'The Picture of Dorian Gray' Quotes

Oscar Wilde's Epigrams

Lord Henry, Chapter 1 (1)

'There is only one thing in the world worse..’

'There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.'

• epigram: emphasizing superficiality and the importance of appearance over substance

• antithesis: to emphasize the speaker’s provocative reversal of values

Oscar Wilde's Epigrams

Lord Henry, Chapter 1 (2)

'I choose my friends for their good looks…’

'I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.'

Oscar Wilde's Epigrams

Lord Henry, Chapter 4

'Nowadays people know the price of…’

'Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.'

Hedonism

Lord Henry, Chapter 2 (1)

'The only way to get rid of temptation…’

'Nothing can cure the soul but the..’

'The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.'

• irony: sounds liberating but yielding to temptation leads to his destruction

'Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.'

• chiasmus: mirror-like structure emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between the spiritual and the physical, can’t separate the two

Hedonism

Lord Henry, Chapter 2 (2)

'Be always searching for new sensations…’

'Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing. . . . A new Hedonism - that is what our century wants.'

• imperative: the negative influence of LH

Art

Oscar Wilde, Preface

'All art is quite useless.'

Art (/Women)

Dorian Gray, Chapter 7

‘Without your art, you are…’

‘Without your art, you are nothing.[…] What are you now? A third-rate actress with a pretty face.' (to Sibyl Vane)

• irony: Sibyl’s acting was previously what masked her inner feelings. When she abandons performance to live authentically and express love, Dorian condemns her. This irony underscores Wilde’s critique of aestheticism taken to an inhuman extreme — where art is valued more than life or feeling.

• objectification

Art/ Morality

Lord Henry, Chapter 19

'Art has no influence upon…’

'Art has no influence upon action. […]The books that the world call immoral are books that show the world its own shame.'

Influence, Morality

Lord Henry, Chapter 2

‘'There is no such thing as good…’

'There is no such thing as good influence Mr Gray. All influence is immoral - immoral from the scientific point of view... to influence a person is to give him one's own soul.'

• dramatic irony: LH influences dorian, the audience sees that Lord Henry is either blind to his own actions or deliberately deflecting responsibility. Either way, it paints him as a morally evasive figure, corrupting under the guise of intellectualism.

Influence, Morality

Chapter 7

'The picture, changed or…’

'The picture, changed or unchanged, would be to him the visible emblem of conscience. He would resist temptation.'

• symbolism: Wilde literalizes the abstract — making Dorian’s guilt and decay physically observable. The symbol shows how aesthetic beauty conceals inner corruption.

• foreshadowing: unconvincing, exposes the illusion of control and how Dorian underestimates the power of habit and corruption.

Morality

Dorian Gray, Chapter 8

'It has all the terrible beauty of a…’

'It has all the terrible beauty of a Greek tragedy, a tragedy in which I took a great part, but by which I have not been wounded.' (about Sibyl's death)

• oxymoron: Suggests a morally compromised aestheticism — that suffering and tragedy are valuable only when viewed artistically, not ethically.

Morality

Chapter 10

'No one could see it. He himself…’

'No one could see it. He himself would not see it. Why should he watch the hideous corruption of his soul? He kept his youth - that was enough.'

• juxtaposition: reflets his internal conflict, self denial and willing blindness

Morality

Chapter 13

'Each of us has heaven and…’

'Each of us has heaven and hell in him, Basil.'

• metaphor captures the complexity and duality of human nature, highlighting that people embody contradictory impulses simultaneously.

Morality

Chapter 16 (2)

'He was prisoned in thought…’

'He was prisoned in thought. Memory, like a horrible malady, was eating his soul away.'

• simile: Highlights the destructive power of Dorian’s memories and guilt, emphasizing how they physically and mentally consume him.

• metaphor: suggests his entrapment by his memory, Gives memory an active, aggressive role, intensifying the feeling of ongoing internal decay and anguish

Influence

Basil Hallward, Chapter 1

'Don't spoil him. Don't try to…’

'Don't spoil him. Don't try to influence him. Your influence would be bad.'

• imperative: urgent and forceful

Influence

Basil Hallward, Chapter 9

'You talk as if you had no heart…’

'You talk as if you had no heart, no pity in you. It is all Harry's influence. I see that.'

