Important Quotes
"Then he looked at Lord Henry. '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." (Wilde 21)
Explanation: Basil expresses his deep need for Dorian Gray. This passage explains how important Dorian is to Basil and his artwork. Dorian is his inspiration.
"'Ah! Lord Henry, I wish you would tell me how to become young again.'
He thought for a moment. 'Can you remember any great error that you committed in your early days, Duchess?' he asked, looking at her across the table.
'A great many, I fear,' she cried.
'Then commit them over again,' he said gravely. 'To get back one's youth, one has merely to repeat one's follies.'
'A delightful theory!' she exclaimed. 'I must put it into practice.'
'A dangerous theory!' came from Sir Thomas's tight lips. Lady Agatha shook her head, but could not help being amused. Mr. Erskine listened.
'Yes,' he continued, 'that is one of the great secrets of life. Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.'” (Wilde 46)
Explanation: Lord Henry shares his thoughts on how he believes one can become young again. It’s in interesting theory. His beliefs on recommitting ones mistakes to return to youth are peculiar and don’t have much sense behind them; however, his comrades are intrigued by this concept even though it was meant more as a joke.
“It was clear to him that the experimental method was the only method by which one could arrive at any scientific analysis of the passions; and certainly Dorian Gray was a subject made to his hand, and seemed to promise rich and fruitful results. His sudden mad love for Sibyl Vane was a psychological phenomenon of no small interest. There was no doubt that curiosity had much to do with it, curiosity and the desire for new experiences, yet it was not a simple, but rather a very complex passion. What there was in it of the purely sensuous instinct of boyhood had been transformed by the workings of the imagination, changed into something that seemed to the lad himself to be remote from sense, and was for that very reason all the more dangerous. It was the passions about whose origin we deceived ourselves that tyrannized most strongly over us. Our weakest motives were those of whose nature we were conscious. It often happened that when we thought we were experimenting on others we were really experimenting on ourselves.” (Wilde 62)
Explanation: In this passage, Lord Henry reflects deeply on certain aspects of human nature. The topic, of which he speaks, has lots of potential to spark an interesting discussion. His thoughts are more on the psychological side of our nature and pertain to our experiments on the behaviour of those around us.
"‘You told me you had destroyed it.’
‘I was wrong. It has destroyed me.’" (Wilde 156)
Explanation: This passage includes a very powerful remark; Dorian, for the first time, was willing to admit that the painting has destroyed him.
“When they entered, they found hanging upon the wall a splendid portrait of their master as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty. Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was.” (Wilde p.219)
Explanation: This is the very last passage of the novel. It is perhaps the most important of all because it announces the final outcome of the story. After Dorian stabs the painting, the appearances of both Dorian and the portrait get reversed. Dorian no longer looks like his younger self, he turned into his painting; an old man. The only reason he was recognized was because of his rings. It is difficult to say if Dorian knew that he would die or not.
