English Literature books summary

English Literature books summary

commences to look out for approaching ships. He then steps back, however,

and wonders if it is his place to engage in violence with people who have

not done him any personal harm, and who are most likely killing prisoners

of war. Robinson debates with himself and concludes that he should leave

them to the justice of God. He continues his secluded life and is once more

thankful for his deliverance. Occasionally he is frightened by strange

sounds, and he is still cautious. But the narrator tells himself that if he

is not fit to face the devil, he could not have lived twenty years alone on

the island. Time continues passing. Robinson spends time with his parrot

and his various animals. One day, he is stunned to see a fire on his side

of the island--the savages are back. He sees they have two canoes from a

lookout point, but he does not dare approach them. When the tide returns

they leave. Crusoe is horrified at the human remains on the shore. Once

again he wants to destroy the savages when they return. When the twenty-

fourth anniversary passes, Robinson spies the wreck of a Spanish ship

drifting towards the island. His heart is lightened by the thought that

there might be a survivor. He hastens to his boat, gathers provisions, and

rows out to the wreck. Aside from a yelping dog, he finds no one living.

Crusoe takes the dog, along with some liquor, clothing and money, back to

the island with him.

Part 7 Summary:

The narrator resumes his quiet steady life. He always thinks upon the

goodness of Providence. But he is haunted by dreams of savages. In this

time the narrator has thought that upon saving the life of a captive or a

savage himself, he might be able to make him his companion and obtain

escape from the island. Only now does he realize how lonely he has been.

Crusoe waits patiently, and after a year and a half he is rewarded by the

appearance of five canoes on shore. Against twenty or thirty men, he

wonders how he will fight. He spies two "miserable wretches" being pulled

from the boat. As one is beaten and cut open for the feast, the other

manages to run away, towards Robinson. He fetches his two guns and goes to

save "the creature's" life. He manages to shoot the two men pursuing the

prisoner. The prisoner then begins to bow to the narrator and rest his head

on his foot. He is amazed that his enemies are dead. Apparently he has

never seen a gun. Together they bury the bodies. Robinson gives the man

bread, raisins and water, who then falls asleep. He is a good-looking

youth, about twenty-six years old, but he does not speak English. Robinson

manages to tell the man that his name is Friday, and that he should call

the narrator Master. When they go out and reach the graves of the two men,

Friday makes signs that they should eat the bodies. Crusoe becomes very

angry and leads away the docile Friday. He still hungers for flesh, but the

narrator makes him understand that he will be killed if he eats other men.

Friday is dressed in his master's image. He becomes a most devoted

manservant. The relationship is very loving. Robinson seeks to make Friday

civilized with everything from eating habits to religious teachings. He

teaches him how to use guns and roast goats. Crusoe is having a wonderful

time.

A year goes by in this pleasant way. Friday learns broken English. He

manages to tell Robinson that they are near the Caribbean, and that they

would need a big boat to get back to his homeland. The narrator begins to

teach about the Christian God. Friday does not understand why the Devil

cannot be beaten if God is stronger. Robinson makes him understand that all

must be given the chance to repent and be pardoned. Explaining this makes

Crusoe even more full of faith because he clears up his own ideas. Friday

tells him that there are white men living peaceably on his native land.

When the weather is clear, Friday rejoices at seeing his homeland in the

distance. Robinson worries that he might return there and resume his old

habits. Thus he is jealous. But Friday assures him that he only wants to

return so that he can teach the others. He says that Crusoe would have to

come with him, though, or he would not be able to leave. He cannot even

bear for Crusoe to send him to the continent first--they have lived in

harmony for three years. Together they manage to build a big boat. Robinson

sets the adventure for the post-rain months of November and December.

Part 8 Summary:

Before Friday and Robinson can make their journey, three canoes arrive

on the island. Friday panics. Robinson provides him with some rum, and they

gather their weapons. Crusoe is not worried; they are "naked, unarmed

wretches" who are subservient to him. The savages have prisoners. As Friday

and Robinson approach, they are eating the flesh of one. A white-bearded

man of European descent is a prisoner. The narrator is horrified and

enraged, for he thought those men lived peaceably with Friday's people.

Against nineteen men Friday and Crusoe wage battle, Friday always copying

the moves of his master. In the chaos, the prisoners are freed. One of them

is a Spaniard. The narrator enlists his help in shooting his captors.

Together the three of them manage to kill most of the savages. The

remaining ones run to two of the canoes and hastily row away, never again

to return to the island. In the third canoe another man is founded, bound

and gagged. Friday is ecstatic--it is his father. The reunion is joyous,

and the narrator is very touched. They give the prisoners bread and water.

