Summary
and
Analysis
Chapter 7
Summary
Dorian is astonished to discover the theatre packed with people. He brings Lord Henry and Basil Hallward to his normal box, where they talk about the audience below. He informs them that Sibyl's art is so beautiful that she spiritualizes ordinary people, changing their ugly into beauty. Basil tells him that he now believes the marriage will be beneficial to him.
Both men are captivated by Sibyl's beauty when she first comes on stage, but when she begins to act, they feel embarrassed for Dorian. Dorian doesn't say anything, but he is deeply dissatisfied. Sibyl's performance is incredibly wooden. The audience below hisses and catcalls to the stage, mocking her bad performance. Lord Henry and Basil Hallward depart at the end of the second act. Dorian informs them that he will watch the whole show. In agony, he hides his face.
When the show is finished, he walks to the green room to look for Sibyl. She is expecting him. She appears radiantly joyful. She explains that she did horribly because she loves him. She claims that before she fell in love with him, the stage seemed vivid and alive to her. She didn't notice the gaudiness of the stage set or the ugliness of her co-stars. She had poured everything she had into it because it was her entire life. She was struck by the revelation today that she was acting poorly because she had discovered a new reality.
When she's finished, Dorian tells her she's disappointed and embarrassed him. He claims she murdered his love. His statements astound and horrify Sibyl. She begs him to return them, but he refuses. He informs her that he loved her for her art and that now she has nothing of her art, hence he no longer loves her. She is now nothing more than a "third-rate actress with a lovely face." Sibyl throws herself at his feet, pleading for him to be nice to her, but he dismisses her, thinking how foolish she appears.
He spends a long period walking around London's impoverished streets. Then he returns to his room, which has lately been redecorated since Lord Henry taught him to appreciate elegance. He is getting dressed when he notices the portrait. He is surprised to detect a change in it. Lines have formed around the mouth. The expression on the face is cruel. He turns on the lights and examines it more closely, but nothing alters the nasty expression on his face.
He remembers what he said in Basil’s studio the day he saw it for the first time. He had wished to change places with it, staying young forever while it aged with time and experience. He knows that the sin he committed against Sibyl that evening had caused him to age. He realizes that the portrait will always be an emblem of his conscience from now on. He dresses quickly and hurries toward Sibyl’s house. As he hurries to her, a faint feeling of his love for her returns to him.
Notes
This chapter contains the novel's climax. Dorian takes his friends to see Sibyl's superb acting and is humiliated by her terrible acting. Even when she tells him she has lost her acting talent because she loves him and only thinks of him, he does not change his attitude toward her. He lets her cry and then walks away coldly. Dorian Gray ages as a result of this sin of the heart. However, it is his portrait that ages, not him. Oscar Wilde plays with the idea that art imitates life in this scene. Dorian hoped for timelessness when he first saw his image. He wished he could swap places with art, living in the timeless nature of art and allowing the portrait to age and wither. That turnaround appears to occur in this climactic chapter. At this point, it's unclear whether the reader is supposed to interpret this as Dorian's guilty conscience projected onto the picture or a depiction of magic. The reader must wait to see if any other characters, save Dorian, notice the change in the image.
Chapter 8
Summary
Dorian doesn't wake up until well after noon the next day. He stands up and goes through his mail, selecting and saving a piece of mail hand delivered by Lord Henry that morning. He gets up and eats a light breakfast, feeling as if he was lately involved in some kind of tragedy. As he sits down for breakfast, he notices the screen he hastily placed over his image the night before and understands it was not a dream but reality. He informs his servant that he will not be accepting calls and proceeds to the portrait to remove the screen. He hesitates, but determines that he must. When he examines the portrait, he realizes it was not an illusion. The alteration is still there. He stares at it with terror.
He knows how unreasonable and cruel he was the night before to Sibyl. He believes the picture will act as a constant reminder to him throughout his life. He stares at the picture for several hours longer. Finally, he gets paper and proceeds to pen a passionate letter to Sibyl in which he apologizes for what he said to her and vows eternal love. He reproaches himself so honestly in the letter that he feels exonerated, as if he had gone to confession. He sets the letter down and hears Lord Henry calling to him through the door.
