Quotes From 'Song Of Dorian Gray'
Dorian Gray Theme Revision
Youth and Beauty
“All the candour of youth was there, as well as youths passionate purity”
“And beauty is a form of genius—is higher indeed that genius as it needs no explanation”
“It has a divine right of sovereignty”
“I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die”
“When one loses ones good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything”
“Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old I shall kill myself”
“Young Adonis”, “Narcissus”
‘When your youth goes your beauty will go with it and then you will discover that there are no triumphs left for you’
‘I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for …show more content…
their good intellects’
Influence
“Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul.
He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him
“I always hear Harry’s views from his friends”
“You filled me with the wild desire to know everything about life”
“Your voice and the voice of Sibyl Vane are two voices that I shall never forget … I don’t know which one to follow”
“It must be if you say it”
“Dorian Gray was subject to his hand, and seemed to promise rich and fruitful results”
“Lord Henry had told him that. Lord Henry knew what women were”
“You have explained me to myself Harry”
Importance of wealth and class
‘Margaret Deveraux made all the men frantic by running away with a penniless young fellow.’
“When you have made your fortune, you must come back and assert yourself in London.”
“Think of Dorian’s birth, and position, and wealth. It would be absurd of him to marry beneath him”
‘Persian saddle bags’, ‘long tussore silk curtains’
‘Hallward amused himself with watching the faces in the pit’
‘This young man might be rich. If so marriage should be thought of’
‘I am not worthy of him…I feel so much beneath
him’
Pleasure and Hedonism
‘The aim of life is self development’
‘I can sympathise with everything except suffering’
‘sin is the only real colour-element left in modern life’
‘the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick’
Innocence and naivety
‘unspotted from the world’
‘she looked such a child’
‘her little feet pattered overhead
‘he was like a common gardener walking with a rose’
‘you Mr Gray, you yourself with your rose-red youth and you rose white boyhood, you have had passions that have mad you afraid
Lord Henry’s derogative view of women
‘ the only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him completely that he loses all possible interest in life’
‘they are charmingly artificial, but they have no sense of art’
‘As long as a woman looks ten years younger than her daughter she is perfectly happy’
‘women appreciate cruelty, down right cruelty more than anything else. They have wonderfully primitive instincts’
‘They remain slaves looking for their mastsers, all the same. They love being dominated’
‘my dear boy, no woman is a genius, women are a decorative sex’
Youth and Beauty
“All the candour of youth was there, as well as youths passionate purity”
“And beauty is a form of genius—is higher indeed that genius as it needs no explanation”
“It has a divine right of sovereignty”
“I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die”
“When one loses ones good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything”
“Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old I shall kill myself”
“Young Adonis”, “Narcissus”
‘When your youth goes your beauty will go with it and then you will discover that there are no triumphs left for you’
‘I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for …show more content…
their good intellects’
Influence
“Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul.
He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him
“I always hear Harry’s views from his friends”
“You filled me with the wild desire to know everything about life”
“Your voice and the voice of Sibyl Vane are two voices that I shall never forget … I don’t know which one to follow”
“It must be if you say it”
“Dorian Gray was subject to his hand, and seemed to promise rich and fruitful results”
“Lord Henry had told him that. Lord Henry knew what women were”
“You have explained me to myself Harry”
Importance of wealth and class
‘Margaret Deveraux made all the men frantic by running away with a penniless young fellow.’
“When you have made your fortune, you must come back and assert yourself in London.”
“Think of Dorian’s birth, and position, and wealth. It would be absurd of him to marry beneath him”
‘Persian saddle bags’, ‘long tussore silk curtains’
‘Hallward amused himself with watching the faces in the pit’
‘This young man might be rich. If so marriage should be thought of’
‘I am not worthy of him…I feel so much beneath
him’
Pleasure and Hedonism
‘The aim of life is self development’
‘I can sympathise with everything except suffering’
‘sin is the only real colour-element left in modern life’
‘the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick’
Innocence and naivety
‘unspotted from the world’
‘she looked such a child’
‘her little feet pattered overhead
‘he was like a common gardener walking with a rose’
‘you Mr Gray, you yourself with your rose-red youth and you rose white boyhood, you have had passions that have mad you afraid
Lord Henry’s derogative view of women
‘ the only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him completely that he loses all possible interest in life’
‘they are charmingly artificial, but they have no sense of art’
‘As long as a woman looks ten years younger than her daughter she is perfectly happy’
‘women appreciate cruelty, down right cruelty more than anything else. They have wonderfully primitive instincts’
‘They remain slaves looking for their mastsers, all the same. They love being dominated’
‘my dear boy, no woman is a genius, women are a decorative sex’