Friday and Robinson make them some beds. Crusoe is very happy that "his

island is now peopled," and he is "rich in its subjects." He considers

himself the rightful lord. Talking with the Spaniard, Robinson learns that

more of his men are living with the savages, but in peace. The narrator

would like to join these Europeans, but he fears being a prisoner in New

Spain and being sent to the Inquisition. The Spaniard assures him this

would not happen. He is so impressed with Robinson's island that he wants

to bring the rest of his men there to live. Everyone works to increase the

livestock and crops in preparation. Finally the Spaniard and Friday's

father are sent back in the canoe to gather the men.

As Friday and Robinson await their return, they spy another ship close

to shore. It appears to be an English boat. Some men row to the island.

Three of them are prisoners. The seamen are running about, trying to

explore this strange place. Robinson dearly wishes that the Spaniard and

Friday's father were here to help fight. While the seamen sleep, Crusoe and

Friday approach the prisoners, who see them as God-sent. They learn from

one that he is the captain of the ship, and his crew has mutinied. They

want to leave him with the first mate and a passenger to perish. Robinson

says he will try to save them on two conditions: that they pretend no

authority on the island, and that if the battle is won, that they take

Friday and himself to England passage-free. It is agreed. They are able to

surprise everyone on land, killing some and granting mercy to those who beg

for their lives. Crusoe tells the captain of his life on the island. The

captain is visibly moved. Next they want to recover the ship. On the water

they hear shots. With the aid of a binocular-type instrument, they see

another small boat of men approaching. The captain says only a few can be

trusted; the chief organizer of the mutiny is in the boat. Robinson

marshals his "troops," consisting of Friday and the prisoners. They wait to

start the battle.

Part 9 Summary:

The boat of men lands on shore. They examine the first, broken boat.

Shots go off to try and find the other crew members. Robinson and his army

wait for a while. Just as the men are going to leave, the narrator bids

Friday and the first mate to holler from an area of rising ground within

his sight. The men run back eagerly. Two stay in the boat. Crusoe and the

others surprise them and quickly get them to join their side. The other men

are looking for the calls. Friday and the mate lead them astray until dark.

They return to the boat and are stunned when they find the other two men

gone. In the midst of their surprise Robinson and the army attack. Two men

are killed outright. The captain tells the rest to surrender by order of

the governor, Crusoe. Arms are laid down and the men are rounded up as

prisoners and divided up. Some are taken to the goat pasture, some to the

cave, where the first prisoners lay. Except for the worst of the crew, they

all pledge their undying devotion to the captain. In the guise of the

governor's assistant, Crusoe tells them that if they mutiny or go back on

their word, they will be killed. The captain goes out with his men in a

boat and is able to reclaim his large ship. He kills the head of the

mutiny, and they hang his body from a tree on the island. The captain

immediately hands over the ship to Crusoe. Crusoe embraces the captain as

his deliverer. He dresses in new clothing from the ship and poses as the

Governor. He addresses the untrustworthy prisoners, and tells them they can

either stay on the island or return to England and be hanged. They choose

to stay on the isle. Robinson takes time to show them where all his

amenities are. He and Friday leave on the ship with the rest of their

little army.

Robinson arrives in England thirty-five years after he left it. He

finds the old Portuguese captain in Lisbon and is able to get in contact

with his old plantation partners. He finds he is very wealthy and

successful. He pays the Portuguese man and the widow who was his trustee

very well for all the kindness they have shown him. He sends his two

sisters in the English countryside some money. Crusoe thinks of going to

Brazil, but decides he could not bear the rule under the religion of

Catholicism. Thus he resolves to sell the plantation and settle in England.

To get to England from Portugal, Robinson decides not to sail but to go by

land. The journey is treacherous. They are almost attacked by wolves. The

guide becomes ill. At one point Friday must fight a bear. Happily enough,

they are successful and arrive unscathed in Dover. Robinson eventually

marries and has three children. When his wife dies, he takes a voyage with

his nephew to the East Indies. There he sees that his island is faring

well, the Spaniards having arrived at the behest of Friday's father and the

first Spaniard who landed on the isle. There are women and young children

as well as men. Crusoe looks in on the inhabitants of the island from time

to time. He is always on a voyage.

The Picture of Dorian Grey by O.Wilde

PREFACE

The artist creates beautiful things. Art aims to reveal art and

conceal the artist. The critic translates impressions from the art into

another medium. Criticism is a form of autobiography. People who look at

something beautiful and find an ugly meaning are "corrupt without being

charming." Cultivated people look at beautiful things and find beautiful

meanings. The elect are those who see only beauty in beautiful things.

