Dorian Gray Essay Research Paper The Picture free essay sample

Dorian Gray Essay, Research Paper The Picture of Dorian Gray KEY LITERARY ELEMENTS Setting The novel is set in London at the terminal of the 19th century ; one chapter is set at Dorian Gray # 8217 ; s state estate, Selby Royal. Fictional characters Major Fictional characters Basil Hallward # 8211 ; the creative person who paints the portrayal of Dorian Gray. He is so infatuated of Dorian Gray that he feels himself dominated by Dorian. His art alterations when he paints Dorian Gray. He is finally murdered by Dorian Gray when he tries to press Dorian to reform himself. Lord Henry Wotton # 8211 ; the blue blood who corrupts Dorian Gray with his thoughts that morality is hypocrisy used to cover people # 8217 ; s insufficiencies. He decides early on that he wants to rule Dorian Gray. Dorian Gray # 8211 ; the object of captivation for everyone. He is the most beautiful adult male anyone has of all time seen. He prays that he should alteration topographic points with a portrayal painted of him when he is rather immature. He prays that he will remain immature everlastingly and the portrayal will demo marks of age and degeneracy. His supplication comes true and he remains beautiful even while being corrupt. Conflict Supporter Dorian Gray, a adult male who is jolted out of limbo at the beginning of the novel and made aware of the thought that his young person and beauty are his greatest gifts and that they will shortly disappear with age. Adversary Lord Henry Wotton, the world-weary blue blood who tells Dorian Gray that he is inordinately beautiful. He decides to rule Dorian and returns to deprive him of all his conventional semblances. He succeeds in doing Dorian populate his life for art and bury moral duty. A secondary adversary is age. Dorian Gray runs from the ugliness of age throughout his life. He runs from it, but he is besides fascinated with it, compulsively coming back once more and once more to look at the marks of age in the portrayal. Climax The flood tide follows Sibyl Vane # 8217 ; s atrocious public presentation on phase when Dorian Gray tells her he has fallen out of love with her because she has made something ugly. Here, Dorian culls love for the ideal of beauty. The following forenoon, he changes his head and writes an ardent missive of apology, but excessively tardily ; Sibyl has committed self-destruction. Result Dorian Gray becomes mired in the immorality of his being. He topographic points no bound on his hunt for pleasance. He ruins people # 8217 ; s lives without scruple. His portrayal shows the ugliness of his wickednesss, but his ain organic structure doesn # 8217 ; t. His efforts at reform fail. He even kills a courier of reform # 8211 ; Basil Hallward. Finally, he kills himself as he attempts to # 8220 ; kill # 8221 ; the portrayal. He dies the ugly, old adult male and the portrayal returns to the vision of his beautiful young person. PLOT ( Synopsis ) The novel opens in Basil Hallward # 8217 ; s studio. He is discoursing his recent portrayal of Dorian Gray with his frequenter Lord Henry Wotton. He tells Lord Henry that he has begun a new manner of painting after his contact with Dorian Gray, a immature adult male of extraordinary beauty. He doesn # 8217 ; t want to present Lord Henry to Dorian because he doesn # 8217 ; t want Lord Henry to pervert the immature adult male. He says he is so taken with Dorian Gray that he feels the immature adult male dominates all his ideas. When Lord Henry meets Dorian Gray, he finds him to be wholly un-self-conscious about his beauty. Lord Henry negotiations to Dorian Gray of his doctrine of life. Lord Henry finds all of society # 8217 ; s conventions from fidelity in matrimony to charity toward the hapless to be hypocritical screens for people # 8217 ; s selfish motivations. Dorian Gray feels the weight of Lord Henry # 8217 ; s influence on his character. When they see the finished portrayal of Dorian that Basil has painted, they are enthralled by the beauty that Basil has captured. Dorian bemoans the inevitable loss of his young person. He wishes that he could alter topographic points with the picture, that it could turn old and he could remain the same. Lord Henry decides to rule Dorian Gray merely has Basil has told him Dorian Gray dominates him. They have dinner at Lord Gray # 8217 ; s Aunt Agatha # 8217 ; s house. She is a altruist and Dorian has been working with her. Lord Gray wittily ridicules the