Dorian Gray Synthesis Blog

Wilde conveys Dorian's ever progressing corruption through contrasting his reactions to the respective demises of James Vane and Basil Hallward. After Basil's murder, Dorian is able to quickly rid himself of blame and guilt. By the next morning he could be found "sleeping peacefully" (166). Conversely, after his contact with James, "when he closed his eyes he saw again the sailor's face" (205). Through this contrast Wilde displays how Dorian's sins have begun to catch up with him to the point where instead of floating airily away from him, they haunt him. After Basil's death, Dorian is able to fully place the blame onto Basil's cold dead shoulders by reminding himself "of all that he had suffered" (166). Dorian finds comfort in justifying his killing Basil by saying that Basil caused him to suffer. This makes him calm and free from the sense of culpability. As Dorian continues on his life of sin and peril, it all begins to catch up with his corrupting soul. His past has become so overwhelming that when he is finally forced to face it, it begins to haunt him. After seeing James, Dorian is anything but calm, he suddenly feels "sick with a wild terror of dying" (205). Dorian is becoming paranoid, the feeling of being "hunted, snared, (or) tracked down begun to dominate him" (205). Dorian tries to put these feelings out of his mind, much in the way that he put the feeling of blame out of him after the incident with Basil, this time by saying that all of these ideas are merely figments of his over active imagination. However, it is not mere imagination that has led him to this point. His corrupted conscience and soul are beginning to catch up with him and are making "each crime share its misshapen brood" (205). Between the Basil and James encounters, Dorian has grown a sense of paranoia and increasing corruption. Through his different reactions to both of these incidents, Wilde shows the reader just how terrible Dorian has become. Always carefree, guiltless Dorian is finally feeling the burden of his sins catch up with him.