Dorian character in ‘The picture of Dorian Gray’ (by Arlinda Rezhdo)

He was seated at the piano, with his back to them, turning over the pages of a volume of Schuman’s ‘Forest Scenes’. (pg. 22 – first paragraph)

In this paragraph we first see Dorian Gray, who we know since the first chapter by the words Basil described him to Lord Henry. As we go through the chapter we quickly notice the reaction he causes in Lord Henry’s thoughts:

Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. (pg. 23 – second paragraph)

The scene goes on with conversations between the three characters and at a certain point Lord Henry, who seems to have bewitched Dorian with his words, tells him:

Because you have the most marvelous youth, and youth is the one thing worth having. (pg. 29 – third paragraph)

It is some of the numerous things that Dorian has. Youth is valuable to everyone who doesn’t have it, but it seems just a common thing to the ones who posses it. In fact, after Lord Henry told this to Dorian he didn’t believe it. He just took it for granted. There are many other things Dorian had and took them for granted. One of them was Beauty. He wasn’t aware of this and he wasn’t aware of himself either. He starts becoming aware of everything around him, and most important, aware of his insight:

Dorian made no answer, but passed listlessly in front of his picture, and turned towards it. When he saw it he drew back, and his cheeks flushed for a moment with pleasure. A look of joy came into his eyes, as if he had recognized himself for the first time.

And then it follows:

The sense of his own beauty came on him like a revelation. He had never felt it before. (pg. 33 – first paragraph)

This is the very first time Dorian looks at himself as beautiful, he was never aware of it, he never felt it. Lord Henry had a strange influence in him, an influence that he liked. He went on socializing with Lord Henry and gains the kind of confidence to start calling him ‘Harry’. But the truth is that he is very influenced by Lord Henry and he seems aware of it:

I don’t think I am likely to marry, Henry. I am too much in love. That is one of you aphorisms. I am putting it into practice, as I do everything that you say. (pg. 58 – second paragraph)

But when he reveals to Lord Henry that he loves Sibyl Vane, he doesn’t get in return what he expects. He expects Lord Henry to be glad and happy about him but he is not. He is somehow disappointed by this attitude and stops the conversation just like a child does when he doesn’t get what he wants:

I wish now I had not told you about Sibyl Vane. (pg.63 – third paragraph)

And he would be right. After they went to the show he was ashamed by her exhibition on the stage that he went to her after the show and unwillingly maybe made her seriously think of making suicide; a thing this that he would always deny, but somewhere in his consciousness he would be afraid of people getting to know who Prince Charming was. (That’s how she called Dorian)And yet he denies having any relation with the suicide. In chapter ten is obvious that he is scared of other people getting to know that Prince Charming was him, and that he had made a sin. He saw this sin in his own portrait. That’s the reason for hiding it. He’d better grow old than showing the sin of his face. He was ashamed of it. And still in his mind the thought of the suicide of Sibyl Vane and again denying everything connected to him:

And, yet, what did it matter? What had Dorian Gray to do with Sibyl Vane’s death? There was nothing to fear. Dorian Gray had not killed her. (pg. 145 – first paragraph)

And then he reads the book Lord Henry sent him. He is absolutely fascinated and astonished by it. He likes it so much that decides to make that book the base of his life. He starts educating himself in different regions such as religion, fashion, perfumes, history, music, art etc. and all of it is in front of his second life, a life full of suffering, of his portrait in the schoolroom and of his face reflected in the mirror.

As the story flows Dorian goes from corruption to corruption (as Alan says) leading a life that makes no longer sense. During the whole story he changes simply too much. He grows old and ugly. As we associated ugliness to unkind things, Dorian itself is connected to unkind thoughts and events including murders. He becomes like Lord Henry (as his wife had already said that all Henry’s friends were a mirror of the personality of Lord Henry himself) and doesn’t lead a peaceful life until the end comes and he was found in the feet of his own portrait, unrecognized until the rings were examined.