ends of philanthropic gift and Dorian is swept off by his logic. Weeks subsequently, Dorian tells Basil Hallward and Lord Henry that he has fallen in love with a immature actress named Sibyl Vane, who acts in a creaky theatre. He tells them he is engaged to Sibyl Vane. At the Vanes # 8217 ; house, Sibyl tells her female parent of how much she is in love with her immature supporter, whose name she doesn # 8217 ; T know, but whom she calls Prince Charming. Mrs. Vane thinks her girl might be able to acquire money out of the blue immature adult male. Sibyl # 8217 ; s brother James, on the other manus, hates the thought of a rich adult male utilizing and so go forthing his sister. It is James # 8217 ; s last dark on shore before he ships off as a crewman. Before he goes, he vows to kill the adult male if he of all time hurts Sibyl. He learns from his female parent that his and Sibyl # 8217 ; s male parent was an blue blood who vowed to take attention of the household financially, but died before he could. Dorian arranges a dinner with Basil and Lord Henry, after which they will travel to the theatre to see Sibyl Vane act. He tells the other work forces how amazed he has been by Sibyl # 8217 ; s moving endowment. When they arrive at the theatre and the drama begins, they are all appalled at Sibyl # 8217 ; s atrocious playing. The two other work forces try to comfort Dorian Gray, stating him it doesn # 8217 ; t affair if a married woman is a good histrion or non. He tells them to go forth and he stays on in torture through the remainder of the drama. When the drama is over, he goes back phase to speak to Sibyl. She tells him she doesn # 8217 ; t attention that her playing was so bad. She says she realizes that she can no longer move because she is in love with him. Before, she could move because she had no other universe besides the created universe of the phase. Dorian tells her he is ashamed of her and defeated in her. He tells her he merely fell in love with her because of her disingenuous playing. Now he feels nil for her. Sibyl begs him non to go forth her, but he refuses to listen and walks out. Subject MAIN THEME The chief subject of The Picture of Dorian Gray is the relationship between beauty and morality. Oscar Wilde plays on the Renaissance thought of the correspondence between the physical and religious kingdom: beautiful people are moral people ; ugly people are immoral people. His turn on this subject is in his usage of the charming appliance of the portrayal. The portrayal of Dorian Gray bears all the ugliness and age of wickedness while Dorian himself remains immature and beautiful no affair what he does. The portrayal even holds Dorian # 8217 ; s guilty scruples, at least until he kills Basil Hallward. Minor THEME The minor subject of the novel is the thought of the amorality of art. If something is beautiful, it is non confined to the kingdom of morality and immorality. It exists on its ain virtues. This thought is expressed by Lord Henry in its decadent facet and by Basil Hallward in its idealistic facet. Dorian Gray plays it out in his life. Temper The temper of the novel is a counterweight between the witty, ironical universe position of Lord Henry and the earnest and straightforward universe position of Basil Hallward. Dorian Gray goes back and Forth between these two poles. The novel does excessively. At times, it is the universe of polished humor doing visible radiation of the moral seriousness of altruists. At times, it is the melodramatic universe of lurid opium lairs and tortured self-destructions. Overall ANALYSES Fictional characters Basil Hallward: Basil Hallward is possibly an antique representative of the aesthetic motion. He lives his life artfully, doing a enigma when there is normally predictability, for case, in his wont of taking trips without of all time stating people where he # 8217 ; s traveling. He dedicates his life to art and, when he sees Dorian Gray, decides to establish a new school of art, one devoted to the youthful beauty of his topic. His place is filled with beautiful things. He has clearly devoted his life to the chase of the aesthetic as a manner of life. He is an antique aesthete in the sense that he is willing to give up art for the interest of moral duty. When he sees Dorian has become upset over the portrayal he paints of the male child, he is willing to destruct the picture. This is a picture he has merely said is the best work of his artistic calling. Basil Hallward is the