Dorian Gray Ch 12-13

"and whisper about what they call the profligacies of their betters"(155).
profligacy- shameless dissoluteness, reckless extravagance



"you should not have made his sister's name a byword"(155).
byword- an epithet, often of scorn



"The surface seemed to be quite undisturbed and as he had left it. It was from within, apparently, that the foulness and horror had come. Through some strange quickening of inner life the leprosies of sin were slowly eating the thing away. The rotting of a corpse in a watery grave was not so fearful"(161).

Basil examined the portrait of what he could not believe to be Dorian Gray. Dorian was so beautiful, and Basil's painting captured his beauty perfectly. However, as Basil examined the painting, he saw that none of the surface was changed. His signature was still at the bottom and none of the lines had been recreated, it was, in fact, the original painting. Nonetheless, the alterations were still there even though the painting was not physically changed. Basil concluded that some type of evil was coming from inside the painting. This is comparable to the actual Dorian. His surface is unchanged, although he is eaten away with evil and sin on the inside, as the painting has been. Dorian retains his beauty and sin and age does not appear on his outside, however it completely consumes him on the inside.

"He did not even glance at the murdered man. He felt that the secret of the whole thing was not to realize the situation. The friend who had painted the fatal portrait to which all his misery had been due had gone out of his life. That was enough"(164).

Dorian killed Basil. Like the situation involving Sibyl's death, Dorian feels very little emotion. Here we see his reasoning behind it is to ignore the situation. He clearly does not want to deal with his sins, he believes that is what his portrait is for. It is impossible for even Dorian to argue that murdering Basil was a good deed. He knows it is a sin he simply chooses to ignore it. Dorian believes that completely ignoring the situation and pretending that it never happened is the best way to not feel the effects of his sins. Dorian simply looks at the facts, and takes the emotions out of tragic situations that he does not want to feel. He wants his portrait to carry all of the sin so he does not have to, he ensures this by ignoring his sins instead of grappling with them.