James Vane Quotes

Mrs. Vane fixed her eyes on him, and intensified the smile. She mentally elevated her son to the dignity of an audience. She felt sure that the tableau was interesting.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chaper 5. Mrs. Vane seems to view life as a piece of theater. When James enters the room, where Sibyl has been excitedly telling her mother about her "Prince Charming" Dorian, her theatrical instincts kick in. Mrs. Vane imagines the moment as a "tableau" and she mentally sees her son as the audience. Theater and art are important to the Vane family and to Mrs. Vane appearances really do matter.

For some months past she had felt ill at ease when she was alone with this rough, stern son of hers. Her shallow, secret nature was troubled when their eyes met. She used to wonder if he suspected anything.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. Mrs. Vane feels ill at ease when she is alone with her rough and brash son James and seems to have a disconnect with him. The unease is not directly explained in the novel, but may be to do with James’s suspicion about Sibyl’s lover Dorian and distrust of his mother’s motivation in this and her interest in Dorian’s wealth. James is very protective of his sister Sibyl.

The passers-by glanced in wonder at the sullen, heavy youth, who, in coarse, ill-fitting clothes, was in the company of such a graceful, refined-looking girl. He was like a common gardener walking with a rose.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. When sister and brother Sibyl and James stroll down the street together they appear a very odd looking pair to people. One the heavy and moody youth, burdened down with his concern over his sister. The other a beautiful girl full of grace and refinement. A simile and metaphor are used to compare the two to a gardener and a rose.

As sure as there is God in heaven, if he ever does you any wrong, I shall kill him.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. James Vane, who is jealous of Dorian Gray and has a deep hatred of him for coming between him and his sister Sibyl, believes that her "Prince Charming" will break her heart. This is foreshadowing of how Dorian will indeed cast Sibyl aside, resulting in her suicide, after which James spends years tracking Dorian with the intention of avenging his sister’s by killing her lover. James has a very strong moral code, which dictates that he protects a loved one even at the expense of breaking the law.

The moon hung low in the sky like a yellow skull. From time to time a huge misshapen cloud stretched a long arm across and hid it. The gas-lamps grew fewer, and the streets more narrow and gloomy.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 16. A simile linking the moon with death and the description of the dramatic sky creates an ominous atmosphere as Dorian heads for the opium dens. The comparison of the moon to a skull is foreshadowing of the attempt on Dorian’s life by James Vane in revenge for his sister Sibyl’s suicide. The passage has an air of Gothic foreboding that is found throughout the novel.

Dim and wavering as was the wind-blown light, yet it served to show him the hideous error, as it seemed, into which he had fallen, for the face of the man he had sought to kill had all the bloom of boyhood, all the unstained purity of youth. He seemed little more than a lad of twenty summers, hardly older, if older indeed at all, than his sister had been when they had parted so many years ago. It was obvious that this was not the man who had destroyed her life.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 16. A vengeful James Vane has tracked down Dorian with the intention of killing him. But when Dorian asks him to look at his face, James sees someone with the bloom and purity of youth and thinks that he is not the man he has been searching for all these years. Dorian’s youthful appearance, masking the evil lurking within him, has saved him.

"He is not the man I’m looking for," he exclaimed, "and I want no man’s money. I want a man’s life. The man whose life I want must be nearly forty by now. This one is little more than a boy. Thank God, I have not got his blood upon my hands."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 16. James Vane is responding to a woman who has encouraged him to kill and rob Dorian. James wants justice for his sister Sibyl who committed suicide after being cruelly tossed aside by Dorian 18 years ago. But he believes that Dorian, who hasn’t aged in that time, cannot be that man and he doesn’t wish to kill someone he ironically thinks is innocent.

There was a wild recklessness of gaiety in his manner as he sat at table, but now and then a thrill of terror ran through him when he remembered that, pressed against the window of the conservatory, like a white handkerchief, he had seen the face of James Vane watching him.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 17. Dorian sits down at the table with his guests, having fallen faint a little earlier in his conservatory. He is terrified because he saw the face of James Vane pressed against the conservatory window watching him. The face is compared, in a simile, to a white hankerchief. Dorian is fearful that Vane wants to kill him in revenge for his sister’s suicide. But there is also a reckless gaiety about Dorian’s manner at dinner, now that his crimes are catching up with him.

The next day he did not leave the house, and, indeed, spent most of the time in his own room, sick with a wild terror of dying, and yet indifferent to life itself.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 18. The day after spotting James Vane’s face in the window of his country home and fainting with the fright, Dorian doesn’t leave the house. He is filled with terror at the thought of dying at the hands of Vane in revenge for his sister’s suicide. But at the same time he doesn’t care about his life.

If the tapestry did but tremble in the wind, he shook. The dead leaves that were blown against the leaded panes seemed to him like his own wasted resolutions and wild regrets. When he closed his eyes, he saw again the sailor’s face peering through the mist-stained glass, and horror seemed once more to lay its hand upon his heart.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 18. Dorian is now conscious of being hunted by James Vane who seeks revenge for his sister’s suicide. Dorian managed earlier to escape being killed by Vane, but now he is filled with fear and torment. As his paranoia grows, the world around him appears to reflect his soul’s torment. The trembling tapestry and dead leaves blowing in the wind remind him of the corrupt choices that he made – "wasted resolutions and wild regrets." When he closes his eyes, he is haunted by the face of James Vane staring at him through the window.

Upstairs, in his own room, Dorian Gray was lying on a sofa, with terror in every tingling fiber of his body. Life had suddenly become too hideous a burden for him to bear. The dreadful death of the unlucky beater, shot in the thicket like a wild animal, had seemed to him to prefigure death for himself also.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 18. Dorian fears that death is coming for him. So he becomes more and more anxious and terrified over every little thing. He feels the death of the man in a shooting accident – James Vane, thought Dorian doesn’t know this yet – is foreshadowing of his own death.

A cry of joy broke from his lips. The man who had been shot in the thicket was James Vane. He stood there for some minutes looking at the dead body. As he rode home, his eyes were full of tears, for he knew he was safe.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 18. The chapter ends with huge relief for Dorian, who has been panic-stricken over James Vane’s threat of revenge against him for Sibyl’s suicide. The man killed in the earlier shooting accident is Vane, Dorian is now safe.
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