lone one in Dorian Gray # 8217 ; s life who beseeches him to reform himself. In this regard, Basil Hallward is the moral centre of the novel. The fresh clears with him and the secret plan action sees a crisp downward bend when he is murdered. Basil Hallward play a little function in the novel, merely looking at three points in Dorian Gray # 8217 ; s life, but his influence is great. Lord Henry Wotten: Lord Henry is the extremist aesthete. He lives out all of the principles of the aesthetic motion as outlined in the Foreword to the novel. He refuses to acknowledge any moral criterion whatsoever. He spends his clip among blue bloods whom he ridicules in such a witty manner that he makes them like him. When the novel opens, he and his antonym in aestheticism are discoursing the supporter, Dorian Gray. Basil Hallward seriously enjoins Lord Henry to go forth Dorian Gray entirely, non to interfere with him, non to exercise his influence on the young person. Lord Henry ignores Basil # 8217 ; s plea wholly. He neer has a scruple about making merely the antonym of what Basil begged him to make. He instantly Begins to exercise his influence on the beautiful Dorian Gray, an opposite influence to that which Basil Hallward would wish for. He makes Dorian Gray self-aware, self-aware, and even self- involved. He gives Dorian Gray an inward focal point and ridicules Dorian # 8217 ; s efforts to happen an outward focal point in philanthropic gift. He takes Dorian Gray around to all the stylish salons and pulling suites of the London nobility demoing him off, promoting him in his self-gratifying chases. When Dorian Gray efforts to reform himself at the terminal of the novel, Lord Henry remains true to his long-established intent. He ridicules Dorian # 8217 ; s efforts to deny his satisfaction for a greater good and therefore makes Dorian experience it is ineffectual to try to reform. At the beginning of the novel, Basil Hallward scoffs at Lord Henry # 8217 ; s amoral apothegms, stating that Lord Henry ever says bad things but neer does anything bad. Basil Hallward feels that Lord Henry # 8217 ; s amorality is merely a airs. By the terminal of the novel, when Lord Henry takes Dorian # 8217 ; s last opportunity of reform off from him, the reader might presume that Basil Hallward was incorrect. Godhead Henry is immoral in his supposed amorality. Plot: Oscar Wilde plots The Picture of Dorian Gray on a theoretical account of descent. Dorian Gray begins at the tallness of his beauty and artlessness. Basil Hallward is besides at the tallness of his prowess at the gap of the novel. The novel is the grim downward slide of the supporter, nevertheless secret that downward slide is. When Basil Hallward recognizes the deepnesss to which Dorian Gray has sunk, he attempts to draw him out of it and is killed for the effort. When Dorian Gray efforts to convey himself back into moral uprightness, he fails. The secondary secret plan construction of the novel is the triangular relationship among Dorian Gray, Basil Hallward and Lord Henry. In the first few chapters f the novel, Wilde sets up the trigon. Basil Hallward is enraptured with Dorian Gray # 8217 ; s beauty. Dorian Gray doesn # 8217 ; t yet acknowledge the power this gives him. He doesn # 8217 ; T even acknowledge the power of his beauty. Then comes Lord Henry, the adult male who brings Dorian Gray into self-consciousness and pulls him off from the influence of Basil Hallward. Basil Hallward dies seeking to convey Dorian Gray back under his influence. The fresh terminals with Dorian doing a last, pathetic effort to convert Lord Henry to let go of him from his influence. When Dorian Gray efforts to destruct the portrayal, he is seeking to destruct the nexus between art and morality, the nexus which Lord Henry has everlastingly denied. The effort kills him. Oscar Wilde suggests that there is a critical nexus after all between the beautiful and the good. Subject Under argument in The Picture of Dorian Gray from get downing to stop is the relationship between beauty and morality. Oscar Wilde sets up the triangular relationship along the lines of this argument. Basil Hallward takes the place that life is to be lived in the chase of the beautiful and the enjoyable, but he is unwilling to disassociate the good from the beautiful. Lord Henry, on the other manus, goes through life throwing one apothegm after another together to turn out the non-existence or the lip service of morality. In the character of Dorian Gray