Annotations
"When I like people immensely, I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them."
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To Basil, it seems that material aspects like names are the identification of the person. In a way, his attachment to material identification alligns with his facination of aesthetic beauty. Like material items, beauty is ephemeral. Names can be so easily changes; beauty changes and decreases with time. Thus, this quote reveals how Basil tries to hold on to these short-lasting factors of life.
"I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us."
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Basil feels that when he encounters someone special and dear to him, he values them so much he does not want to divulge them to others. He prefers to keep them kept to himself.
"one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. I never know where my wife is, and my wife never knows what I am doing. "
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This quote contains two very different ideas. In one meaning, it is mocking idea of marriage and applies deception and secrecy into married life. In another meaning, this quote reveals Lord Henry’s character of deception. Marriage is a promise of trust. By deceiving his wife, he is breaking the trust to which he promised in marriage.
"I believe that you are really a very good husband, but that you are thoroughly ashamed of your own virtues."
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Henry comes off as being witty and unmoral, but Basil knows that though his theories prove to be naïve, that he is truly noble and pure soul that just wished to challenge Basil's conventional ideas.
"You never say a moral thing, and you never do a wrong thing. Your cynicism is simply a pose."
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This quote highligtes the element of contrast between reality and fantasy. Although Lord Henry speaks of all these immoral activities like decepting his wife, he never actually conducts these activities. This shows how he is immoral but bounded to social ideals. Lord Henry is very part of his society. He knows the restrictions and difference between moral and immoral actions. This is the difference between Lord Henry and Dorian. Dorian perhaps was never bound by social ideas and never seek to satisfy society’s view of morality.
"long bamboo seat that stood in the shade of a tall laurel bush. The sunlight slipped over the polished leaves. In the grass, white daisies were tremulous. "
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This quote contrasts with the overall theme of cynicism and deception on this page. This quote describes flourishing nature and beauty of plants. The contrast between dark cynicism and bright __ of nature again stresses the reality versus deception.
"Every potrait that is painted with feeling is a potrait of the artist, not the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who on the coloured canvas, reveals himself."
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The artist of any painting is exposing more of themselves than the actual subject matter portrayed on the canvas. Basil is afraid that he will expose his own soul through his artwork. He believes that to reveal the beauty of art, and to conceal the creator is the true aim of art.