The Picture of Dorian Gray

Chapter 5 details the Vane family. Sybil’s mother is a vain, shallow actress with many hollow affectations. She approves of the union between her daughter and Dorian because she presumes that Dorian is a wealthy, well-connected member of the aristocracy, although she has not yet ascertained the extent of his riches. She also reminds her daughter of the family’s debt to the Jewish theater patron Mr. Isaacs, who has advanced the family 50 pounds to help cover their debts. Sybil contends that she hates Mr. Isaacs: All she sees now is Dorian.

Sybil’s older brother James is about to head off to the colonies in Australia. James feels dubious of Dorian, and declares that he will kill him if he brings any harm to his sister. James is also jealous of the way that Dorian now commands all of his sister's attention and affection. Sybil assures her brother that he will find adventure and riches in Australia, and return a much more well-off man. She also defends Dorian against her brother’s ill will and suspicion.

At the end of the chapter, James confronts his mother—whom he loves but also perceives as shallow, affected, and vain—about his parentage. She confesses that she was not married to his father. The man died, but had he lived, he would have provided for his bastard children. 

Basil and Lord Henry sit in a private room at a restaurant called the Bristol, awaiting Dorian’s arrival. Lord Henry informs Basil that Dorian has become engaged. Basil resists this notion, thinking Dorian too sensible to attach himself to a penniless actress. Lord Henry, however, refuses to pass any judgment upon Dorian. He concludes that Dorian would be a delicious subject for his own continued voyeurism if he were to marry Sybil, indulge his passion for her for six months, and then suddenly abandon her for another woman. He asserts that only those who do not act upon their selfish whims and passions are the true failures in life—and so, he will continue to encourage both Dorian and all others to conduct themselves and their relationships as they see fit, no matter how uncomely or unconventional one’s choices are.

Dorian arrives. He regales Basil with the tale of how Sybil stole his heart and transported him with her recent performance as Rosalind. He also confesses that he has made no formal proposal to her yet, as he does not want to taint his great passion for her with something as vulgar as a business proposition. He also tells Lord Henry that Sybil’s mere touch has made him forget all of Lord Henry’s crude yet fascinating beliefs about love and pleasure.

Lord Henry responds, “I’m afraid I cannot claim my theory as my own. It belongs to Nature, not to me. Pleasure is Nature’s test, her sign of approval. When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy” (76). When both Basil and Dorian question him about the meaning of goodness, he replies that “to be good is to be in harmony with one’s self” (76). Basil then argues that those who live only for themselves end up paying a terrible price for their selfishness. Lord Henry doubts that civilized men regret pleasure. He also tells Dorian that he will always command Dorian’s affections.

The party then heads to the theater, with Basil following behind the other two men in a separate car. Basil finds himself pensive and morose. He feels that he is losing Dorian. 

Basil, Lord Henry, and Dorian arrive at the theater to watch Sybil play Juliet. Dorian promises his friends that her acting will move and impress them. When she makes her first appearance on stage, it is clear that she is a remarkably beautiful woman. However, her performance is flat and uninspired. Basil tries to mitigate the embarrassment and dismay that Dorian feels, while Lord Henry acts dismissively and moves to leave the theater. He claims that it is bad for one’s morality to engage in bad art. However, Dorian insists on staying until the end of the play. By the end of the play, many people have vacated the theater and are openly hissing at Sybil, who appears unmoved by the commotion her poor performance has caused.

Dorian joins Sybil backstage. He informs her that she has disappointed and embarrassed him with her poor performance. Sybil, however, is unconcerned about her acting. She tells Dorian that her genuine love for him has made her see through all of the pageantry and artifice of the theater, which cannot compare to the true passion that she feels for him. Dorian, however, coldly rebuffs her. Because she has proven herself to be an inferior and shallow artist, he no longer wants to have anything to do with her. Sybil, crestfallen, falls at his feet and begs him not to go. She even almost tells him about her brother’s threat to kill Dorian should he hurt her, but decides not to. Dorian’s mind is unchanged, however, and he departs from the theater without her.

Once back home, Dorian notices that Basil’s painting of him has altered. A “touch of cruelty” has become apparent in his painted visage. Dorian, taken aback, wonders if his wish that he remain youthful and flawless while the picture takes on the ravages of time and negative emotions has come true. While he thinks this impossible, it is also undeniable that the painting has changed. He reflects on his actions toward Sybil, citing Lord Henry’s belief that “women were better suited to bear sorrow than men” (246) in order to make himself feel better about how he treated her.

When Dorian again considers the painting as a kind of visual window into his consciousness and sins, he promises to reform his ways. He decides that he will return to Sybil, regain her affections, and have a pure and wonderful life with her. 