and in his relationship to the his charming portrayal, Oscar Wilde dramatizes this argument. In the Renaissance, people believed in the thought of correspondences. They saw correspondences between the celestial spheres and the Earth. When something went incorrect on the societal graduated table, they looked to the skies for similar disturbances. In the literature of the Renaissance, storms ever accompany societal turbulence. In similar mode, there was seen to be a correspondence between beauty and virtuousness. If a individual was beautiful, it was assumed that she or he was besides virtuous. If a individual was ugly, it was a assumed this individual was corrupt. The face told the narrative of the psyche. Oscar Wilde takes this Renaissance thought of correspondences and sees how it works in the universe of the aesthetes. The aesthetes of the 1890s were purpose on developing a positive doctrine of art. Art was non the classical impression of a mirror held up to life. Art was to be regarded as independent. In its ain right, it was to be celebrated. It was no longer to be subordinated to life as a mirror is subsidiary to the object mirrored. If a comparing was granted, art was superior to life. It was dateless, unchanging, and perfect. In detaching art from its representational map, the aesthetes were besides detaching it from its moral purpose. Victorian authors had long held art up as valuable for its ability to teach and rectify its readers. The aesthetes wanted no moral undertaking assigned to art. Art existed for its ain interest, non as moral direction, and non as a mirror held up to life. Aesthetes might hold overstated the point. In the Preface to Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde sounded the keynote of the aesthetic motion when he wrote # 8220 ; There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book # 8221 ; and added, # 8220 ; No creative person has ethical sympathies. # 8221 ; Ironically, his novel is merely that. It is a moral book. Wilde uses the charming appliance of the portrayal as a manner to drama on the subjects of art in life, life as art, and the amorality of art. For the aesthetes, if something is beautiful, it is non confined to the kingdom of morality and immorality. It exists on its ain virtues. This thought is expressed by Lord Henry in its decadent facet and by Basil Hallward in its idealistic facet. For Lord Henry, there is no moral jussive mood. The true lover of beauty is safe to prosecute art and pleasance and should believe of conventional morality as the enemy of beauty. For Basil Hallward, the beauty should be pursued because it idealizes the spectator. It makes the universe a better topographic point. The universe is made morally good when it enjoys the beauty of art. Dorian Gray is the beautiful 1 who plays out the ideal of art in his life. For Basil Hallward, he is the 1 who can do his coevalss better people. For Lord Henry, he should prosecute pleasance and beauty for no terminal other than dissoluteness. Dorian follows the manner of Lord Henry. Oscar Wilde keeps in the head of the novel the ideal which Basil Hallward sets up with the usage of the portrayal. The portrayal of Dorian Gray bears all the ugliness and age of wickedness while Dorian himself remains immature and beautiful no affair what he does. The portrayal even holds Dorian # 8217 ; s guilty scruples, at least until he kills Basil Hallward. Art bears the wickednesss of the age. The portrayal of Dorian Gray bears all the hints of his wickednesss. It loses its guiltless expression and begins to look disdainful and so downright barbarous. Dorian Gray, on the other manus, retains the guiltless expression of young person and so people have a great trade of trouble believing the narratives about his bad wonts. Dorian Gray # 8217 ; s portrait even bears the weight of his guiltiness. Since he doesn # 8217 ; Ts have to pay for his wickednesss in the loss of his expressions, it is easier for him to go forth them behind and neer repent of them. When he is confronted by Basil Hallward, he is confronted by his Godhead. Without Basil # 8217 ; s portrayal of him, Dorian would hold had a really different life. He kills Basil when Basil begs him to reform. Dorian hates the Godhead, the 1 who enabled him to transgress as he has in the first topographic point, and so he kills him. After Basil # 8217 ; s decease, though, Dorian can non travel on as he did earlier. Without his Godhead, he loses his ability to go forth