Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Individual
Group Discount
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews October 9, 2023 October 2, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan - Group Discount
Qty: 00
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
Sibyl Vane, Dorian’s first love, is a young, beautiful actress performing at a cheap theater in London’s East End. She exudes an almost child-like naïveté and wonder about the world, somehow untouched by practical concerns despite her poverty. For example, while her mother is very aware that their family is in debt and therefore holds high hopes of Dorian being rich, Sibyl finds such speculations distasteful. She begs her mother to “let [her] be happy,” emphasizing that anything worldly or practical is enough to break the spell of her fantasy. In this light, calling Dorian Gray “prince charming” does not have class-based connotations in her mind at all and truly is about “prince charming” as a theatrical archetype. Dorian’s love is the first time she truly understands the artifice of theater. Whereas Juliet and Desdemona seem like real representations of romance before she falls in love, Shakespeare’s words pale at the real, turbulent emotions Dorian awakens in her to the extent that she calls acting a “profanation” of love. Just as she once found all mention of the real world distasteful, now that her reality seems so beautiful, she can no longer abide the theater.
It’s possible to read Sibyl as a flat character, the very object d’art that Lord Henry and Dorian see her as. In this reading, Sibyl contributes to the novel’s dialogue around art. Her loss of talent after falling in love evokes Lord Henry’s comment that great artists are boring people because they put their souls into art instead of life. Before love changes Sibyl, Dorian observes she’s always the roles she portrays and never herself, embodying her art as if she herself were art with beauty as its only aim. Reality takes away Sibyl’s artfulness, just as the preface suggests of art. However, it’s possible to read Sibyl as having more subjectivity. Sibyl doesn’t escape into her art because her life is boring, as Lord Henry suggests of great artists, but because her life is bleak. Acting and imagination are her escape. For example, she copes with James leaving by imagining him striking gold in Australia. Dorian’s flirtation allows her to think her reality could become beautiful. According to this reading, she commits suicide because she has lost the love that makes life bearable and can no longer find solace in art. Without love or art, her life becomes empty.
Please wait while we process your payment