The Picture of Dorian Gray Quotes

Of such insolences and attempted slights he, of course, took no notice, and in the opinion of most people his frank debonair manner, his charming boyish smile, and the infinite grace of that wonderful youth that seemed never to leave him, were in themselves a sufficient answer to the calumnies, for so they termed them, that were circulated about him.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 11. After Dorian passes his twenty-fifth year, he becomes the subject of terrible rumors about his dark and sordid behavior and the bad company that he keeps. But his boyish and innocence appearance protects his reputation and most people who see him dismiss all the bad talk about him as false smears.

Some of those who had been most intimate with him appeared, after a time, to shun him. Women who had wildly adored him, and for his sake had braved all social censure and set convention at defiance, were seen to grow pallid with shame or horror if Dorian Gray entered the room.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 11. The whispers of scandalous behavior surrounding Dorian, dismissed by most people who meet him, does him some reputational damage. He is shunned by some who had been close to him. Women who had adored him now grew pale with shame when he entered the room.

Society – civilized society, at least – is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating. It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals, and, in its opinion, the highest respectability is of much less value than the possession of a good chef.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 11. In this passage Wilde lashes out at the hypocrisy of Victorian high society. Amid the swirling rumors about Dorian’s sordid behavior his great wealth provides for him a protective shield. For this society is slow to believe anything bad about people like Dorian who are "both rich and fascinating." Manners are regarded as more important than morals. The rest of this passage suggests that what makes good art also makes for a good society and insincerity even may be good thing: "And, after all, it is a very poor consolation to be told that the man who has given one a bad dinner, or poor wine, is irreproachable in his private life. Even the cardinal virtues cannot atone for half-cold entrées, as Lord Henry remarked once, in a discussion on the subject; and there is possibly a good deal to be said for his view. For the canons of good society are, or should be, the same as the canons of art. Form is absolutely essential to it. It should have the dignity of a ceremony, as well as its unreality, and should combine the insincere character of a romantic play with the wit and beauty that make such plays delightful to us. Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities."

Dorian Gray had been poisoned by a book. There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 11. Lord Henry has succeeded in corrupting the once innocent Dorian through the pages of the yellow book that he gifted him. The book has become Dorian’s bible and he reads his favorite passages detailing acts of violence, seductions and poisonings, over and over again. To Dorian the beautiful is now best experienced through evil.

I love scandals about other people, but scandals about myself don’t interest me. They have not got the charm of novelty.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 12. A totally unconcerned Dorian flippantly responds to Basil Hallward, when he tells him that the most dreadful things are being said against Dorian in London. This passage from the novel was read out by Sir Edward Carson during cross-examination at the libel case taken by Wilde against the Martquess of Queensberry in 1895. Wilde lost the case. Though the novel doesn’t state the nature of the "scandals" involving Dorian, it is strongly hinted that he was involved in sexual encounters with other men – a crime in England at that time.

Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed. People talk sometimes of secret vices, there are no such things. If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding of his hands even.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 12. Basil Hallward doesn’t believe the rumors flying around about Dorian’s secret vices. He feels that such sins would be written on a person’s face and could not be hidden. Dorian’s beauty and youthful appearance convinces the gullible Basil of his innocence.

But you, Dorian, with your pure, bright, innocent face, and your marvellous, untroubled youth – I can’t believe anything against you. And yet I see you very seldom, and you never come down to the studio now, and when I am away from you, and I hear all these hideous things that people are whispering about you, I don’t know what to say. Why is it, Dorian, that a man like the Duke of Berwick leaves the room of a club when you enter it? Why is it that so many gentlemen in London will neither go to your house or invite you to theirs?…Why is your friendship so fatal to young men? There was that wretched boy in the Guards who committed suicide. You were his great friend. There was Sir Henry Ashton, who had to leave England with a tarnished name. You and he were inseparable. What about Adrian Singleton and his dreadful end? What about Lord Kent’s only son and his career? I met his father yesterday in St. James’s Street. He seemed broken with shame and sorrow. What about the young Duke of Perth? What sort of life has he got now? What gentleman would associate with him?…You have filled them with a madness for pleasure. They have gone down into the depths. You led them there. Yes: you led them there, and yet you can smile, as you are smiling now.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 12. Basil finds it difficult to believe the rumors about Dorian’s disreputable behavior because he looks so pure and innocent and youthful. But he confronts his friend about the hidious things being whispered about him. He speaks of a boy Dorian was great friends with who committed suicide, another man he was close to who had to leave England with a tarnished name, a young Duke that no gentleman would now associate with. In his search for hedonistic pleasure, Dorian stands accused of ruining many reputations and destroying lives, including his young friend Adrian Singleton whom he introduced to opium addiction. Basil accuses Dorian of filling these men with "a madness for pleasure" and leading them "down into the depths." Although Wilde does not explicitedly describe any practice of homosexuality associated with Dorian, he strongly hints that Dorian had relationships with many young male aristocrats. Wilde, who went to jail for his homosexuality, said that his character Dorian was "what I would like to be – in other ages, perhaps."

