Quotes Quotes Quotes...

Below are important

or memorable quotations listed chronologically by chapters 1-13...

The Portrait of Dorian Gray

"The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul." - chpt. 1

"How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. . . . If it was only the other way! If it was I who were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old! For this--for this--I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give!" - chpt. 2

"Yes; he would try to be to Dorian Gray what, without knowing it, the lad was to the painter who had fashioned the wonderful portrait. He would seek to dominate him-had already, indeed, half done so. He would make that wonderful spirit his own. There was something fascinating in this son of Love and Death." -chpt. 3

"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."- Chpt. 4

"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." -chpt. 6

"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 realised 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."

-chpt. 7

"It is not good for one's morals to see bad acting. Besides, I don't suppose you will want your wife to act. So what does it matter if she plays Juliet like a wooden doll? She is very lovely, and if she knows as little about life as she does about acting, she will be a delightful experience." -chpt. 7

"His unreal and selfish love would yield to some higher influence, would be transformed into some nobler passion, and the portrait that Basil Hallward had painted of him would be a guide to him through life, would be to him what holiness is to some, and conscience to others, and the fear of God to us all. There were opiates for remorse, drugs that could lull the moral sense to sleep. But here was a visible symbol of the degradation of sin. Here was an ever-present sign of the ruin men brought upon their souls." -chpt. 8

"For there would be a real pleasure in watching it. He would be able to follow his mind into its secret places. This portrait would be to him the most magical of mirrors. As it had revealed to him his own body, so it would reveal to him his own soul." -chpt. 8

"You look exactly the same wonderful boy who, day after day, used to come down to my studio to sit for his picture. But you were simple, natural, and affectionate then. You were the most unspoiled creature in the whole world. Now, I don't know what had come over you. You talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you. It is all Harry's influence, I see that." -chpt. 9

"There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realise his conception of the beautiful." -chpt. 11

"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 bee 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." -Chpt. 13

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde claimed that most people believed he was most similar to Lord Henry Wotton (clever, humorous, and controlling), however, the author personally believed he was actually more similar to Basil (a creative artist who was considerably less secure than what was publicly perceived). However, the author actually yearned to be more like Dorian Gray, as he admired both youth and beauty.

Oscar Wilde---------->

The portrait of Dorian Gray

Characters:

Lord Henry Wotton: confident and manipulative, commands presence. As he speaks with Basil in the first chapter he picks a daisy and later pulls it apart: symbolic action depicting Wotton as a destroyer of beauty and one who take joy in manipulating.

Basil: Secretive and artistic. Fairly odd but endearing. Basil is attracted to Dorian Gray both professionally and personally and wants to keep him all to himself. Basil becomes dependent on Dorian for his art as his muse, yet claims he is independent.

Dorian: Charming and fickle, full of youth and innocense. Irrational, passionate, and tragic. Physical beauty is more important to his character than any other attribute. When describing Dorian, Basil says, "he is horribly thoughtless and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain." This discription of Dorian links him with Lord Henry Wotton as a manipulator... perhaps foreshadowing a close relationship.

The Portrait: The portrait is introduced practically as its own character. In chpt. 2 Basil speaks about destroying the painting, but does not because Dorian says, "it would be murder." Again, they are treating the portrait like a human... and forshadowing future events.

Death of the Author

Often times a reader reads a text with the author in mind. They do this in an attempt to precisely interpret what the author intended to write. The reader may believe if the author's background is revealed, so will be an agenda.
The readers tendency to consider personal aspects of the author such as ethnicity, or religion, for example, is criticized by Roland Barthes.
Barthes writes, "To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text, to furnish it with a final signified, to close the writing [...] [However] by refusing to assign a 'secret,' an ultimate meaning, to the text (and the world as text), liberates what may be called an anti-theological activity, an activity that is truly revolutionary since to refuse to fix meaning is, in the end, to refuse God and his hypostases--reason, science, law." (147)

Therefore, we cannot assuredly detect what the author is intending to write- rather, we should only look at the language he/she uses, and the text itself to interpret meaning. It is the language that speaks, not the author.

The challenge now, is to go back to known texts and reread them. Does Barthes' idea transform the text for you?