Books can’t be moral or immoral; they are only well or badly written.

People of the nineteenth century who dislike realism are like Caliban

who is enraged at seeing his own face in the mirror. People of the

nineteenth century who dislike romanticism are like Caliban enraged at not

seeing himself in the mirror.

The subject matter of art is the moral life of people, but moral art

is art that is well formed. Artists don’t try to prove anything. Artists

don’t have ethical sympathies, which in an artist "is an unpardonable

mannerism of style." The subject matter of art can include things that are

morbid, because "the artist can express everything." The artist’s

instruments are thought and language.

Vice and virtue are the materials of art. In terms of form, music is

the epitome of all the arts. In terms of feeling, acting is the epitome of

the arts.

Art is both surface and symbol. People who try to go beneath the

surface and those who try to read the symbols "do so at their own peril."

Art imitates not life, but the spectator. When there is a diversity of

opinion about a work of art, the art is good. "When critics disagree the

artist is in accord with him[/her]self."

The value of art is not in its usefulness. Art is useless.

CHAPTER 1

In a richly decorated studio an artist, Basil Hallward talks with a

guest, Lord Henry Wotton about a new portrait he has standing out. Lord

Henry exclaims that it is the best of Hallward’s work and that he should

show it at Grosvenor. Hallward remarks that he doesn’t plan to show it at

all. Lord Henry can’t imagine why an artist wouldn’t want to show his work.

Hallward explains that he has put too much of himself in it to show it to

the public. Lord Henry can’t understand this since Hallward isn’t a

beautiful man while the subject of the portrait is extraordinarily

beautiful. As he is explaining himself, he mentions the subject’s name--

Dorian Gray. He regrets having slipped, saying that when he likes people,

he never tells their names because it feels to him as if he’s giving them

away to strangers.

Lord Henry compares this idea to his marriage, saying that "the one

charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary

for both parties." He adds that he and his wife never know where the other

is and that she’s always a better liar than he is, but that she just laughs

at him when he slips. Basil Hallward is impatient with Lord Henry for this

revelation, accusing Lord Henry of posing. He adds that Lord Henry never

says anything moral and never does anything immoral. Lord Henry tells him

that being natural is the worst of the poses.

Hallward returns to the idea of the portrait. He explains that "every

portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not the

sitter." The sitter only occasions the production of the art. The painter

is revealed, not the sitter. He won’t, therefore, show the secret of his

soul to the public.

He tells the story of how he met Dorian Gray. He went to a "crush" put

on by Lady Brandon. While he was walking around the room, he saw Dorian

Gray, "someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed

it to do so, it would absorb by whole nature, my whole soul, my very art

itself." He was afraid of such an influence, so he avoided meeting the man

he saw. He tried to leave and Lady Brandon caught him and took him around

the room introducing him to her guests. He had recently shown a piece that

created a sensation, so his cultural capital was quite high at the time.

After numerous introductions, he came upon Dorian Gray.

Lady Brandon says she didn’t know what Mr. Gray did, perhaps nothing,

perhaps he played the piano or the violin. The two men laughed at her and

became friends with each other at once.

He tells Lord Henry that soon he painted Dorian Gray’s portrait. Now,

Dorian Gray is all of Hallward’s art. He explains that in art, there are

two epochal events possible: one is the introduction of a new medium for

art, like the oil painting, the second is the appearance of a new

personality for art. Dorian Gray is the latter.

Even when he’s not painting Dorian Gray, he is influenced by him to

paint extraordinarily different creations. It is like a new school of art

emerging. Dorian Gray is his motive in art.

As he is explaining the art, he mentions that he has never told Dorian

Gray how important he is. He won’t show his Dorian Gray- inspired art

because he fears that the public would recognize his bared soul. Lord Henry

notes that bared souls are quite popular these days in fiction. Hallward

hates this trend, saying that the artist should create beautiful things,

and should put nothing of his own life into them. Dorian Gray is often

quite charming to Basil, but sometimes he seems to take delight in hurting

Basil. Basil feels at such moments that he has given his soul to someone

shallow and cruel enough to treat it as a flower to ornament his lapel.

Lord Henry predicts that Basil will tire of Dorian sooner than Dorian will

tire of him. Basil refuses to believe this. He says as long as he lives,

Dorian Gray will dominate his life.

Lord Henry suddenly remembers that he has heard Dorian Gray’s name.

