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."