Dorian Gray Chapters 6 and 7

Chapter 6

Dorian and Basil are both seen as being quite romantic with both of them seeing marriage as being a life long commitment, something that is an “irreconcilable vow”. In a way, Basil Hallward is almost reflecting Dorian Gray’s view as a way of grabbing attention away from Lord Henry as he knows that Lord Henry appears to almost rubbish the concept of marriage being a commitment, therefore disagreeing greatly with Dorian on the concept of marriage. The idea that Lord Henry has of marriage is reflective of that of the classic upper class view of marriage and women, seeing them as almost disposable which is reflected in his own marriage which is loveless and superficial as they both appear to love  other people more than each other. Perhaps he is almost jealous of Dorian Gray’s happiness and Sybil Vane, clearly he wants to make Dorian happy and he wants Dorian’s love, in this, he almost shares knowledge from his own experience that Dorian’s love for Sybil will soon disappear.

In this chapter, Sybil is presented as the male character Rosalind, perhaps almost an image of boyhood. This idea of the character Rosalind is almost showing Dorian’s homosexual nature in that he loves the character she is acting out and portraying, he never cares to mention the name Sybil, only mentioning the names of the characters that she plays such as Juliet or Rosalind. He appears to be attracted particularly by the male character of Rosalind and proposes to Sybil, almost as though this character is who he sees instead of her. In this way, Wilde is foreshadowing the conclusion of the novel where we eventually see Dorian fall in love with himself more than anyone else.

The relationship between Sybil and Dorian can be seen as quite unpredictable, dramatic and quite infantile, almost as though these are two kids growing up and this is their first love like in Romeo and Juliet, however, sadly, we can see the element of tragedy from the beginning with the painting. Dorian’s and Sybil’s love would not have been approved by the elite which surrounded Dorian in particular, he would be marrying underage and would be seen as marrying far beneath himself. The relationship between these two almost reflects the sense of Romeo and Juliet in that we can all see the tragedy coming.

Towards the end of the chapter, we see Basil Hallward as being excluded from the centre of Dorian’s life, with Lord Henry almost taking over from him. Basil is seeing the influence of Lord Henry shine through on Dorian and it’s almost as though Basil is losing a sense of love as he realises that Dorian loves Lord Henry and Sybil Vane more than him, in this, we see Basil begin to grow older inside and crying on the outside, almost as though he knows he is doomed to spend the rest of his days alone.

Chapter 7

At the beginning of this chapter we see the Jew described as outwardly horrible, “and had been met by Caliban” is a reference to the preface where Caliban is seen as ugly and the daughter of witchcraft. We receive the impression that Lord Henry likes him, partially down to the corrupt and sinister nature of him. While now this would  be seen as highly anti-Semitic, back then this would have been the common view of Jews as greedy or sinister. The reaction of Dorian to the theatre is that of disgust, seeing it as vulgar and seedy, the same reasons for which Lord Henry loves the theatre, he seems to find this life fascinating, while Dorian appears to talk about poor people in a derogatory way, Lord Henry finds himself fascinated by this place.

Basil acts as though he is the maternal figure in Dorian’s life once more in that he is extremely supportive and understanding of what Dorian has done. “Any one you love must be marvellous” giving the impression of Basil being that figure of support to Dorian. Meanwhile, Henry initially views Sybil in a lustful way, he sees her in an aesthetic way as he looks at her with lustful eyes. In this, he clearly wants to corrupt her and he wants to know how to corrupt her. The significance of the play itself, Romeo and Juliet is that is almost echoes the love between Dorian and Sybil, they are both young and they both appear to be leading on this tragic path, the love is anti-establishment and is largely not approved by those around them, much like in Romeo and Juliet where the two young lovers appear to have no encouragement or support from the people around them.

The significance of Lord Henry’s reaction to Sybil’s performance is significant in that it appears to shape Dorian’s view on what she has done. “They are both simply forms of imitation” reflects an idea that love is an imitation of who you are and that acting is an imitation of life, this appears to break Dorian’s heart and finally push him over the edge, having a temper tantrum in the middle of the theatre. Basil’s reaction to the performance is much more supportive, like any maternal mother, he appears to want to reassure Dorian, “Love is a more wonderful thing than art” almost gives him the tone of reassurance that it doesn’t matter how she acted. Sybil herself views her performance as a deliberate act, she is clearly doing this because she has fallen in love, she cannot pretend to kiss other men when she herself is in love with Dorian, she was happy that she was hissed and she did it as she felt that to play at love was an insult.

Dorian reacts to Sybil’s interpretation of her acting with spite and anger, “a shudder ran through him” shows that he has fallen out of love with Sybil and is almost showing his homosexual side in that the concept of Sybil to him is something that is repulsive. He acts in a callous, cold manner and presents to her a scathing reality of how he feels after her performance. To put it simply, he had only loved the characters she was playing, he had never loved Sybil nor indeed really known the actual Sybil. Following the theatre, he went to Covent Garden and then home where he saw the painting that Basil Hallward had painted him, something that was significant at this point as the painting had begun to age, this first sign of ageing managed to scare Dorian into believing that every time he sinned and listened to Lord Henry, his painting would age further, therefore, he swore another oath which was to resist temptation and committed himself to getting Sybil back (“try to love her”) because of a sense of duty coming from the Victorian sense of responsibility. The ending of the chapter is significant in that he swears his oath in what is basically the Garden of Even, however, like Adam and Eve, he would eventually go against his word and would sin.