His aunt, Lady Agatha, has mentioned him in relation to some philanthropic

work she does, saying he was going to help her in the East End. Suddenly,

Dorian Gray is announced. Basil Hallward asks his servant to have Mr. Gray

wait a moment. He tells Lord Henry not to exert any influence on Dorian

Gray because he depends completely on Dorian remaining uncorrupted. Lord

Henry scoffs at the idea as nonsense.

CHAPTER 2

When they walk from the studio into the house, they see Dorian Gray at

the piano. He tells Basil that he’s tired of sitting for his portrait. Then

he sees Lord Henry and is embarrassed. Basil tries to get Lord Henry to

leave, but Dorian asks him to stay and talk to him while he sits for the

portrait. He adds that Basil never talks or listens as he paints. Lord

Henry agrees to stay.

They discuss Dorian’s work in philanthropy. Lord Henry thinks he’s too

charming to do that kind of thing. Dorian wonders if Lord Henry will be a

bad influence on him as Basil thinks he will be.

Lord Henry thinks all influence is corrupting since the person

influenced no longer thinks with her or his own thoughts. He thinks the

"aim of life is self development." He doesn’t like philanthropy because it

makes people neglect themselves. They clothe poor people and let their own

souls starve. Only fear governs society, according to Lord Henry. Terror of

God is the secret of religion and terror of society is the basis of morals.

If people would live their lives fully, giving form to every feeling and

expression to every thought, the world would be enlivened by a fresh

impulse of joy. He urges Dorian not to run from his youthful fears.

Dorian becomes upset and asks him to stop talking so he can deal with

all that he has said. He stands still for ten minutes. He realizes he is

being influenced strongly. He suddenly understands things he has always

wondered about. Lord Henry watches him fascinated.

He remembers when he was sixteen he read a book and was immensely

influenced. He wonders if Dorian Gray is being influenced that way by his

random words. Hallward paints furiously. Dorian asks for a break. Basil

apologizes for making him stand so long. He is excited about the portrait

he’s painting, and praises Dorian for standing so perfectly still as to let

him get at the effect he had wanted. He says he hasn’t heard the

conversation, but he hopes Dorian won’t listen to anything Lord Henry tells

him.

Lord Henry and Dorian go out into the garden while Basil works on the

background of the portrait in the studio. Dorian buries his face in a

flower. Lord Henry tells him he is doing just as he should since the senses

are the only way to cure the soul. They begin to stroll and Dorian Gray

clearly looks upset. He’s afraid of Lord Henry’s influence. Lord Henry

urges him to come and sit in the shade to avoid getting a sunburn and

ruining his beauty. Dorian wonders why it’s important. Lord Henry tells him

it matters more than anything else since his youth is his greatest gift and

that it will leave him soon. As they sit down, he implores Dorian to enjoy

his youth while he can. He shouldn’t give his life to the "ignorant, the

common, and the vulgar." He thinks the age needs a new Hedonism (pursuit of

pleasure as the greatest goal in life). Dorian Gray could be its visible

symbol.

Dorian Gray listens intently. Suddenly, Basil comes out to get them.

He says he’s ready to resume the portrait. Inside, Lord Henry sits down and

watches Basil paint. After only a quarter of an hour, Basil says the

painting is complete. Lord Henry proclaims it his finest work and offers to

buy it. Basil says it’s Dorian’s painting.

When Dorian looks at it, he realizes he is beautiful as Lord Henry

has been telling him. He hadn’t taken it seriously before. Now he knows

what Lord Henry has meant by youth being so short-lived. He realizes the

painting will always be beautiful and he will not. He wishes it were

reversed. He accuses Basil of liking his art works better than his friends.

Basil is shocked at this change in Dorian. He tells him his friendship

means more to him than anything. Dorian is so upset that he says he’ll kill

himself the moment he realizes he’s growing old. Basil turns to Lord Henry

and says it’s his fault. Then he realizes he is arguing with his two best

friends and says he’ll destroy the painting to stop the argument. Dorian

pulls the knife away from him to stop him. He tells Basil he’s in love with

the portrait and thinks of it as part of himself.

The butler brings tea and the men sit down to drink it. Lord Henry

proposes they go to the theater that night. Basil refuses the invitation,

but Dorian agrees to go. When they get up to go, Basil asks Lord Henry to

remember what he asked him in the studio before they went in to see Dorian.

Lord Henry shrugs and says he doesn’t even trust himself, so Basil

shouldn’t try to trust him.

