Dorian Grey Chapters 12 and 13

1) “One has a right to judge a man by the effect he has over his friends. Yours seem to lose all sense of honour, of goodness, of purity. You have filled them with a madness for pleasure. They have gone down into the depths. You led them there” (155).

            After hearing terrible things about Dorian, Basil feels that he must find out what is going on. Basil judges Dorian based upon what has become of Dorian’s friends, who had awful things happen to them. Basil blames Dorian’s changed behavior as the reason for the decent of his friends into suffering. Basil is utterly concerned for Dorian, and he knows that Dorian’s downfall is partially his own fault for letting Lord Henry influence Dorian. Dorian is now dangerous to everyone around him in the same way that Lord Henry was dangerous to Dorian. He can now influence people with corrupt ideas that he has learned from the book and from Lord Henry. Basil unsuccessfully tries to intervene with Dorian’s new life.

2) “Dorian Grey glanced at the picture, and suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for Basil Hallward came over him, as though it had been suggested to him by the image on the canvas, whispered into his ear by those grinning lips. The mad passions of a hunted animal stirred within him, and he loathed the man who was seated at the table, more than in his whole life he had ever loathed anything” (162).

            After Basil begs for Dorian to repent for his sins, and calls the portrait accursed, feelings of uncontrollable hate consume Dorian, and he murders Basil. Dorian said earlier that he thinks it is foolish to be a part of any religion. When Basil asks him to pray, it angers him because he does not believe in religion. Basil also calls the portrait accursed and hideous, and this means that he is calling Dorian’s soul accursed and hideous because the portrait is Dorian’s soul. After hearing Basil insult his soul, Dorian is overwhelmed with rage and must act. He kills Basil, and does not seem to feel much remorse for it. This is because the portrait will bear his guilt for him. He able to look at the murder as if it were nothing

Definitions:

1) “Did I teach the one his vice and the other his debauchery” (155).

            debauchery: noun- excessive indulgence in sensual pleasure

2) “You should not have made his sister's name a byword” (155).

            byword: noun- a person or thing cited as a notorious and outstanding example