• emotive language: Reinforces the emotional and ethical decay of Dorian’s character and the importance of compassion as a humanizing force.

Influence

Dorian Gray, Chapter 9

'I was a schoolboy when you knew me….’

'I was a schoolboy when you knew me. I am a man now.'

• ironic: implying maturity and self-control, but readers know his “manhood” is tied to hedonism, cruelty, and moral decay.

Influence

Chapter 10 (1)

'Basil would have helped him to…’

'Basil would have helped him to resist Lord Henry's influence, and the still more poisonous influences that came from his own temperament.

• juxtaposition: Emphasizes that Dorian’s corruption is a result of both environmental pressure and innate disposition, complicating the idea of personal responsibility.

Influence

Chapter 10 (2)

'It was a poisonous book. The heavy odour of incense seemed to cling…’

'It was a poisonous book. The heavy odour of incense seemed to cling about its pages and to trouble the brain.'

• metaphor:

• sensory imagery: Creates a suffocating, almost narcotic atmosphere, making the book feel seductive yet oppressive—akin to religious ritual or spiritual manipulation.

Influence (/Appearances)

Chapter 13

'The horror, whatever it was,

'The horror, whatever it was, had not yet entirely spoiled that marvellous beauty.'

• juxtaposition: tension highlights the gap between moral corruption and physical appearance, reinforcing the novel’s critique of superficial values.

Youth and Immortality, Influence

Chapter 20

'Youth had…’

'Youth had spoiled him.'

• blunt syntax

• personification

• irony

Youth and Immortality

Chapter 2

'There had been things in his boyhood that he had not understood. He understood them now. Life suddenly became fiery-coloured to him.'

• metaphor/ colour imagery: Symbolizes Dorian’s emotional and sensory awakening—his life is no longer neutral or grey, but vivid and volatile. Ties into the novel’s aestheticism—life is now artistic, charged with beauty, pleasure, and danger.

Youth and Immortality

Lord Henry, Chapter 2 (2)

'Youth is the only thing worth having.'

Youth and Immortality

Chapter 16

'Had all the bloom of boyhood, all the unstained purity of youth.'

Appearances

Lord Henry, Chapter 1 (1)

'He is a

'He is a Narcissus.'

• allusion and foreshadowing: Like Narcissus, Dorian is enchanted by his own beauty, which ultimately isolates and ruins him.

‘could not believe anything…’

Appearances

Chapter 11 (1)

could not believe anything to his dishonour when they saw him.'

• modal verb: suggests the powerful influence of beauty and appearance

Appearances

Chapter 11 (2)

'There was something in…’

'There was something in the purity of his face that rebuked them.'

• personification: This suggests the power of beauty itself as a force that influences and manipulates, independent of truth

Appearances

Basil Hallward, Chapter 12

'Sin is a thing that writes itself across…’

'Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face. It cannot be concealed.'

Appearances

Chapter 20

'He was withered, wrinkled, and…’

'He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognised who it was.'

• symbolism: rings = wealth and status, Highlights the emptiness of social status compared to true identity or moral state.

• decaying, grotesque imagery: typical of Gothic literature. adjectives evoke revulsion and horror, vividly portraying the physical manifestation of Dorian's corrupted soul.

Women and Marriage

Lord Henry, Chapter 4 (2)

'My dear boy, no woman is a genius…’

'My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex.'

• adjective: suggests objectification

Women and Marriage

Lord Henry, Chapter 4 (3)

'Men marry because they are…’

'Men marry because they are tired, women marry because they are curious: both are disappointed.'

• aphorism/ parallelism: the theme of disillusionment with conventional morality and social conventions.

Women and Marriage

Dorian Gray, Chapter 6

'I want to place her on a pedestal of…’

'I want to place her on a pedestal of gold and to see see the world worship the woman who is mine.

• possessive pronoun: suggests his entitlement and ownership of women as property

Women and Marriage

Lord Henry, Chapter 8 (2)

'She was less real than they are.'

• deattached and objective tone

Sexuality

Basil Hallward, Chapter 9

'From the moment I met you, you…’

'From the moment I met you, your personality had the most extraordinary influence over me. I was dominated, soul, brain, and power, by you.'