CHAPTER 3

It is 12:30 in the afternoon and Lord Henry Wotton is walking to his

uncle’s house. Lord Fermor had in his youth been secretary to his father,

an ambassador to Madrid. When his father didn’t get the ambassadorship of

Paris, he quit in a huff and Lord Fermor quit with him. From them on Lord

Fermor had spent his life devoted "to the serious study of the great

aristocratic art of doing absolutely nothing." He pays some attention to

the coal mines in the Midland counties, "excusing himself from the taint of

industry on the ground that the one advantage of having coal was that I

enabled a gentleman to afford the decency of burning wood on his own

hearth."

Lord Henry is visiting him to find out what he knows about Dorian

Gray’s parents. He doesn’t belong to the Bluebooks (the lists of English

nobles), but he is Kelso’s grandson and his mother was Lady Margaret

Devereux, an extraordinary beauty of her day. She married a penniless man

and upset everyone in the process. Her husband died soon afterwards, killed

in a duel set up by her father. She was pregnant. In childbirth, she died,

leaving Dorian to grow up with his ruthless grandfather.

Lord Henry leaves from his uncle’s and goes to his aunt’s house for

lunch. He becomes engrossed in his thoughts about Dorian Gray’s background.

He decides he will dominate Dorian just as Dorian dominates Basil Hallward.

When he gets to his aunt’s he is happy to see Dorian is at the table. He

begins to regale his aunt’s guests with his hedonistic philosophy of life.

He scorns the motives of philanthropy, which his aunt and most of her

guests espouse, and carries on about the joys of the pursuit of pleasure

for its own sake. He is pleased to see that Dorian is fascinated by his

speech. All of his aunt’s guests are, in fact, and he receives several

invitations.

When lunch is over, he says he will go to the park for a stroll.

Dorian asks to come along and begs him to keep talking. Lord Henry says he

is finished talking and now he just wants to be and enjoy. Dorian wants to

come anyway. Lord Henry reminds him he has an appointment with Basil

Hallward. Dorian doesn’t mind breaking it.

CHAPTER 4

One month later, Dorian Gray is waiting at Lord Henry’s for him to

come home. He is impatient since he’s been waiting for a while. Lord

Henry’s wife comes in and they chat for a while about music. She notices

that he parrots her husband’s views, as many people in her social circle

do. Lord Henry arrives and his wife leaves. After Henry advises him not to

marry, Dorian says he is too much in love to consider marriage. He is in

love with an actress. He thinks of her as a genius. Lord Henry explains

that women can’t be geniuses because they are made only for decoration. He

adds that there are only two kinds of women, the plain and the colored.

Plain women are useful for respectability and colored women are useful for

charming men. Dorian claims to be terrified by Lord Henry’s views. Lord

Henry pushes him to tell more about the actress.

Dorian says that for days after he met Lord Henry, he felt alive with

excitement and wanted to explore the world intensely. He walked the streets

staring into the faces of people to see into their lives. He decided one

night to go out and have an adventure. He was walking along the street and

was hailed to come into a second rate theater. Despite his repulsion for

the caller, he went in and bought a box seat. The play was Romeo and

Juliet. He hated all of it until Juliet came on stage and then he was

entranced. Since that night he has gone every night to the theater. He met

her on the third night and found her exquisitely innocent, knowing nothing

at all of life but art.

He wants Lord Henry and Basil Hallward to come to see her the next

evening. His plan is to pay her manager off and set her up in a good

theater. Lord Henry invites him to dinner that evening, but he refuses,

saying he has to see her perform Imogen. He leaves.

Lord Henry thinks about what he’s learned. He thinks of Dorian Gray as

a good study. He likes to study people like a scientist studies the results

of an experiment. He thinks of Dorian as being his own creation. He had

introduced his ideas to Dorian and made him a self-conscious man.

Literature often did that to people, but a strong personality like his

could do it as well. As he thinks over his thoughts, he’s interrupted by

his servant reminding him it’s time to dress for dinner. As he arrives home

that night, he finds a telegram on the hall table announcing that Dorian

Gray was to marry Sibyl Vane.

CHAPTER 5

Sibyl Vane is exclaiming to her mother about how much in love she is

with her Prince Charming, as she calls Dorian Gray, not knowing yet what

his name is. Her mother warns her that she must keep her focus on acting

since they owe Mr. Isaacs fifty pounds. Sibyl is impatient with her mother

and tries to get her mother to remember when she was young and in love with

Sibyl’s father. Her mother looks pained and Sibyl apologizes for bringing

up a painful subject.

Her brother Jim comes in. It’s his last night on shore. He is booked

as a sailor on a ship headed for Australia. When Sibyl leaves the room, he

asks his mother about the gentleman he has heard has been coming to the

theater to see Sibyl every night. His mother tells him the man is wealthy

and it might be a good thing for Sibyl. Jim is not convinced.

