The Picture of Dorian Gray: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Now a month later, Dorian is in Henry’s library, waiting for Henry to arrive. It is another of Henry’s philosophical principles not to be on time and Dorian begins to get irritated by the ticking of the library clock. When at last Dorian hears his host returning, he goes to greet him at the door but finds his wife Victoria instead. Victoria recognizes Dorian from the many photographs Lord Henry has of him, and also from the opera, Lohengrin, they both attended.

They share views on talking during musical performances, Dorian saying that he would only talk during bad music. This amuses Victoria as an echo of one of her husband’s views. The narrator describes Victoria as a woman who tried to look picturesque but only managed to look untidy, and as being always in love, which she admits herself when she tells Dorian that she always falls in love with pianists. She attributes it to their foreignness. She thinks that foreigners make a room look very picturesque.

Lord Henry arrives and Lady Henry, after praising Dorian’s charm, departs. Henry complains about his wife’s sentimentality and orders Dorian never to marry. Dorian tells him that he is actually too in love to marry. The girl is Sybil Vane, an actress, a genius on the stage, Dorian thinks. Lord Henry explains that women can’t be geniuses, and that there are only five women in London worth talking to.

Dorian asks Lord Henry to sympathize, because after all, it is his influence that can be blamed for Dorian’s new, passionate view of life ,and now he is curious to try everything. This is why he went to the run-down theatre in the first place. He found it, as he was wandering the East End slums looking for adventure, with a “hideous” Jewish man standing outside, who offered him a box for a guinea. Dorian can’t think why he took it, but now thanks his stars because if he hadn’t, he would have missed out on the romance of his life. Henry laughs and insists that Dorian will have many loves, that’s what makes him interesting. Only shallow people have one love.

Dorian goes on to describe the cheapness of the theatre’s interior. He tells Henry that the play was Romeo and Juliet, cast with old, ill-fitting actors for the most part, but that the girl playing Juliet, Sybil Vane, shone. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, classically beautiful, and with a melodious voice. Only Lord Henry and Sybil Vane have impressed Dorian so strongly with their voices, he says. He describes the Shakespearean roles she has played masterfully, and claims that an actress is the only kind of woman worth loving.

When Henry asks what kind of relationship Dorian has with Sybil, Dorian defends that it has been entirely innocent and calls Sybil “sacred”. He describes how the Jewish theater manager invited him backstage, and after refusing several times, he couldn’t resist meeting her. He describes her as childlike and shy, and very complimentary to him, nicknaming him ‘Prince Charming’. Dorian describes Sybil as unconnected from real life, and when the theatre manager offers to tell him her history, he refuses, only caring about the girl he sees on stage.

Henry now knows why he hasn’t seen Dorian for ages. He urges that they finally dine together that evening, but Dorian wants to see Sybil play Imogen at the theatre - every night is another unmissable heroine. But Dorian does want Henry and Basil to come with him one evening, and help him to free Sybil from her contract with the Jewish manager. Henry agrees to come and to write to Basil about it.

Dorian hasn’t been keeping in touch with Basil. The last contact he had was when Basil sent the portrait to him in a new frame. Dorian admits being jealous of its youth but fascinated by it. He tries to explain his annoyance with Basil, calling him a philistine. Henry philosophizes that a good artist will live through his art and be completely dull as a person, and that inferior artists are much better company.

Dorian leaves for the theatre and Henry contemplates his feelings for the young man. He takes great pleasure in watching Dorian’s romance unfold. He thinks about how amazing all human life is, and decides that it is the only subject worth investigating. He seeks to know the science of the soul’s relationship to the body, considering Dorian to be the perfect psychology experiment. He wonders at the extreme influence he has had upon Dorian’s behavior. When he returns from dinner, there is a telegram waiting for him. It is from Dorian, telling him that he is engaged to be married.