian cruelly and brutally casts Sibyl aside in this hurtful, humiliating rant to her backstage after her imperfect performance as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, to which Dorian invited Basil and Lord Henry. Yet only the day before he provessed that he loved Sibyl and wanted to place her on a pedestal of gold. Dorian is showing signs of the kind of shallowness that his mentor Lord Henry is famous for – though ironically Dorian calls Sibyl shallow. This is the critical moment where we witness the start of the corruption of Dorian’s soul, a sign of the effect the malign influence of Lord Henry is having.

Besides, women were better suited to bear sorrow than men. They lived on their emotions. They only thought of their emotions. When they took lovers, it was merely to have some one with whom they could have scenes. Lord Henry had told him that, and Lord Henry knew what women were.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. In order to rationalize and justify his brutal rejection of Sibyl, Dorian invokes Lord Henry’s teachings on women. They bear sorrow better than men, live on their emotions and take lovers in order to have scenes with someone. Henry’s influence over Dorian is very apparent here. Dorian is on the way to become a Lord Henry clone.

Yet it was watching him, with its beautiful marred face and its cruel smile. Its bright hair gleamed in the early sunlight. Its blue eyes met his own. A sense of infinite pity, not for himself, but for the painted image of himself, came over him. It had altered already, and would alter more. Its gold would wither into grey. Its red and white roses would die. For every sin that he committed, a stain would fleck and wreck its fairness. But he would not sin. The picture, changed or unchanged, would be to him the visible emblem of conscience. He would resist temptation. He would not see Lord Henry any more – would not, at any rate, listen to those subtle poisonous theories that in Basil Hallward’s garden had first stirred within him the passion for impossible things. He would go back to Sibyl Vane, make her amends, marry her, try to love her again. Yes, it was his duty to do so. She must have suffered more than he had. Poor child! He had been selfish and cruel to her. The fascination that she had exercised over him would return. They would be happy together. His life with her would be beautiful and pure.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Dorian looks at his portrait, its beautiful face altered and marred with a look of cruelty. This passage represents Dorian’s loss of innocence and beginning of the moral deterioration of his soul. Sibyl has killed herself because of his brutal rejection of her, though he is not yet aware of her demise. This is another turning point in the story, as Dorian is filled with remorse about his cruelty and selfishness to her. He vows to be pure, reject sin, marry Sibyl and love her again. But this change in Dorian’s character turns out to be superficial. The influence of Lord Henry’s theories, which Dorian promises to resist in reaction to the ugliness of the portrait, will prove too much.

I am afraid that women appreciate cruelty, downright cruelty, more than anything else. They have wonderfully primitive instincts. We have emancipated them, but they remain slaves looking for their masters, all the same. They love being dominated.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 8. Lord Henry continues his toxic influence on Dorian, sharing with him more of his outrageously misogynistic views and inappropriate comments on women, which no woman could possibly agree with. He sees them as loving to be dominated, slaves to men, and actually appreciating cruelty. This is what one online book reviewer Caroline Asgard says of this passage on her Obscura Undead blog: "One quote that really stood out to me which I found disgusting, obviously said by Henry. This really shows you what a disgusting guy he is, and why Dorian turned out the way he did."

"Dorian, this is horrible! Something has changed you completely. You look exactly the same wonderful boy who, day after day, used to come down to my studio to sit for his picture. But you were simple, natural, and affectionate then. You were the most unspoiled creature in the whole world. Now, I don’t know what has come over you. You talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you. It is all Harry’s influence. I see that."
The lad flushed up and, going to the window, looked out for a few moments on the green, flickering, sun-lashed garden. "I owe a great deal to Harry, Basil," he said at last, "more than I owe to you. You only taught me to be vain."
"Well, I am punished for that, Dorian – or shall be some day."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 9. Basil notices that Dorian has changed from the simple and unspoiled young man who used to come to sit in his studio for his picture. He blames Dorian’s transition to someone who speaks without heart or pity on the bad influence of Lord Henry. Dorian replies that Basil has taught him to be vain. To which Basil ominously says that he will be punished for that some day. This foreshadows that Dorian will later kill his friend when a horrified Basil sees in the portrait the depravity of soul that has overtaken the once innocent and beautiful Dorian.

To become the spectator of one’s own life, as Harry says, is to escape the suffering of life. I know you are surprised at my talking to you like this. You have not realized how I have developed. I was a schoolboy when you knew me. I am a man now. I have new passions, new thoughts, new ideas. I am different, but you must not like me less. I am changed, but you must always be my friend. Of course, I am very fond of Harry. But I know that you are better than he is. You are not stronger – you are too much afraid of life – but you are better. And how happy we used to be together! Don’t leave me, Basil, and don’t quarrel with me. I am what I am. There is nothing more to be said.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 9. Dorian wishes to be the spectator of his own life and review his experiences and impressions like you assess a work of art. He admits to Basil that he is a changed man. But is it for the better? We think not. He speaks of indulging his "new passions, new thoughts, new ideas" brought about under the influence of self-proclaimed hedonist and unremitting pleasure seeker Lord Henry. In the new Dorian there are few signs of guilt or self-awareness or a conscience at work. He will be a spectator of his own sins as he watches them manifest themselves in the changing face of Basil’s portrait of him. Appealing to Basil to always remain his friend, he compares him with Lord Henry and tells him that he is too afraid of life. This is rather ironic, as Dorian will kill his friend Basil with a knife of Chapter 20.
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