Picture of Dorian Gray Outline

Picture of Dorian Gray Outline

Thesis: Throughout the novel it is clear that Dorian transforms into a self-centered man that does bad things to undeserving people, but Dorian's lack of remorse and repentance for his horrific influences on others proves that Dorian is not just a person that does bad things but actually a bad person altogether. 

1. Dorian's actions immediately following Sibyl Vane's death marks a fundamental change in Dorian where he decides that he will live his life for the purpose of pleasure because his portrait allows him to appear unscathed to society. 

a. When Dorian is first informed of Sibyl's suicide, he believes that he is to blame for her death: "So I have murdered Sibyl Vane [...] murdered her as surely as if I had cut her throat with a knife" (72).

b. After Lord Henry leaves, Dorian reflects on the malicious changes that occurred in his portrait: "There were no further changes in the picture. It had received the news of Sibyl Vane's death before he had known it himself. It was conscious of the events of life as they occurred. The vicious cruelty that marred the fine lines of the mouth had, no doubt, appeared at the very moment that the girl had drunk the poison" (76).

c. "He felt that the time had really come for making his choice. Or had his choice already been made? Yes, life had decided that for him–life, and his own infinite curiosity about life. Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins–he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all" (77).

2. During Basil's final visit with Dorian, the artist tries to fix the young man's wild life of sin, but Dorian refuses to acknowledge and accept his crimes against society.

a. Basil mentions Dorian's broken relationships with several men that have been ruined in society's eyes in order to gain explanation for the horrible stories that have been spreading through London about Dorian, but Dorian does not wish to hear about his old friends and says, "Stop, Basil. You are talking about things of which you do not know of" (110)

b. Basil points out Dorian's deranged joy that seems to come from ruining the lives of friends: "Your [friends] seem to lose all sense of honour, of goodness, of purity, You have filled them with a madness for pleasure. They have down into the depths. You led them there. Yes: you led them there, and yet you can smile, as you are smiling now" (110).

c. Dorian refuses to comply to Basil's wishes and kills the artist out of rage and frustration: "He rushed at [Basil], and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man's head down on the table, and stabbing again and again" (116).

3. Dorian uses his gift of eternal youth to manipulate men into revealing their secrets, which he uses to get what he wants. 

a. Allan Campbell hates Dorian after the end of their friendship and refuses to help the murderer clean up the crime scene, but Dorian threatens Campbell until he complies: "I have a letter written already. Here it is. You see the address. If you don't help me, I must send it. If you don't help me, I will send it" (125)

b. Campbell commits suicide: "Allan Campbell's suicide" (155)