• verb: suggests powerlessness, confessional and intimate tone

names for sybil

‘Juliet’ ‘Rosalind’ ‘Imogen’ ‘Ophelia’

• shows her objectification

‘They wondered how one so…’

‘They wondered how one so charming and graceful as he was could have escaped the stain of an age that was at once sordid and sensual.’

• sibilance: reflects the seductive

‘Dorian Gray the true realization…’

‘Dorian Gray the true realization of a type of which they had often dreamt of in Eton or Oxford days’

• irony: Dorian may embody the fantasy, but readers know that this ideal is hollow and corrupted beneath the surface.

• elevated diction: almost philosophical

‘the terrible portrait whose…’

‘the terrible portrait whose changing features showed him the real degradation of his life’

• personification: The portrait is given a kind of life or agency — it “shows” Dorian the truth. This gives it an almost sentient quality, like a mirror with judgmental power.

list of victims

p144

‘the man who had painted…’

‘the man who had painted the portrait was the origin of all his shame’ p146

• irony: psychological displacement — he redirects his guilt and shame onto the person who merely captured his image.

‘the mad passions of a..’

‘the mad passions of a hunted animal stirred within him’ p151

• animal imagery/ metaphor: suggests he has lost his civilized, composed exterior and has regressed to a feral, survivalist state.

• It reflects his internal chaos and emotional unraveling.

basil’s death

‘stifled groan’ ‘choking with blood’

• violent verbs: reflects how the upper class silences the lower class

‘He looked like a boy..’

‘He looked like a boy who had been tired out with play, or study.’ p155

• simile: ironic given the terrible crime he has commited

‘The dead linger sometimes…’

‘The dead linger sometimes. The man upstairs will not go away.’ p.162

• reflects Dorian’s inability to escape the weight of his sin.

‘The hand upon him weighed…’

campbell

‘The hand upon him weighed like a hand of lead.’ p.163

• simile: suggests the control Dorian has over Campbell

‘Campbell felt…’

‘Campbell felt dominated by him.’

• The verb “dominated” indicates that Dorian exerts psychological power over Alan Campbell.

• It suggests coercion, manipulation, and emotional control, all of which Dorian uses to bend others to his will.

‘taking up the gold-and-purple…’

‘taking up the gold-and-purple hanging, he flung it right over the picture.’

• colour imagery: suggests regality, shows how wealth can hide crimes

‘I wish it were…’

‘I wish it were fin du globe’ p171

• nihilistic declarative

‘they moved like monstrous…’

‘they moved like monstrous marionettes, and made gestures like live things’ p.177

• simile: suggests the rich view the poor as toys to play with

‘Why man its nigh on 18 …’

‘Why man its nigh on 18 years since Prince Charming made me what I am’ p183

• sarcastic tone: reflects the power of charm and beauty in the novel’s social and moral dynamics.

• colloquial tone: suggests honesty

‘The consciousness of being…’

‘The consciousness of being hunted, snared, tracked down, had begun to dominate him.’

• imagery: predator/prey dynamic, ironic, suggests dorian’s paranoia

• foreshadowing

‘He had spared one..’

‘He had spared one innocent thing.’ p211

• verb: suggests he is playing god

• noun thing shows he doesn’t see the working class as real people

‘In the common world of..’

‘In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished nor the good rewarded.’ p191

• ironic and foreshadowing

‘He recalled the stainless purity of his boyish life, and it seemed…’

‘He recalled the stainless purity of his boyish life, and it seemed horrible to him that it was here the fatal portrait was to be hidden away.’

‘the old school room’

• juxtaposition: highlights the dramatic fall from innocence to moral decay,

• setting reflects decay: teaching, innocence youth→ repository for repressed sins

“he had been an evil influence…’

“he had been an evil influence to others, and had experienced a terrible joy in doing so”

P209

• antithesis suggests his perverse, sadistic pleasure of others’ pain

‘the sense of his own beauty…’

‘the sense of his own beauty came on his like a revelation’

p27

• simile: Comparing the realization of his beauty to a religious or spiritual revelation elevates it to something profound, even sacred.

  → This shows how beauty, for Dorian, becomes a kind of religion or moral compass replacement, setting the stage for his obsession with youth and appearance.