The room looked as if it had not been lived in for years. A faded Flemish tapestry, a curtained picture, an old Italian cassone, and an almost empty bookcase – that was all that it seemed to contain, besides a chair and a table…the whole place was covered with dust, and that the carpet was in holes. A mouse ran scuffling behind the wainscoting. There was a damp odour of mildew. As Dorian Gray was lighting a half-burned candle that was standing on the mantelshelf, he saw that the whole place was covered with dust and that the carpet was in holes.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 13. Basil enters the secret delapidated attic room where Dorian has the portrait locked away. There is a strong sense of the Gothic in the description of the room, which hasn’t been used for years and is in a state of decay. It symbolizes the dark part of Dorian’s soul.

An exclamation of horror broke from the painter’s lips as he saw in the dim light the hideous face on the canvas grinning at him. There was something in its expression that filled him with disgust and loathing…he felt as if his blood had changed in a moment from fire to sluggish ice.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 13. When Dorian flings the cover off the portrait hidden in the attic, Basil lets out a cry of horror at the sight of the hideous face of Dorian on the canvass. The painting has changed, reflecting Dorian’s corrupted soul. Basil’s imminent murder at the hands of a morally destitute Dorian – as reflected by the portrait – is also foreshadowed when Basil’s blood changes "from fire to sluggish ice."

He held the light up again to the canvas, and examined it. The surface seemed to be quite undisturbed and as he had left it. It was from within, apparently, that the foulness and horror had come. Through some strange quickening of inner life the leprosies of sin were slowly eating the thing away. The rotting of a corpse in a watery grave was not so fearful.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 13. Basil holds up a light to the portrait. The picture is being eaten away by the "leprosies" of Dorian’s sins, as described in a vivid metaphor. Dorian has committed terrible sins – but what was the nature of those sins? Wilde once explained to a critic: "Each man sees his own sin in Dorian Gray. What Dorian Gray’s sins are no one knows. He who finds them has brought them." Many of Dorian’s sins, it is supposed, are of a homosexual nature. Sexual intercourse between men was illegal in England in Wilde’s time, the "crime" being known in law as gross indecency.

What is it that one was taught to say in one’s boyhood "Lead us not into temptation. Forgive us our sins. Wash away our iniquities." Let us say that together. The prayer of your pride has been answered. The prayer of your repentance will be answered also. I worshipped you too much. I am punished for it. You worshipped yourself too much. We are both punished.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 13. Basil Hallward is an idealist and good man living in a bad world, who believes in the essential goodness of people. He refuses to see that Dorian is a bad person and urges him to pray for forgiveness. He thinks repentence can wash away all of Dorian’s sins and the corruption caused by his pride and self-worship.

Dorian Gray glanced at the picture, and suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him, as though it had been suggested to him by the image on the canvas, whispered into his ear by those grinning lips.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 13. As Dorian looks at his "evil" portrait, a strong metaphorical image is used to explain how he is suddenly overcome by hatred for its painter Basil. The "grinning lips" in the picture are said to have "whispered" it to Dorian. Just before this passage Basil had said to Dorian: "You have done enough evil in your life. My God! Don’t you see that accursed thing leering at us."

He rushed at him and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man’s head down on the table and stabbing again and again. There was a stifled groan and the horrible sound of someone choking with blood. Three times the outstretched arms shot up convulsively, waving grotesque, stiff-fingered hands in the air. He stabbed him twice more, but the man did not move. Something began to trickle on the floor…He could hear nothing, but the drip, drip on the threadbare carpet.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 13. This horrifying and gruesome description of the murder of Basil by Dorian, who brutally stabs his friend several times, is written in classic Gothic style. This macabre passage describes in haunting and graphic detail the ending of the life of a man who represented goodness by another who is now morally dead.

He felt strangely calm, and walking over to the window, opened it and stepped out on the balcony. The wind had blown the fog away, and the sky was like a monstrous peacock’s tail, starred with myriads of golden eyes.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 13. After murdering his old friend Basil by repeatedly stabbing him, Dorian feels no remorse for the monstrous crime he has committed, but feels calm. As if in tune with his positive mood, the wind blows the fog away and the sky is compared using a beautiful mixed simile and metaphor to a "peacock’s tail, starred with myriads of golden eyes." Now completely amoral and gone over to the dark side, Dorian has killed the only other good person in his life besides Sibyl.