all his wickednesss to tag the portrayal. He gets nervous and edgy. Vengeance comes out of his yesteryear in the signifier of James Vane and stalks him. When he is let off the hook by James # 8217 ; s inadvertent decease, he doesn # 8217 ; t experience alleviation. He attempts to travel Basil # 8217 ; s manner after all, but it is excessively late. He has no moral foundation to support moral picks. The lone terminal possible for him is to kill the art that has poisoned his life. In making so, he kills himself. Oscar Wilde ended up composing a moral book after all. The novel shows the lesson that has been told over and over in narrative after narrative. Guilt will ever out. There is no flight from a guilty scruples. All offense must be paid for. Chapter 1 In a amply decorated studio an creative person, Basil Hallward negotiations with a invitee, Lord Henry Wotton about a new portrayal he has standing out. Lord Henry exclaims that it is the best of Hallward # 8217 ; s work and that he should demo it at Grosvenor. Hallward comments that he doesn # 8217 ; t program to demo it at all. Lord Henry can # 8217 ; t conceive of why an creative person wouldn # 8217 ; t want to demo his work. Hallward explains that he has put excessively much of himself in it to demo it to the populace. Lord Henry can # 8217 ; t understand this since Hallward isn # 8217 ; t a beautiful adult male while the topic of the portrayal is inordinately beautiful. As he is explicating himself, he mentions the topic # 8217 ; s name # 8211 ; Dorian Gray. He regrets holding slipped, stating that when he likes people, he neer tells their names because it feels to him as if he # 8217 ; s giving them off to aliens. Lord Henry compares this thought to his matrimony, stating that # 8220 ; the one appeal of matrimony is that it makes a life of misrepresentation perfectly necessary for both parties. # 8221 ; He adds that he and his married woman neer cognize where the other is and that she # 8217 ; s ever a better prevaricator than he is, but that she merely laughs at him when he slips. Basil Hallward is impatient with Lord Henry for this disclosure, impeaching Lord Henry of presenting. He adds that Lord Henry neer says anything moral and neer does anything immoral. Lord Henry Tells him that being natural is the worst of the airss. Hallward returns to the thought of the portrayal. He explains that # 8220 ; every portrayal that is painted with feeling is a portrayal of the creative person, non the sitter. # 8221 ; The Sitter merely occasions the production of the art. The painter is revealed, non the Sitter. He won # 8217 ; T, hence, show the secret of his psyche to the populace. He tells the narrative of how he met Dorian Gray. He went to a # 8220 ; crush # 8221 ; put on by Lady Brandon. While he was walking around the room, he saw Dorian Gray, # 8220 ; person whose mere personality was so intriguing that, if I allowed it to make so, it would absorb by whole nature, my whole psyche, my really art itself. # 8221 ; He was afraid of such an influence, so he avoided run intoing the adult male he saw. He tried to leave and Lady Brandon caught him and took him around the room presenting him to her invitees. He had late shown a piece that created a esthesis, so his cultural capital was rather high at the clip. After legion debuts, he came upon Dorian Gray. Lady Brandon says she didn # 8217 ; t cognize what Mr. Gray did, possibly nil, possibly he played the piano or the fiddle. The two work forces laughed at her and became friends with each other at one time. He tells Lord Henry that shortly he painted Dorian Gray # 8217 ; s portrayal. Now, Dorian Gray is all of Hallward # 8217 ; s art. He explains that in art, there are two epoch-making events possible: 1 is the debut of a new medium for art, like the oil picture, the 2nd is the visual aspect of a new personality for art. Dorian Gray is the latter. Even when he # 8217 ; s non painting Dorian Gray, he is influenced by him to paint inordinately different creative activities. It is like a new school of art emerging. Dorian Gray is his motivation in art. As he is explicating the art, he mentions that he has neer told Dorian Gray how of import he is. He won # 8217 ; t demo his Dorian Gray- inspired art because he fears that the populace would acknowledge his bareheaded psyche. Lord Henry notes that bared psyches are rather popular these yearss in fiction. Hallward hates this tendency, stating that the creative person should make beautiful