Lord Henry begs to be allowed in, and Dorian agrees. Lord Henry expresses regret for everything that has occurred. Dorian informs him that he was cruel with Sibyl the night before after the performance, but he feels better today and isn't sad it occurred. Lord Henry expresses concern that Dorian would be tearing his hair out of guilt. Dorian declares that he is relieved because he now understands what conscience is.
He pleads Henry not to scowl and expresses his desire to be good. He continues, "I can't bear the thought of [his] soul being hideous." Dorian declares his intention to marry Sibyl. Lord Henry realizes Dorian hasn't read his letter at this point. In it, he revealed to Dorian that Sibyl had committed suicide the night before by ingesting some sort of poison.
Lord Henry starts to counsel Dorian on how to avoid the controversy that a tale like this would bring to his name. He inquires whether anyone other than Sibyl knew his identity and whether anyone saw him walk under the stage to chat with her after her performance. Lord Henry advises Dorian not to let the incident upset him. He invites him to supper and the opera with his sister and some intelligent women.
Dorian declares that he has killed Sibyl Vane. He is amazed that life is still so lovely, with birds singing and roses blooming. He adds that he would have found it movingly tragic if he had read it in a story. He recalls his conversation with Sibyl the night before, telling Henry how harsh he was in rejecting her. He concludes by branding her selfish for killing herself.
Lord Henry advises him that a lady can only change a man by thoroughly boring him out of his mind. He goes on to say that if Dorian had married Sibyl, he would have been unhappy since he would not have loved her. Dorian admits that it most likely would have been. He is astounded that he does not experience the sorrow more intensely.
He questions whether he is heartless. He sees it as a fantastic ending to a wonderful play, a "tragedy in which [he] performed a great part, but by which [he] has not been wounded." Lord Henry enjoys playing on Dorian's unconscious egotism. Dorian believes he must immediately enter mourning, but Lord Henry reminds him that this is unnecessary because there is enough grieving in life. He goes on to say that Sibyl must have been unlike all the other ladies who are so frivolous and predictable. When Dorian expresses regret for being cruel to her, Lord Henry assures him that ladies value cruelty beyond all else. They are primitive. Men have emancipated them, but they are still slaves who enjoy being ruled. He reminds Dorian that Sibyl was a wonderful actress and that her suicide is a fitting end to a Jacobean tragedy.
Dorian finally expresses gratitude to Lord Henry for explaining himself to him. He marvels at what a fantastic experience it has all been for him. He wonders if life can provide him with anything more wonderful, and Henry assures him that it will. He is concerned about what would happen to him when he becomes old and unattractive. Henry warns him that he would have to fight for his successes from then on. Dorian decides to accompany Lord Henry to the opera after all. Lord Henry has leaves.
Dorian returns to the portrait when he is alone. He notices that it hasn't altered from the previous time he saw it. He remembers Sibyl and revels in the romance of it all. He decides to embrace life, and the portrait will bear the weight of his humiliation. He is saddened to think of how the lovely portrait will be ruined. He considers praying for the weird sympathy that exists between him and the picture to go, but he knows that no one would give up the chance to remain forever young. Then he decides that observing the changes will be enjoyable. The portrait would serve as a magical mirror for him, exposing his essence. He covers the portrait and prepares for the opera.
Notes
Dorian will opt to suppress his moral sense of responsibility in favour of pleasure, as shown in Chapter 8. When the news of Sibyl Vane's death is revealed in the media the next morning, Wilde sends Lord Henry to Dorian rather than Basil Hallward. Lord Henry persuades Dorian that what has occurred is a comic rather than a tragedy. He achieves this compelling goal by employing misogynist aphorisms (anti-woman statements). By the end of the chapter, he has decided that the unusual power of the portrait will be beneficial to him. He'll be able to dismiss it as a conscience while living in eternal youth.
