Summary: Chapter Three
Shortly after his first meeting with Dorian
Gray, Lord Henry visits his uncle, Lord Fermor, a “genial if somewhat
rough-mannered” old nobleman. When Lord Henry asks his uncle about Dorian
Gray’s past, the old man tells him that Dorian comes from an unhappy
family with a dark, tangled history. He relates that Dorian’s mother,
a noblewoman, eloped with a poor soldier; the woman’s father, a
villainous old lord, arranged to have his daughter’s husband killed
just before Dorian was born. The grieving widow died soon thereafter,
leaving Dorian to be raised by a loveless tyrant. With this information,
Lord Henry becomes increasingly fascinated with Dorian; he finds
the story romantic and delights in the thought that he might influence
the young man, making “that wonderful spirit his own.”
Shortly thereafter, Lord Henry goes to dine at the home
of his aunt, Lady Agatha, where several of London’s elite upper
class—Dorian included—have gathered. Lord Henry scandalizes the
group by going on at length about the virtues of hedonism and selfishness and
mocking his aunt’s philanthropic efforts. “I can sympathize with
everything,” he remarks at one point, “except suffering.” He insists
that one’s life should be spent appreciating beauty and seeking
out pleasure rather than searching for ways to alleviate pain and tragedy.
Many of the guests are appalled by his selfishness, but he is so
clever and witty that they are charmed in spite of themselves. Dorian
Gray is particularly fascinated, so much so that he leaves with
Lord Henry and abandons his earlier plans to visit Basil.
Summary: Chapter Four
One month later, while waiting in Lord Henry’s
home for his host to arrive, Dorian discusses music with Lord Henry’s
wife, Victoria. When Lord Henry arrives, Dorian rushes to him, eager
to share the news that he has fallen in love. The girl, he reports,
is Sibyl Vane, an actress who plays Shakespeare’s heroines in repertoire
in a cheap London theater. Dorian admits to discovering her while
wandering through the slums: inspired by Lord Henry’s advice to
“know everything about life,” he had entered a playhouse. Despite
the tawdriness of the locale and his disdain for the theater owner,
Dorian decided that the star, Sibyl Vane, was the finest actress
he had ever seen. After several trips to the theater, the owner
insisted that Dorian meet Ms. Vane, who, awed by the attentions
of such a handsome gentleman, declared that she would refer to him
as “Prince Charming.” Lord Henry, amused by this development, agrees
to accompany Dorian to see Sibyl Vane play the lead in Romeo
and Juliet the following night. Basil is to join them,
and Dorian remarks that Basil sent him his portrait, framed, a few
days earlier.
After Dorian leaves, Lord Henry muses on his influence
over the young man, reflecting on how fascinating the psychology
of another human being can be. He then dresses and goes out to dinner.
He comes home late that night and finds a telegram from Dorian waiting
for him. It states that he is engaged to be married to Sibyl Vane.
Analysis: Chapters Three–Four
The Picture of Dorian Gray is
a curious mixture of different genres. It displays Wilde’s incomparable
talent for social comedy and satire, even as it veers toward the
formula for Gothic literature. Gothic fiction, which was tremendously
popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, focused
on tales of romance, cruelty, and horror. By the end of the nineteenth
century, the formula had changed considerably, but these basic tenets
remained intact. Dorian’s mysterious and melodramatic heritage alludes
to conventions of the Gothic novel: his wicked grandfather, his
parents’ cursed elopement, his father’s murder, and his mother’s
early death represent a type of moody romance popular among Gothic
authors. As the critic Donald Lawler points out, Dorian’s ancestry
is identical to that of the main characters in three of Wilde’s
short stories.
The first two chapters of the novel show Lord
Henry’s powers of seduction, but in Chapters Three and Four Lord
Henry himself is seduced. Strictly speaking, it is not a person
who draws Lord Henry in, but the possibility of having a profound
effect on a person, namely Dorian: “there was something terribly
enthralling in the exercise of influence.” To project his soul onto
Dorian and seize his spirit just as Dorian has seized Basil’s imagination becomes
Lord Henry’s greatest desire. In Lord Henry’s mind, life and art
are not only connected but interchangeable. By molding Dorian into
“a marvellous type” of boy, Lord Henry believes that he is countering
the effects of “an age so limited and vulgar” as his own. He imagines
that he will take his place among such masters as the great Italian
artist Michelangelo, with whom he shares the imperative to create
something of beauty. The fact that Lord Henry considers the life
of another human being a viable medium for artistic expression indicates
“[t]he new manner in art” that Wilde so tirelessly advocated. Indeed,
many readers might find Lord Henry heartless, given his willingness
to watch Dorian’s development with practically no thought of consequence.
After all, Dorian’s beauty is all that matters to him, and “[i]t
was no matter [to Lord Henry] how it all ended, or was destined
to end.” This behavior merely links Lord Henry to the tenets of
aestheticism, whereby beauty is of primary importance, and vice
and virtue—as Wilde states in the novel’s preface—are nothing more than
“materials for an art.”