Dorian awakes well past noon. He sees that Lord Henry has sent him a letter, but decides against reading it. Instead, he refreshes himself in his richly-appointed bathroom and dines on a breakfast that has been put out for him. His valet sees to his every need. Meanwhile, he wonders whether the change that he detected in the portrait was real or not. He eyes the screen behind which the painting sits, while anxiously wondering what he is to do if the alteration is indeed true. He draws back the screen and sees the same touch of cruelty in his visage that he saw the day before. He also feels the weight of his own unfairness and cruelty toward Sybil upon seeing the portrait marred: “Here was a visible symbol of the degradation of sin. Here was an ever-present sign of the ruin men brought upon their souls” (93). Dorian then composes a penitent letter to Sybil.

When Lord Henry arrives later, Dorian tells him that he now intends to right his wrong and marry Sybil. However, Lord Henry informs Dorian that, after Dorian’s departure from the theater, Sybil poisoned herself with something that Lord Henry guesses was prussic acid, and died immediately. This news was in Lord Henry’s letter which Dorian had avoided reading. Dorian receives this news with dismay, and accuses Sybil of being selfish for her choice. Lord Henry assures him that women are silly, overly emotional, fallible, vain, and petty creatures. Lord Henry also delights in what he sees as the beauty in Sybil’s death. He counsels Dorian to think of Sybil’s suicide as her last role, and asserts that the girl’s real death is less real than a theatrical one: “The moment [Sybil] touched actual life, she marred it, and it marred her, so she passed away” (100). He also tells Dorian that he must not concern himself with Sybil’s death, and asks him whether anyone saw him enter her dressing room after the play. He wants to be sure that Dorian remains unsullied by the scandal.

Dorian takes comfort in his friend’s words, but asks to never speak of the entire affair—which he calls a “marvelous experience”—again. He and Lord Henry then make plans to attend the opera later, and Lord Henry departs.

When Dorian draws back the screen that covers the painting once again, there is no additional alteration in the portrait. He reasons that the alteration is a result of the painting receiving and integrating the reality of Sybil’s death before he was even aware of it. Despite this, he also feels that his wish that the portrait, rather than his own body, bear the ravages of time and of reality, has come true. “Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins—he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of this shame: that was all” (102). He feels inoculated against the ravages of time, and sure that his own visage will never betray any of the ugliness that his soul could bring about, and takes comfort in this idea. 

The next morning, Basil comes to see Dorian. Basil begins the conversation by telling Dorian that he tried to call on him the day before but was told that Dorian was at the opera. Believing this to be a lie, Basil almost tried to find Sybil’s home so that he could find Dorian, whom he believed to be consoling Sybil’s mother. Dorian coldly informs Basil that he was, indeed, at the opera. Basil is taken aback by Dorian’s cold dismissal of Sybil and her death, and is horrified to learn that the death was a suicide. He wonders why and how his friend, in whom he formerly saw so much innocence and goodness, has become so reckless and heartless. He puts it down to Lord Henry’s influence. He also asks Dorian if he has been summoned to the inquest regarding Sybil’s death. Dorian assures him that Sybil never told anyone his true name, having always referred to him as Prince Charming. He is therefore safe from scrutiny by the authorities. Dorian also assures Basil that there is nothing truly bad about Sybil’s death, describing it as a romantic tragedy. Moreover, he acknowledges that he has changed from a schoolboy into a real man since he and Basil first became acquainted.

Basil then asks to see the painting, which is secured behind its screen. Dorian is horrified by this request, knowing that Basil will immediately detect the change in the portrait and thereby put an end to the curious enchantment that has been placed upon it. When Basil asserts that the painting is to be exhibited in a month’s time, as Georges Petit has commissioned a special exhibition for Basil at the Rue de Seze, Dorian grows almost apoplectic. He tells Basil that he will never again look upon the painting. He also questions Basil, citing the fact that Basil himself has sworn never to exhibit it. He cajoles Basil into telling him the reason for this. Basil tells Dorian that he once believed that, if others were to see his painting of Dorian, they would be sure to detect Basil’s idolatry of Dorian, which would make Basil too vulnerable. However, he has since come to his senses. This is the reason that he changed his mind about exhibiting the painting once the offer to do so came through. He also sees the exhibition of the painting as another occasion for Dorian to be worshipped—which, he believes, Dorian was created in order to be.

Dorian confesses that he has seen something very strange in the painting. However, he repeats his decision that Basil is never to look upon it again. He also privately marvels at the fact that, “instead of being forced to reveal his own secret, he [has] succeeded, almost by chance, in wresting a secret from [Basil]” (113). He feels that there is a tragic element to his friendship with Basil because it has clearly become weighted by romance. He resolves that the painting must be hidden away for good.