When Sibyl comes back, she and Jim go for a walk in the park together.

While there, Jim questions her about the man who has been calling on her.

She only says how much she is in love with the man and how she is sure he’s

trustworthy. Jim says that if he comes back and finds that the man has hurt

her, he’ll kill the man. They walk on and return home after a while.

Alone again with his mother, Jim asks her if she was married to his

father. She has been feeling like he has been on the verge of asking this

question for weeks. She is relieved to get it out in the open. She says she

was never married to the man. He was married, but loved her very much. He

would have provided for her and her family, but died. Jim tells her to keep

the gentleman away from Sibyl. She tells him that he need not worry because

Sibyl has a mother, but she herself didn’t. He is touched by her sincerity

and they embrace. Soon, though, he has to get ready to leave for his ship.

Mrs. Vane thinks about his threat to kill Sibyl’s Prince Charming, but

thinks nothing will ever come of it.

CHAPTER 6

Lord Henry greets Basil Hallward as he arrives at the Bristol for

dinner. He tells him the news about Dorian’s engagement to Sibyl Vane.

Basil is surprised and can’t believe it’s true. He can’t believe Dorian

would do something as foolish as to marry an actress in light of his

"birth, and position, and wealth." Lord Henry acts nonchalant about the

news and Basil is quite worried.

Finally Dorian arrives elated to tell the others of his news. Over

dinner he tells them that he proposed to Sibyl on the previous evening

after watching her as Rosalind. He kissed her and told her he loved her and

she told him she wasn’t good enough to be his wife. They are keeping their

engagement a secret from her mother.

Dorian tells Lord Henry that she will save him from Lord Henry’s

"wrong, fascinating, poisonous, delightful theories" about life, love, and

pleasure. Lord Henry says they aren’t his theories but Nature’s. Basil

Hallward begins to think the engagement will be a good thing for Dorian

after all.

As they leave, Lord Henry tells Hallward to take a separate conveyance

to the theater since his is large enough only for him and Dorian. As he

rides in the carriage behind Lord Henry’s, Basil Hallward feels a strong

sense of loss, as if Dorian Gray will never again be to him all that he had

been in the past. He realizes that life has come between them. He feels,

when he arrives at the theater, that he has grown years older.

CHAPTER 7

At the theater, Dorian is surprised to find it crowded with people. He

takes Lord Henry and Basil Hallward to his usual box and they discuss the

crowd below. He tells them that Sibyl’s art is so fine that she

spiritualizes the common people, transforming their ugliness into beauty.

Basil tells him he now agrees that the marriage will be a good thing for

him.

When Sibyl appears on the stage, both men are entranced by her beauty,

but when she starts to act, they are embarrassed for Dorian. Dorian doesn’t

speak, but he is horribly disappointed. Sibyl’s acting is horribly wooden.

The people below hiss and catcall to the stage making fun of her poor

acting. After the second act, Lord Henry and Basil Hallward leave. Dorian

tells them he will stay out the performance. He hides his face in anguish.

When the play is over, he goes to the green room to find Sibyl. She’s

waiting for him. She looks radiantly happy. She tells him she acted so

badly because she loves him. She says that before she loved him, the stage

was real and alive for her. she never noticed the tawdriness of the stage

set or the ugliness of her fellow actors. She had put everything into it

because it was all of her life. When she realized tonight that she was

acting horribly, she was struck by the realization that it was because she

had found a new reality.

When she finishes, Dorian tells her she disappointed him and

embarrassed him horribly. He says she killed his love. Sibyl is shocked and

horrified by his words. She begs him to take them back, but he goes on. he

tells her he loved her for her art and now she has nothing of her art and

so he doesn’t love her any more. Now she is nothing but "a third-rate

actress with a pretty face." Sibyl throws herself at his feet begging him

to be kind to her, but he walks away scornfully, thinking how ridiculous

she looks.

He walks through the poverty-stricken streets of London for a long

time. Then he gets back to his room, recently redecorated since he learned

to appreciate luxury from Lord Henry. He is undressing when he happens to

glance at the portrait. He is taken aback to notice a change in it. Lines

around the mouth have appeared. The face has a cruel expression. He turns

on the lights and looks at it more carefully, but nothing changes the look

of cruelty on the 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.