things, and should set nil of his ain life into them. Dorian Gray is frequently rather capturing to Basil, but sometimes he seems to take delectation in aching Basil. Basil feels at such minutes that he has given his psyche to person shoal and cruel sufficiency to handle it as a flower to decorate his lapel. Lord Henry predicts that Basil will pall of Dorian Oklahoman than Dorian will pall of him. Basil refuses to believe this. He says every bit long as he lives, Dorian Gray will rule his life. Lord Henry all of a sudden remembers that he has heard Dorian Gray # 8217 ; s name. His aunt, Lady Agatha, has mentioned him in relation to some philanthropic work she does, stating he was traveling to assist her in the East End. Suddenly, Dorian Gray is announced. Basil Hallward asks his retainer to hold Mr. Gray wait a minute. He Tells Lord Henry non to exercise any influence on Dorian Gray because he depends wholly on Dorian staying undefiled. Lord Henry jeers at the thought as bunk. Notes Chapter 1 sets the tone of the novel. It is witty, polished, and dry with merely brief minutes of deep feeling expressed and so wittily submerged. The creative person of the novel is Basil Hallward. He seems to be in love with his most recent theoretical account, Dorian Gray, whom he considers more than a beautiful adult male, but an inspiration to a new signifier in his art. The strength of his feelings for Dorian Gray and the art that Dorian Gray inspires has to make with his sense of individuality. He doesn # 8217 ; t desire his portrayal of Dorian to be shown in populace because he feels as if he # 8217 ; s put something necessity of himself in it. That is the seed of the novel. The artist pigments himself when he seems to be painting another. Lord Henry is here for dry alleviation and the production of apothegms ( short statements of truth ) that irony spawns. He voices Oscar Wilde # 8217 ; s signature looks. He says, for case, # 8220 ; It is merely the intellectually lost who of all time argue. # 8221 ; One of the most frequently quoted of his apothegm: # 8220 ; there is merely one thing in the universe worse than being talked about, and that is non being talked about. # 8221 ; He thinks of the tiffin he missed in lingering with Hallward. It had a philanthropic motivation, upper category people garnering to discourse ways to portion a spot with hapless people, the idle people discoursing the self-respect of labour, the rich people discoursing the value of salvaging money. Basil Hallward besides has his ain axiomatic regulations of life. He neer tells people where he # 8217 ; s traveling when he travels as a manner to maintain enigma in his life. He neer introduces people he likes to other people because he feels it would be like giving them off. Chapter 2 When they walk from the studio into the house, they see Dorian Gray at the piano. He tells Basil that he # 8217 ; s tired of sitting for his portrayal. Then he sees Lord Henry and is embarrassed. Basil tries to acquire Lord Henry to go forth, but Dorian asks him to remain and speak to him while he sits for the portrayal. He adds that Basil neer negotiations or listens as he paints. Lord Henry agrees to remain. discuss Dorian # 8217 ; s work in philanthropic gift. Lord Henry thinks he # 8217 ; s excessively capturing to make that sort of thing. Dorian admirations if Lord Henry will be a bad influence on him as Basil thinks he will be. Lord Henry thinks all influence is perverting since the individual influenced no longer thinks with her or his ain ideas. He thinks the # 8220 ; purpose of life is self development. # 8221 ; He doesn # 8217 ; Ts like philanthropic gift because it makes people neglect themselves. They clothe hapless people and allow their ain psyches starve. Merely fright governs society, harmonizing to Lord Henry. Panic of God is the secret of faith and panic of society is the footing of ethical motives. If people would populate their lives to the full, giving signifier to every feeling and look to every idea, the universe would be enlivened by a fresh urge of joy. He urges Dorian non to run from his youthful frights. Dorian becomes disquieted and asks him to halt speaking so he can cover with all that he has said. He stands still for 10 proceedingss. He realizes he is being influenced strongly. He all of a sudden understands things he has ever wondered about. Lord Henry watches him fascinated. He remembers when he was 16 he read a book and was vastly influenced. He wonders if