TPoDG ch. 7

"'Yes,' he cried, 'you have killed my love! You used to stir my imagination. Now you do not even stir my curiosity. You simply produce no effect. I loved you because you were marvelous, because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art. You have thrown it all away. You are shallow and stupid. My God! how mad I was to love you! What a fool I have been. You are nothing to me now'" (91).

So, Dorian is an ass. He was so mean! Poor Sibyl is such a sweet girl, and he goes and tells her he only loved her for her acting, and that without acting she is nothing. Because Dorian is so beautiful himself, he doesn't even care about the beauty she has. He only wants someone that interests him, and beauty does not hold that interest. Personality and talent does, and without that, all perfection he saw in Sibyl tarnished into something ugly.


"The picture, changed or unchanged, would be to him the visible emblem of conscious. He would resist temptation. He would not see Lord Henry any more- would not, at any rate, listen to those subtle, poisonous theories that in Basil Hallward's garden had first stirred within him the passion for impossible things. He would go back to Sibyl Vane, make her amends, marry her, try to love her again... She must have suffered more than he had. Poor child! He had been selfish and cruel to her... His life with her would be beautiful and pure" (96).

This is a dramatic shift! He suddenly wants to be forgiven and save Sibyl from her torture. That's so narcissistic. The only reason he even realized he was an ass was because he noticed the imperfections in his portrait. If it had been an image of another person, he would not have even cared. He only wants to see himself perfect in all respects, even an artificial self such as one made of paint, so it makes him want to change.