Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Basil Hallward
- "whose sudden disappearance some years ago"
- "I have put too much of myself in it"
- "saw Dorian Gray for the first time...our eyes met"
- "I don't want to see Dorian
tied to some vile creature
who might degrade his nature
and ruin his intellect"
- "The Gods made Sibyl Vane for you"
- "You were the most unspoiled creature in the whole world"
- "He felt that Dorian would never again be all to him he had been in the past"
- "I was dominated, soul, brain and power by you"
- "He is all my art to me now"
- "I worshipped you"
- "As long as I live, the personality of Dorian Gray will dominate me"
- "I find him in the curves of certain lines"
- The only central character with a sense of right and wrong
- Taken the role of Good Angel
- "You were the most unspoiled
creature in the world"
- Struggles with a vocabulary of sin and redemption as it is not natural to him
- Desire not to be a personality
- Consistent with his unrequited love for Dorian
- His adoration/praise of Dorian turns him into an object of
desire for the predatory Henry
- Contrasts with Henry and Dorian
- Reverse of Henry's Hedonistic ideals
- He denies himself
- Does not tell Dorian of his feelings until the picture has begun to change
- Determination that Dorian shall "never know" may
spring from fear of rejection, or conviction that
homosexual desire is forbidden
- But refusal to articulate longing means it remains at the level of "worship"
- His self-denial makes him the heart of the story
- Crushes his jealousy to voice approval of
love between Dorian and Sibyl, abandoning
class prejudice as well as his own hopes
- Suggests his generosity of spirit
- Also poses the question of where
do the desires of others fit in?
- Would rather destroy the picture than let it
provoke a quarrel between Henry and Dorian
- Once he has confessed his feelings, he settles for the role of a trusted friend
- But his later work is inferior to the portrait, so does so at a cost
- Embodiment of longing