He winced at the memory of all that he had suffered, and for a moment the same curious feeling of loathing for Basil Hallward that had made him kill him as he sat in the chair came back to him, and he grew cold with passion. The dead man was still sitting there, too, and in the sunlight now. How horrible that was! Such hideous things were for the darkness, not for the day.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 14. This passage shows Dorian’s astounding lack of self-awareness of the evil that he has committed in stabbing Basil to death, and the depths of corruption Dorian’s soul has reached. He sympathizes with himself for having "suffered," he seems to suggest that Basil deserved to be murdered and he feels no remorse whatsoever. He coldly detaches himself from his heinous actions like he was a bystander or even a victim.

As one read them, one seemed to be floating down the green water-ways of the pink and pearl city, seated in a black gondola with silver prow and trailing curtains. The mere lines looked to him like those straight lines of turquoise-blue that follow one as one pushes out to the Lido. The sudden flashes of colour reminded him of the gleam of the opal-and-iris-throated birds that flutter round the tall honeycombed Campanile, or stalk, with such stately grace, through the dim, dust-stained arcades. Leaning back with half-closed eyes, he kept saying over and over to himself: –
"Devant une façade rose,
Sur le marbre d’un escalier."
The whole of Venice was in those two lines.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 14. While he waits for scientist Alan Campbell, Dorian reads some stanzas about Venice from a book of French poetry. The two lines quoted translate as "Upon a red-faced town On the marble of a stairway." They transport Dorian back to Italy’s floating city, which he had visited with Basil. A beautiful simile is used to compare the lines of the poem to the "straight lines of turquoise-blue that follow one as one pushes out to the Lido." There is a dark irony in the images of beauty and peace conjured up by Dorian in this passage, as they mask Dorian’s darker nefarious thoughts – to have Campbell dispose of Basil Hallward’s body after his grisly murder by Dorian. When Campbell refuses Dorian uses blackmail to force him to carry out his dirty work.

He took long stealthy strides. His hands were curiously cold. The suspense became unbearable. Time seemed to him to be crawling with feet of lead, while he by monstrous winds was being swept towards the jagged edge of some black cleft of precipice. He knew what was waiting for him there; saw it, indeed, and, shuddering, crushed with dank hands his burning lids as though he would have robbed the very brain of sight and driven the eyeballs back into their cave…Then, suddenly, time stopped for him. Yes: that blind, slow-breathing thing crawled no more, and horrible thoughts, time being dead, raced nimbly on in front, and dragged a hideous future from its grave, and showed it to him.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 14. In this classic piece of Gothic writing, Dorian’s sense of terror and horror are vividly brought to life as he waits for scientist Alan Campbell to come to dispose of Basil’s body. Dorian’s conscience troubles him greatly over Basil’s killing. He has a vision of a most terrible future being dragged out of its grave and being shown to him. This foreshadows the death of Dorian.

What was that loathsome red dew that gleamed, wet and glistening, on one of the hands, as though the canvas had sweated blood? How horrible it was! – more horrible, it seemed to him for the moment, than the silent thing that he knew was stretched across the table, the thing whose grotesque, misshapen shadow on the spotted carpet showed him that it had not stirred, but was still there, as he had left it.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 14. When Dorian goes to cover the portrait after stabbing Basil to death he notices that it has undergone a dramatic new change in appearance. He experiences a feeling of terror when he sees the "red dew" glistening on one of the hands, as if the painting had "sweated blood" and is alive. He finds the sight more horrifying than that of Basil’s corpse after he murdered him. The evidence of Dorian’s diabolical crime is clearly portrayed in the portrait.

That evening, at eight-thirty, exquisitely dressed and wearing a large button-hole of Parma violets, Dorian Gray was ushered into Lady Narborough’s drawing-room by bowing servants. His forehead was throbbing with maddened nerves, and he felt wildly excited, but his manner as he bent over his hostess’s hand was as easy and graceful as ever. Perhaps one never seems so much at one’s ease as when one has to play a part. Certainly no one looking at Dorian Gray that night could have believed that he had passed through a tragedy as horrible as any tragedy of our age. Those finely shaped fingers could never have clutched a knife for sin, nor those smiling lips have cried out on God and goodness. He himself could not help wondering at the calm of his demeanor, and for a moment felt keenly the terrible pleasure of a double life.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 15. From looking at Dorian Gray’s magnificently dressed and easy and graceful appearance at Lady Narborough’s party, there is said to be no hint that he had just passed through a horrible tragedy. The writing here is ironic, because Dorian caused the tragedy that night, when he brutally stabbed his friend Basil to death.

She is still décolletée…and when she is in a very smart gown she looks like an edition de luxe of a bad French novel.

– Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 15. Lord Henry is speaking to Lady Narborough about Dorian’s friend the infamous Madame de Ferrol. The passage continues with Henry’s sparkling dialogue: "She is really wonderful, and full of surprises. Her capacity for family affection is extraordinary. When her third husband died, her hair turned quite gold from grief."
Close