Summary: Chapter Seventeen
A week later, Dorian entertains guests at his estate at
Selby. He talks with Lord Henry, the Duchess of Monmouth, and her
husband; they discuss the nature and importance of beauty. The duchess
criticizes Lord Henry for placing too great a value on beauty. The
conversation turns to love; Lord Henry maintains that love, like
life, depends upon repeating a great experience over and over again.
Dorian agrees and excuses himself from his company. Lord Henry chastises the
duchess for her flirtations. Soon, they hear a groan from the other
end of the conservatory. They rush to find that Dorian has fallen
in a swoon. At dinner, Dorian feels occasional chills of terror as
he recalls that, before fainting, he saw the face of James Vane pressed
against the conservatory window.
Summary: Chapter Eighteen
The following day, Dorian does not leave the house. The
thought of falling prey to James Vane dominates him: every time
he closes his eyes, the image of James’s face in the window reappears.
He begins to wonder, though, if this apparition is a figment of
his imagination. The idea that his conscience could assert such
fearful visions terrifies Dorian and makes him wonder if he will
get any rest.
On the third day after the incident, Dorian ventures out.
He strolls along the grounds of his estate and feels reinvigorated.
He reflects to himself that the anguish that recently kept him in
bed is completely against his nature. He has breakfast with the
duchess and then joins a shooting party in the park. While strolling
along with the hunters, Dorian is captivated by the graceful movement
of a hare and begs his companions not to shoot it. Dorian’s companion laughs
at Dorian’s silliness and shoots at the hare. The gunshot is followed
by the cry of a man in agony. Several men thrash their way into
the bushes to discover that a man has been shot. Having taken “the
whole charge of shot in his chest,” the man has died instantly. As
the hunters head back toward the house, Dorian shares his worry with
Lord Henry that this episode is a “bad omen.” Lord Henry dismisses
such notions, assuring Dorian that destiny is “too wise or too cruel”
to send us omens.
Attempting to lighten the mood, Lord Henry teases Dorian about
his relationship with the duchess. Dorian assures Henry that there
is no scandal to be had and utters, quite pathetically, “I wish
I could love.” He bemoans the fact that he is so concentrated on
himself, on his own personality, that he is thus unable to love
another person. He entertains the idea of sailing away on a yacht,
where he will be safe. When the gentlemen come upon the duchess,
Dorian leaves Lord Henry to talk to her and retires to his room.
There, the head keeper comes to speak to Dorian. Dorian inquires
about the man who was shot, assuming him to have been a servant,
and offers to make provisions for the man’s family. The head keeper
reports that the man’s identity remains a mystery. As soon as he
learns that the man is an anonymous sailor, Dorian demands to see
him. He rides to a farm where the body is being kept and identifies
it as that of James Vane. He rides home with tears in his eyes,
feeling safe.
Analysis: Chapters Seventeen–Eighteen
Lord Henry’s belief, uttered after the fatal hunting accident,
that “[d]estiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too
cruel for that,” contrasts with Dorian’s experience. In many ways,
Basil’s portrait of Dorian illustrates how destiny shapes Dorian’s
life, for while Dorian himself remains immune to the effects of
time, his ever-deteriorating likeness in the portrait is indeed
an undeniable herald of his ultimate downfall. The picture interrupts
the pleasant reality of Dorian’s life to remind him of his soul’s
dissipation. Although the aestheticists believed that art existed
for its own sake, Dorian’s experience demonstrates the limitations
of that view. The painting becomes almost immediately a physical
manifestation of conscience; it shows Dorian what is right and what
is wrong in a very literal sense, and he frequently inspects the
painting after committing an immoral or unethical act to see exactly
how his conscience interprets that act. Ultimately, then, and in
contrast to Lord Henry’s philosophies, The Picture of Dorian
Gray emphasizes the relationship between art and morality.
In addition to complicating the reader’s understanding
of art, which, as the novel draws to its close, becomes complex
and somewhat paradoxical, Wilde demonstrates his characteristic
flair for comedy and biting social satire. In Chapter Seventeen,
Dorian’s conversation with the Duchess of Monmouth and Lord Henry
testifies to one of the skills that made Wilde the most celebrated
playwright of his day. His brilliantly witty dialogue is responsible
for his status as one of the most effective practitioners of the
comedy of manners. A comedy of manners revolves around the complex
and sophisticated behavior of the social elite, among whom one’s
character is determined more by appearance than by moral behavior.
Certainly, by this definition, Lord Henry becomes something of a
hero in the novel, as, even by his own admission, he cares much
more for the beautiful than for the good.
