Dorian Gray c.11

"For years Dorian Gray could not free himself from the influence of this book; or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he never sought to free himself from it" (Wilde 130).
Rewind to Sybil's death, and how Dorian expressed himself to Lord Henry: "If I had read this in a book, Harry, I think I would have wept over it"(103). Dorian does not seem to now be able to express his feelings to real situations, only in fictional ones. Perhaps this is how we can see the necessity of mortality to the purpose of life; why would anything matter if you have an infinite amount of time to make up for it? Because Dorian will never age and therefore never die, life has ceased to have the impact it once did on him. Without the idea that must cherish life while he has it, Dorian has becomed detached from all situations that everyone else feels. He becomes so lost in the book because it is something he does not necessarily understand. He speaks of the fear of looking in mirrors, water, and any reflective surface the main charcter has as he begins to lose his beauty; this fascinates Dorian because he will never experience this. It is the same reason for why he observes the painting in all its wonderful horror. He stares at the paint of what might have been, and laughs, knowing it never will.

"There were many...who...fancied that they saw, in Dorian GRay the true realization of a typer of which they had often dreamed in Eton of Oxford days- a type that was to combine something of the real cultture of the scholr with all the grace and dsitinction and perfect manner of a citizen of the world" (132).
This relates to our human tendancy of innately wanting to believe that something beautiful is beautiful all the way through. By observing Dorian, with his handsome face and intelligent nature, they believe that he must be as fantastically perfect on the inside as well. Unfortunately this is untrue; beauty is a corruptive power, as we can all see in Dorian's change. As cited later in the chapter, "it was remarked, however, that some of those who had been most intimate with him appeared, after a time, to shun him" (145). Dorian lets this undying beauty goes to his head, and allows the portrait to change more than it necessarily would if his soul were unchanged by the knowledge of what power he has.