PODG: Ch. 4

"Ordinary women never appear to one's imagination. [...]They have a stereotyped smile and their fashionable manner. They are quite obvious" (55).

Dorian says this quote about women to Lord Henry. Usually Lord Henry speaks in this manner, but now it has rubbed onto Dorian with great precision. In other words, Lord Henry greatly influences Dorian and finds pleasure in hearing his own music played back to him. In a previous chapter, Lord Henry talks about influence as if it is a bad thing: "Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. [...] He becomes an echo of some one else's music. [...] The aim of life is self-development" (20). Lord Henry is preventing Dorian from achieving self-development and is fully aware of this, yet his response to Dorian's witty remarks is simply gratitude: "I am much obliged for the compliment" (56). Instead of backing off of Dorian and letting him self-develop, Lord Henry likes seeing his own words reflected back. This supports Basil's fact that Lord Henry "never means anything that he says" (41). If Lord Henry believed his statement about influence, then he would leave Dorian alone, but because Lord Henry is so carefree, it does not bother him that he is preventing somebody from self- developing.


"I thought of her performance, and she seemed quite unconscious of her power" (57).

In connection with the quote above and Lord Henry's influence on Dorian, Dorian says this quote similarly to the quote Lord Henry tells him about himself in a previous chapter: "The moment I met you I saw that you were quite unconscious of what you really are" (25). This connection supports Lord Henry's influence on Dorian, but as Dorian speaks of Sibyl Vane, he sounds like Basil telling Lord Henry about the first time he met Dorian. In other words, Sibyl is to Dorian what Dorian is to Basil and what Lord Henry wants to be to Dorian. It seems as though Lord Henry is not the only influence on Dorian. Basil may have unknowingly influenced Dorian during their meetings also. This tells us a lot about Dorian because we can infer that he does not think for himself. Even if he does, it is in the form or mannerism of somebody else, so maybe it is not Lord Henry's fault for being such a big influence on Dorian. It is Dorian who is allowing himself to be influenced, possibly without being fully aware that he is letting this occur.