Annotations

"You Might see nothing in him. I see everything in him."

Basil feels a strong emotional and physical attachment to Dorian, he provides Basil's drive and inspires his artistic creations. Dorian is an object of fascination, one could say even an obsession that Basil has no problem asserting to be his sole inspiration.

" He is never more present in my work than when no image of him is there. "

Basil continues to express his facination of Dorian as he elevates "image of [Dorian]" as a religious image/symbol. To Basil, Dorian is almost a metaphysical being that is present in Basil's life and work.

"I have put into it some expression of all this curious idolatry...I will not bare my soul to their shallow prying eyes. My heart shall never be put under a microscope."

Basil worries that his love, which he himself describes as "idolatry", is too apparent, and that it betreys too much of himself. He does not wish to show off his potrait in fear that it will expose more of himself than he wishes to share.

"We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty."

Basil asserts that people have lost touch with the abstracity of art. A potrait displays much more than the physical subject, there are often hidden objectives that could be unveiled and valued by its observer.

"I have given away my whole soul to someone who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer's day."

This quote is a metaphor that demonstrates how Basil’s intense admiration for Dorian transforms his character. Because Basil has bared his soul to Dorian, and in doing so has altered Basil into an exceptionally vain character that puts Basil’s love on display.

"I find a strange pleasure in saying things to him that I know I shall be sorry for having said"

This quote again expresses Basil’s fondness toward Dorian and how Basil is just enchanted by Dorian. It seems ironic how beauty totally intoxicates Basil to the point of enchantment.