Sibyl Vane Quotes

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.

You can dine with me to-night, Dorian, can’t you?"
He shook his head. "To-night she is Imogen," he answered, "and to-morrow night she will be Juliet.
"When is she Sibyl Vane?"
"Never."
"I congratulate you."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. The theme of appearances is dealt with here as Dorian tells Lord Henry of the different stage roles Sibyl plays. Asked when is she Sibyl, Dorian replies never – he is in love with her art and not Sibyl the person. The shallow Henry, a man who values only the appearance of things, congratulates Dorian.

You, who know all the secrets of life, tell me how to charm Sibyl Vane to love me! I want to make Romeo jealous, I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain. My God, Harry, how I worship her!

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian Gray really has it bad for Sibyl. He sounds as if he really loves her. But he is attracted to her as an actress on a stage and is more infatuated with her art and how she appears in her stage roles that he is with her person.

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.

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.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 4. Dorian has become an interesting study for Lord Henry, especially now that he has fallen in love. In this passage Henry thinks to himself about the young man’s sudden passion for the actress Sybyl Vane. Not a believer in longterm love himself, Henry puts Dorian’s love down to curiosity for life and for new experiences. He describes Dorian’s crazy passion for Sibyl as a complex and no simple matter, but also "dangerous," foreshadowing the tragic events to follow in the novel.

Thin-lipped Wisdom spoke at her from the worn chair, hinted at prudence, quoted from that book of cowardice whose author apes the name of common sense. She did not listen. She was free in her prison of passion. Her prince, Prince Charming, was with her. She had called on Memory to remake him. She had sent her soul to search for him, and it had brought him back. His kiss burned again upon her mouth. Her eyelids were warm with his breath.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. Mrs. Vane has learned that her daughter Sibyl has fallen lock, stock and barrel for Dorian Gray. With her "thin-lipped wisdom" she advises Sibyl that she mustn’t think of anything but her acting. But Sibyl does not listen. Wilde describes Sibyl’s "prison of passion" in which she believes that she is free to be alongside her "Prince Charming." Sibyl as a damsel in distress swooning with the happiness of love and needing a Prince hero to rescue her (from her acting life) is one of the classic elements of Gothic fiction. The prison metaphor is also foreshadowing that the love affair will bring her disaster.

"Mother! mother!" she cried, "why does he love me so much? I know why I love him. I love him because he is like what Love himself should be. But what does he see in me? I am not worthy of him. And yet – why, I cannot tell – though I feel so much beneath him, I don’t feel humble. I feel proud, terribly proud"

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5. The pitiful naivety and innocence of Sibyl is vividly demonstrated in these words to her mother. She feels that she is not worthy of Dorian’s love and wonders what he sees in her. Her purity and lack of guile stand in stark contract to Lord Henry’s deviousness and cynical manipulation of people.

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.

She trembled all over and shook like a white narcissus. Then she flung herself on her knees and kissed my hands. I feel that I should not tell you all this, but I can’t help it.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 6. Similes are extensively used in the novel to enhance the storytelling. It is one of the aesthetic tools Wilde uses to show the beauty of the English language. In this passage Dorian tells Lord Henry and Basil about Sibyl’s reaction when he kisses her for the first time. He uses a simile to compare her to "a white narcissus," to indicate her beauty and purity.

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?

I believe in this girl. Any one you love must be marvellous, and any girl that has the effect you describe must be fine and noble. To spiritualize one’s age – that is something worth doing. If this girl can give a soul to those who have lived without one, if she can create the sense of beauty in people whose lives have been sordid and ugly, if she can strip them of their selfishness and lend them tears for sorrows that are not their own, she is worthy of all your adoration, worthy of the adoration of the world. This marriage is quite right. I did not think so at first, but I admit it now. The gods made Sibyl Vane for you. Without her you are incomplete.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Dorian, after describing his love for Sibyl and her talent as an actress, earns a ringing endorsement from Basil for the love match. Basil is in full agreement with Dorian, saying that a girl who can through her art "give a soul to those who have lived without one" and create beauty in people with ugly lives is worthy of Dorian’s and the world’s affection. Basil is a firm believer in the ability of art to transform people’s lives.

Then the curtain rises, and you will see the girl to whom I am going to give all my life, to whom I have given everything that is good in me.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Dorian is speaking to Basil about the immiment appearance of Sibyl Vane on stage. It is interesting that wealthy young socialite Dorian, whom Lord Henry is trying to corrupt, says that he has given all that is good in him to Sibyl. For she represents purity and goodness, just as Henry represents the absense of these.

Yet she was curiously listless. She showed no sign of joy when her eyes rested on Romeo. The few words she had to speak…with the brief dialogue that follows, were spoken in a thoroughly artificial manner. The voice was exquisite, but from that point of view of tone it was absolutely false.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Sibyl plays Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, to which Dorian has invited Henry and Basil. Dorian observes how poorly she performs her art, her performance is artificial and listless. Sibyl’s depiction of the tragic heroine in the classic tragedy about two star-crossed lovers is foreshadowing of the disaster that will strike her own love relationship with Dorian.

"Last night she was a great artist. This evening she is merely a commonplace mediocre actress."
"Don’t talk like that about any one you love, Dorian. Love is a more wonderful thing than Art."
"They are both simply forms of imitation, remarked Lord Henry."

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Dorian is highly critical of Sibyl’s performance as Juliet. He loves the "art" that Sibyl can create and the characters she can give life to, but not Sibyl the person. So when her art fails her and she becomes mere woman, Dorian sees no worth in her. When Basil berates Dorian, holding up love as more wonderful than art, Lord Henry dismisses both as unreal and just forms of imitation.

The painted scenes were my world. I knew nothing but shadows, and I thought them real. You came – oh, my beautiful love! – and you freed my soul from prison. You taught me what reality is. To-night, for the first time in my life, I saw through the hollowness, the sham, the silliness of the empty pageant in which I had always played.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Sibyl proclaims her love to Dorian after she performs poorly as Juliet, which she sees as a positive life-transforming event. She confesses that hitherto she has lived in a world of art which to her was reality. But now that she has found true love with Dorian, her acting world is just an "empty pageant." Her relationship with Dorian is her new reality and has freed her soul from "prison."

To-night, for the first time, I became conscious that the Romeo was hideous, and old, and painted, that the moonlight in the orchard was false, that the scenery was vulgar, and that the words I had to speak were unreal, were not my words, were not what I wanted to say. You had brought me something higher, something of which all art is but a reflection. You had made me understand what love really is. My love! My love! Prince Charming! Prince of life! I have grown sick of shadows. You are more to me than all art can ever be. What have I to do with the puppets of a play?

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Sibyl’s rejection of her art as "false" and "unreal" theater brings us back to the final lines in the Preface: "All art is quite useless." Now that she has found love with her real-life Romeo and "Prince Charming," she no longer wants her useless art of "shadows" and "puppets." Dorian means more to her now than art could ever be.

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.

How little you can know of love if you say it mars your art! Without your art you are nothing.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 7. Dorian’s dismissive and insensitive rejection of Sibyl is nothing short of abusive. Dorian believes that Sibyl’s art is essentially her, just as he believes his beauty is what makes him what he is. Sibyl is nothing more than a living artwork to him, an object of aesthetic value, not a human being. But she is of no value to him now that she can no longer act. This is the fuller quote: "You have spoiled the romance of my life. How little you can know of love, if you say it mars your art! Without your art, you are nothing. I would have made you famous, splendid, magnificent. The world would have worshipped you, and you would have borne my name. What are you now? A third-rate actress with a pretty face."
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