The Picture of Dorian Gray Lesson Plan

Dorian defends himself for failing to mourn Sibyl's death with a Lord Henry-ism: "A man who is master of himself can end sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure." Why is this such an ironic statement?

The irony of claiming to be master of one's self by voicing the views of another escapes the young man, but serves to portray him as a deeply misguided soul. In Basil's confession to Dorian, he echoes several sentiments from the preface, saying that "what art should be [is] unconscious, ideal, and remote...Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour...art conceals the artist far more completely than it ever reveals him."

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