Dorian Gray is being influenced that manner by his random words. Hallward pigments furiously. Dorian asks for a interruption. Basil apologizes for doing him stand so long. He is excited about the portrayal he # 8217 ; s picture, and congratulationss Dorian for standing so absolutely still as to allow him acquire at the consequence he had wanted. He says he hasn # 8217 ; t heard the conversation, but he hopes Dorian won # 8217 ; t listen to anything Lord Henry tells him. Lord Henry and Dorian go out into the garden while Basil plants on the background of the portrayal in the studio. Dorian buries his face in a flower. Lord Henry tells him he is making merely as he should since the senses are the lone manner to bring around the psyche. They begin to amble and Dorian Gray clearly looks disquieted. He # 8217 ; s afraid of Lord Henry # 8217 ; s influence. Lord Henry urges him to come and sit in the shadiness to avoid acquiring a tan and destroying his beauty. Dorian admirations why it # 8217 ; s of import. Lord Henry tells him it matters more than anything else since his young person is his greatest gift and that it will go forth him shortly. As they sit down, he implores Dorian to bask his youth while he can. He shouldn # 8217 ; t give his life to the # 8220 ; ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. # 8221 ; He thinks the age needs a new Hedonism ( chase of pleasance as the greatest end in life ) . Dorian Gray could be its seeable symbol. Dorian Gray listens intently. Suddenly, Basil comes out to acquire them. He says he # 8217 ; s ready to restart the portrayal. Inside, Lord Henry sits down and tickers Basil pigment. After merely a one-fourth of an hr, Basil says the picture is complete. Lord Henry proclaims it his finest work and offers to purchase it. Basil says it # 8217 ; s Dorian # 8217 ; s picture. When Dorian looks at it, he realizes he is beautiful as Lord Henry has been stating him. He hadn # 8217 ; t taken it earnestly before. Now he knows what Lord Henry has meant by young person being so ephemeral. He realizes the picture will ever be beautiful and he will non. He wishes it were reversed. He accuses Basil of wishing his art plants better than his friends. Basil is shocked at this alteration in Dorian. He tells him his friendly relationship means more to him than anything. Dorian is so disquieted that he says he # 8217 ; ll kill himself the minute he realizes he # 8217 ; s turning old. Basil turns to Lord Henry and says it # 8217 ; s his mistake. Then he realizes he is reasoning with his two best friends and says he # 8217 ; ll destruct the picture to halt the statement. Dorian pulls the knife off from him to halt him. He Tells Basil he # 8217 ; s in love with the portrayal and thinks of it as portion of himself. The pantryman brings tea and the work forces sit down to imbibe it. Lord Henry proposes they go to the theatre that dark. Basil refuses the invitation, but Dorian agrees to travel. When they get up to travel, Basil asks Lord Henry to retrieve what he asked him in the studio before they went in to see Dorian. Lord Henry shrugs and says he doesn # 8217 ; t even swear himself, so Basil shouldn # 8217 ; t seek to swear him Notes Beauty lives merely for a minute. The subject of this chapter is besides one of the cardinal subjects of the novel. Dorian Gray is introduced as an un-self-conscious beauty. In the class of this chapter, he is made self-aware. He recognizes his beauty when he sees it represented in Basil Hallward # 8217 ; s portrayal. He is prepared for this acknowledgment by Lord Henry who, in the garden, urges him to pass his young person on vernal chases, non on philanthropic gift, and warns him that his young person is his best gift and that it won # 8217 ; t last. All of Basil Hallward # 8217 ; s frights of Lord Henry perverting Dorian Gray seem to have been borne out. Chapter 3 It is 12:30 in the afternoon and Lord Henry Wotton is walking to his uncle # 8217 ; s house. Lord Fermor had in his young person been secretary to his male parent, an embassador to Madrid. When his male parent didn # 8217 ; t acquire the ambassadorship of Paris, he quit in a miff and Lord Fermor quit with him. From them on Lord Fermor had spent his life devoted # 8220 ; to the serious survey of the great blue art of making perfectly nothing. # 8221 ; He pays some attending to the coal mines in the Midland counties, # 8220 ; pardoning himself from the contamination of industry on the land that the one advant 31e