"So I have murdered Sybil Vane," said Dorian Gray, half to himself, "murdered her as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife. Yet the roses are not less lovely for that."
– Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 8. Dorian is shocked when Lord Henry brings him the news of Sibyl’s suicide. He feels responsible and in a simile likens her suicide to his cutting her throat with a knife. Yet he doesn’t seem troubled by remorse and he comments that the roses still look as beautiful as ever. On the surface everything appears "lovely," it is only the portrait that shows Dorian’s increasing moral decay. The reference to "her little throat" suggests Sibyl’s childlike innocence. In his cruelty to her, Dorian has effectively murdered his own innocence, placing himself on the road to corruption.