CHAPTER 8

Dorian doesn’t wake up the next day until well past noon. He gets up

and looks through his mail, finding and laying aside a piece of mail hand

delivered from Lord Henry that morning. He gets up and eats a light

breakfast all the while feeling as if he has been part of some kind of

tragedy recently. As he sits at breakfast, he sees the screen that he

hurriedly put in front of his portrait the night before and realizes it was

not a dream but is true. He tells his servant that he is not accepting

callers and he goes to the portrait and removes the screen. He hesitates to

do so, but decides he must. When he looks at the portrait he sees that it

was not an illusion. The change remains. He looks at it with horror.

He realizes how unjust and cruel he had been to Sibyl the night

before. He thinks the portrait will serve him as a conscience throughout

life. He remains looking at the portrait for hours more. Finally, he gets

paper and begins to write a passionate letter to Sibyl apologizing for what

he had said to her and vowing eternal love. He reproaches himself in the

letter so voluptuously that he feels absolved, like a person who has been

to confession. He lays the letter to the side and then he hears Lord Henry

calling to him through the door.

Lord Henry begs to be let in and Dorian decides he will let him. Lord

Henry apologizes for all that has happened. Dorian tells him he was brutal

with Sibyl the night before after the performance, but now he feels good

and is not even sorry that it happened. Lord Henry says he had worried that

Dorian would be tearing his hair in remorse. Dorian says he is quite happy

now that he knows what conscience is. He asks Henry not to sneer at it, and

says that he wants to be good. He adds that he can’t stand the idea "of

[his] soul being hideous." Lord Henry exclaims about this "charming

artistic basis for ethics." Dorian says he will marry Sibyl. It is then

when Lord Henry realizes Dorian didn’t read his letter. In it, he had told

Dorian that Sibyl committed suicide the night before by swallowing some

kind of poison.

Lord Henry begins advising Dorian about how to avoid the scandal that

such a story would attach to his name. He asks if anyone but Sibyl knew his

name and if anyone saw him go behind stage to speak to her after her

performance. Lord Henry urges Dorian not to let the episode get on his

nerves. He invites him out to dinner and to the opera with his sister and

some smart women. Dorian exclaims that he has murdered Sibyl Vane. He

marvels that life is still as beautiful with birds singing and roses

blooming. He adds that if he had read it in a book, he would have thought

it movingly tragic. He recounts the exchange between he and Sibyl the night

before, telling Henry of how cruel he was in casting her aside. He ends by

condemning her as selfish for killing herself.

Lord Henry tells him that a woman can only reform a man by boring him

so completely that he loses all interest in life. He adds that if Dorian

would have married Sibyl, he would have been miserable because he wouldn’t

have loved her. Dorian concedes that it probably would have been. He is

amazed that he doesn’t feel the tragedy more than he does. He wonders if

he’s heartless. He thinks of it as a wonderful ending to a wonderful play,

a "tragedy in which [he] took a great part, but by which [he] has not been

wounded." Lord Henry likes to play on Dorian’s unconscious egotism, so he

exclaims over the interest of Dorian’s sense of it.

Dorian thinks he will now have to go into mourning, but Lord Henry

tells him it is unnecessary since there is already enough mourning in life.

He adds that Sibyl must have been different from all other women who are so

trivial and predictable. When Dorian expresses remorse at having been cruel

to her, Lord Henry assures him that women appreciate cruelty more than

anything else. They are primitive. Men have emancipated them, but they have

remained slaves and they love being dominated. He reminds Dorian that Sibyl

was a great actress and that he can think of her suicide as an ending to a

Jacobean tragedy.

Dorian finally thanks Lord Henry for explaining himself to him. He

revels in what a marvelous experience it has all been for him. He wonders

if life will give him anything more marvelous and Henry assures him that it

will. He wonders what will happen when he gets old and ugly. Henry tells

him that then he will have to fight for his victories. Dorian decides he

will join Lord Henry at the opera after all. Lord Henry departs.

When he is alone, Dorian looks again at the portrait. He sees that it

hasn’t changed since he last saw it. He thinks of poor Sibyl and revels in

the romance of it all. He decides that he will embrace life and the

portrait will bear the burden of his shame. He is sad to think of how the

beautiful portrait will be marred. He thinks for a minute about praying

that the strange sympathy that exists between him and the picture would

disappear, but he realizes that no one would give up the chance at being

forever young. Then he decides that he will get pleasure out of watching

the changes. The portrait would be a magic mirror for him, revealing his

soul to him. He pushes the screen back in front of it and dresses for the

opera.

CHAPTER 9

The next morning after the opera, Dorian is visited by Basil Hallward.

