The Picture of Dorian Gray 5

Passage: (In response to Dorian's response when it was not Lord Henry, but his wife coming into the library.)

"'You thought it was my husband. It is only his wife. You must let me introduce myself. I know you quite well by your photographs. I think my husband has got seventeen of them.'

'Not seventeen, Lady Henry?'

'Well, eighteen, then. And I saw you with him the other night at the Opera.'"


The conversation between Lady Henry and Dorian embodies many of the ongoing motifs in the novel. When Lady Henry says "It is only his wife" it is said in a casual tone that portrays marriage as nothing serious or significant (using the word "only"). Then Lady Henry goes on to say "I know you quite well by your photographs". It is ironic because one cannot know someone "well" just based off looks (relevant to the beauty motif). She, syntactically, starts the sentence saying "I know you well", which sets the conversation toward a more personal level, however, Lady Henry then balks the personal relationship by saying she knows him through photographs. It is odd that Lady Henry brings up a specific amount of photographs that Lord Henry has of Dorian Gray, and even more odd when Dorian challenges her estimate. She then slows down the specificity of the photographs, with a flippant tone, "well, eighteen, then", when she says "then", the tone of the conversation comes off as lacking interest, and almost agitated. By going one number up from seventeen, it shows that Lady Henry is not really concerned with the specific number, which is ironic that she brought "seventeen" up at all, which emphasizes why the statement is so odd. Lady Henry then mentions that she saw Dorian "with him the other night at the Opera". The statement raises the question: why was she not at the Opera with her husband, and also, why wouldn't she say hello to her husband if she saw him? The statement echoes one made by Lady Henry later in the chapter when she says "I like Wagner's music better than anybody's. it is so loud that one can talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says." Both statements embody the hedonistic way of life; a husband and wife aren't at an Opera together (casual relationships (The Wasteland)), and when attending a classy Opera, they wish the music to be tuned so that "one can talk the whole time".


This passage, syntactically, is placed at the start of Dorian's development as a hedonist, or rather, exhibiting the influences Lord Henry has had on him (echoed later by Lady Henry, saying "Ah! that is one of Harry's views, isn't it, Mr. Gray?"). When he meets Lady Henry, she is similar, if not practically the same character as Lord Henry, which is to show that beauty leaves a person vacuous, rather than intelligence, which makes a person have personality (for example, Basil, a painter, and Lord Fermor, a well educated politician, who are all foils of Lord Henry in that they have a multitude of personality) (beauty vs. intelligence motif). When Lady Henry says "you thought it was my husband" it shows she was aware Dorian's expectations to see Lord Henry, and she took it upon herself to see Dorian (she didn't happen to stumble into Dorian). The conversation transitions into Lady Henry's invitation for Dorian to attend a party of hers. The abruptness of the introduction, and the expedience leading to an invitation exhibits the hedonistic, casual actions and views of Lady and Lord Henry.


*** Although the writing styles of Wilde differ greatly from Shelley, there are a lot of qualities in common between the two, since they are both during the Romance era. Throughout the Romance era, especially in England there was a desire to reinvent Greek values. In Frankenstein, other than the homoeroticism, the beauty of characters, the relationships, and how nature is portrayed are similar in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Lord Henry says, in Chapter 2, "return to the Hellenic ideal- to something finer, richer, than the Hellenic ideal." Lord Henry, the emblem of the hedonistic motif, is voicing, and contributing to the theme and Greek motif. The rampant flower references, are similar to the nature references made in Frankenstein. Also, like a flower (nature), beauty is "destined to fade" (as Lord Henry says), so as the plot progresses, Dorian will attempt to defy nature and keep his beauty forever, similar to Victor's defiance of nature- creating the creature.