The Picture of Dorian Gray #4

Dorian proves yet again to be unable to resist the influence of Lord Henry.  When he comes to call on Dorian in Chapter VIII, he informs Dorian of Sibyl Vane’s death.  At first, Dorian sees tragedy in his ex-fiancé’s death, “stammer[ing] in a stifled voice” several short and unfinished sentences and questions, indicating that he is emotionally overwhelmed (72).  Lord Henry, however, sees the situation differently.  He sees remarkable beauty in Sibyl’s death, and adds that humans are angered not by the tragedy of death but by the crudeness of it.  That way, he claims, “a tragedy that possesses artistic elements of beauty […] simply appeals to our sense of dramatic effect” (74).  Dorian, just as in the garden, takes Lord Henry’s words to heart.  He thanks Lord Henry profusely, saying, “You have explained me to myself” (76).  He even concludes that his love affair with Sibyl “has been a marvelous experience” (76).  Dorian’s tone has changed drastically over the course of Henry’s visit, from frantic and overwhelmed to calm and satisfied.  Even though Dorian promises himself that he “would not, at any rate, listen to those subtle poisonous theories that had in Basil Hallward’s garden had first stirred within him the passion for impossible things”, once again, he falls prey to Henry’s aggressive aesthetic epigrams (67).