Chapter 16 Quotes Flashcards
Description of the east end
‘A cold rain began to fall and the blurred streetlamps looked…
ghastly in the dripping mist.’
Dorian’s judgement is clouded again, shown by the mist. The east end seems like a dire place.
‘Dorian Gray watched with listless eyes the…
sordid shame of the great city.’
Listless- all passion of life gone
shows a duality in London, east end represents Dorian’s sinful side while the west end represents his beautiful outer shell
‘There were opium dens where one could buy oblivion, dens of horror where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness …
of sins that were new.’
trying to get over his guilt of past sins (Basil) by sinning more. slippery slope.
‘The moon hung low in the sky like…
a yellow skull.’
an omen, there is about to be an attempt on Dorian’s life by James Vane. Yellow is a dirty colour, this skull is stained and impure, like Dorian’s perhaps. Also shows the badness Dorian sees in the world around him and how his perspective has changed.
‘The side windows of the hansom were clogged …
with a grey flannel mist.’
Mist clouds Dorian’s judgement. Grey flannel image of prison and sin, dire and ugly
‘His soul, certainly, was ….
sick to death.’
He feels dead
‘The hideous hunger for opium began to…
gnaw at him.’
makes his hunger and desire into an animal that hurts him until it’s satisfied
‘he could see the strange bottle shaped kilns with their orange…
fan-like tongues of fire’
He makes the setting into a monster. orange is a colour of danger and fear. Fire is scary ect
‘Wreaths of white mist clung like ghostly…
sails to the yards.’
James Vane is a sailor. Is the setting trying to alert Dorian to the danger or is it irony.
‘The slimy pavement looked like a …
wet mackintosh.’
Sailor imagery
‘From time to time he seemed to see the eyes of …
Basil Hallward looking at him.’
He feels guilt at the sin, sees Basil
Dorian
‘He wanted to escape…
from himself.’
He feels trapped in his life
A woman in the opium den:
‘There goes the devil’s bargain!’ … She snapped her fingers. ‘Prince Charming…
is what you like to be called, ain’t it.?’
‘In her dealings with man Destiny…
never closed her accounts.’
Personification of destiny. Dorian had to be punished?
‘Callous, concentrated on evil, with stained…
mind and soul hungry for rebellion, Dorian Gray hastened on.’