Basil assumes that he really didn’t go to the opera the night before and is

shocked to find out that he did so after all. He can’t believe that Dorian

is so unfeeling when Sibyl isn’t even buried yet. Dorian tells him he

doesn’t want to hear about it because it’s in the past. He thinks if he is

a strong man, he should be able to dominate his feelings and end them when

he wants to end them. Basil blames Dorian’s lack of feeling on Lord Henry.

Dorian tells Basil that it was he who taught him to be vain. Basil is

shocked to find out that Sibyl killed herself. Dorian tells him it is

fitting that she did, more artistic. "Her death has all the pathetic

uselessness of martyrdom, all its wasted beauty." He tells Basil that he

has suffered, that he was suffering terribly yesterday around five or six

o’clock. He says he no longer has these emotions and it would be nothing

but empty sentimentality to try to repeat the feelings that have passed. He

asks Basil to help him see the art in it rather than to try to make him

feel guilt over it. He begs Basil not to leave him but to stop quarreling

with him.

Basil is moved by Dorian’s speech and decides Dorian might be passing

through a momentary lapse of feeling and should be berated for it. He

agrees not to speak to Dorian again of Sibyl. Dorian asks him, however, to

draw him a picture of Sibyl. Basil agrees to do so and urges Dorian to come

sit for him again, saying he can’t get on with his painting without Dorian.

Dorian starts and says he will never be able to sit for Basil again. Basil

is shocked and then looks around to see if he can see the portrait he gave

Dorian. He is annoyed to find that it is hidden behind a screen and goes

toward it. Dorian jumps up and stands between him and the screen keeping

him away from it. He makes Basil promise never to look at it again and not

to ever ask why. Basil is surprised but agrees to do so, saying that

Dorian’s friendship is more important to him than anything. He tells Dorian

he plans to show the portrait in an exhibit. Dorian remembers the afternoon

in Basil’s studio when Basil said he would never show it. He remembers Lord

Henry telling him to ask Basil one day about why. He does so now.

Basil explains to him reluctantly that he was fascinated with him and

dominated by his personality from the first moment he saw him. He painted

every kind of portrait of him, putting him in ancient Greek garb and in

Renaissance garb. One day he decided to paint Dorian as he was, and as he

painted each stroke, he became fascinated with the idea that the portrait

was revealing his idolatry of Dorian. He swore then hat he would never

exhibit it. However, after he gave the portrait to Dorian, the feeling

passed away from him. He realized that "art conceals the artist far more

completely than if ever reveals him." That was when he decided to exhibit

the portrait as a centerpiece.

Dorian takes a breath. He realizes he is safe for the present since

Basil clearly doesn’t know the truth about the painting. Basil thinks

Dorian sees what he saw in the portrait, his idolatry of Dorian. He tries

to get Dorian to let him see the portrait, but Dorian still refuses. Basil

leaves and Dorian thinks over what he had said to him. He calls his

servant, realizing that the portrait has to be put away where he won’t run

the risk of guests trying to see it.

CHAPTER 10

Dorian is in his drawing room when his manservant Victor enters. She

scrutinizes Victor to see if Victor has looked behind the curtain at the

portrait. He watches Victor in the mirror to see if he can see anything but

can see nothing but "a placid mask of servility." He sends for the

housekeeper. When she arrives, he asks her to give him the key to the old

schoolroom. She wants to clean it up before he goes up to it, but he

insists he doesn’t need it cleaned. She mentions that it hasn’t bee used

for five years, since his grandfather died. Dorian winces at the mention of

his grandfather, who was always mean to him.

When she leaves, he takes the cover off the couch and throws it over

the portrait. he thinks of Basil and wonders if he shouldn’t have appealed

to Basil to help him resist Lord Henry’s influence. He knows Basil loves

him with more than just a physical love. However, he gives up on the

thought of asking Basil for help, deciding that the future is inevitable

and the past can always be annihilated.

He receives the men from the framemaker’s shop. The framemaker

himself, Mr. Hubbard, has come. He asks the two men to help him carry the

portrait upstairs. He sends Victor away to Lord Henry’s so as to get him

out of the way in order to hide the operation from him. They get the

portrait upstairs with some trouble and he has them lean it against the

wall and leave it. He hates the idea of leaving it in the dreaded room

where he was always sent to be away from his grandfather who didn’t like to

see him, but it’s the only room not in use in the house. He wonders what

the picture will look like over time. He thinks with repulsion of how its

image will show the signs of old age.

When he gets back downstairs to the library, Victor has returned from

Lord Henry’s. Lord Henry had sent him a book and the paper. The paper is

marked with a red pen on a passage about the inquest into Sibyl Vane’s

death. He throws it away annoyed at Lord Henry for sending it and fearing

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