Dorian Gray Chapter 14

1) “A faint smile passed across his lips, as though he had been lost in some delightful dream. Yet he had not dreamed at all. His night had been untroubled by any images of pleasure or of pain. But youth smiles without any reason. It is one of its chiefest charms” (166).

 

            Even after murdering Basil, Dorian is able to sleep peacefully through the night and awake with a smile upon his face. This is very hard to relate to because almost always after a man takes the life of another person, he feels regret. An average man would not be able to sleep through the night because remorse would overwhelm him. But Dorian is no average man. The portrait will once again take the fall for Dorian. This is in complete contrast to other character we have seen. Hester was forced to bear her sin on her chest and through Pearl. The pain she felt from this helped her to be redeemed. Dimmesdale was not able to show his sin, and it tortured his soul. But Dorian does not have to bear his sins whatsoever. The painting will show Dorian’s conscience but he always has the choice to not look at it, unlike Hester or Dimmesdale.

 

2) “Your life? Good heavens! what a life that is! You have gone from corruption to corruption, and now you have culminated in crime. In doing what I am going to do, what you force me to do, it is not of your life that I am thinking” (176).

 

            This is Alan’s response to when Dorian says Alan is saving his life. Alan and Dorian were once good friends. Alan says that Dorian has become corrupt, and this is probably why he stopped speaking to Dorian. Since Alan now hates Dorian fro who he is, Dorian is forced into blackmailing him. Since Dorian is so corrupted he has no problem blackmailing an old friend. Alan says that he will do what is asked of him not because he is doing it for Dorian’s sake, but rather that he is a victim of Dorian’s blackmail. This shows how evil Dorian is because after committing the sinister act of murder, he tries to get Alan to help him. Alan, knowing the evil in Dorian, refuses, so Dorian commits another sin by blackmailing his friend. He has no morality left whatsoever. He has been completely twisted into a beast who others cannot relate to.

Definitions:

1) “As he did so he saw the face of his portrait leering in the sunlight” (177).

            leer: verb- to look with a sideways or oblique glance

2) “In a few moments, Alan Campbell walked in, looking very stern and rather pale, his pallor being intensified by his coal-black hair and dark eyebrows” (171).

            pallor: noun- unusual or extreme paleness, as from fear, ill health, or death