“His unreal and selfish love would yield to some higher influence, would be transformed into some nobler passion, and the portrait that Basil Hallward had painted of him would be a guide to him through life, would be to him what holiness is to some, and conscience to others, and the fear of God to us all. There were opiates for remorse, drugs that could lull the moral sense to sleep. But here was a visible symbol of the degradation of sin. Here was an ever-present sign of the ruin men brought upon their souls.”
The Picture of Dorian Gray, chapter 8
Throughout the book, there’s a lot to say about Dorian’s selfishness and vanity. But the most important part of this quote is how the portrait is described. It was painted with the intent to guide, to be beheld as something extraordinary. Something enough to instill “the fear of God” to everyone. In the very next sentence, though, the portrait was described as “opiates for remorse” and “drugs that could lull the moral sense to sleep” and “a visual symbol of the degradation of sin“. It’s described using very intensely derogatory terms for something of a guilty pleasure, something immoral but addictive. The fact that something created to be a guide is described as something so immoral is very foreshadowing for the story and telling for the character.
