The Picture of Dorian Gray: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Over the next years of Dorian’s life, he becomes obsessed with the book about the Parisien. He gets it bound in different colors to suit his various moods. As he reads and rereads it, it seems to tell the story of his own life, yet while the protagonist suffers the loss of his own beauty, Dorian’s is as noticeable as ever. Dorian finds pleasure in this. Even when his friends and acquaintances begin talking badly about his “sensual” lifestyle, they are still charmed by his looks and his relentless youthfulness.

Dorian would sometimes disappear from society on mysterious jaunts. Each time he returned to his house, he checked on the portrait, which was becoming uglier and uglier. But instead of fearing it, Dorian became fascinated, almost in love with the feeling of superiority he had over the image. His hunger for knowledge and experience of life was always growing, thanks to Lord Henry’s influence.

And Dorian was managing to keep up his place in society. When back from his jaunts, he would throw parties, hosting artists, beautiful music, and the finest decorations and pieces of art filled his rooms. The way he embodied ideals of beauty and fashion was admired by the men in his circle. But to Dorian, the best form of art, as he had so often been advised by Henry, was life itself.

In his place in society, Dorian was coming of age into a position of very high status and influence, but he desired now not to follow the traditional path but to be an icon of fashion, modern in his ideas and living by the values of sensuality and pleasure rather than traditional virtue. He mourned, looking back at history, how valor and sacrifice had won over pleasure. But guided by Lord Henry, he saw a new way of life opening up, replacing puritan values with passion and the senses - the dreams, shadows and hallucinations that happen at night seemed most real to Dorian.

The narrator describes at length a series of hobbies and fascinations that Dorian takes up to fill his life of leisure. First, is Catholicism. Its idols and luxurious rituals attract him, but he finds he cannot adapt his life to a strict code. He then goes to the more physical laws of Darwinism but again, he cannot submit himself to one limiting theory of life.

Dorian’s pursuits move away from religion and philosophy. He becomes obsessed with perfumes, then music, jewels and tapestries. With each fascination, Dorian collects not only the objects but the romantic stories behind them, the stories of Kings and Queens who wore elaborate crowns and scepters, and the origins of embroideries of exotic cultures. This list of treasures accumulates into a rich world surrounding Dorian, but beneath it all, the old fear still haunts him. He finds he must regularly check on the state of his soul in the portrait, and becomes frantic when he is away from the house.

As his anxiety grows, and his behavior gets stranger, Dorian’s circle of friends becomes more seriously distrustful of him. Rumors abound. He is barred from establishments and avoided by people who once loved him. But all this only increases the strange charm of his reputation. Lord Henry’s theory that entertainment, manners, and material opulence are more important to one’s social standing than morals seems to be true.

Dorian enjoys walking through his rooms and studying the portraits of his ancestors. He enjoys seeing the rich fashions and handsome forms and how each set of passions has somehow formed his nature. But he also believes his lineage lies in literature, and it seems to him that the characters of the stage and novels are all telling parts of his own adventure story. He comes back to the yellow-bound book and reads over and over again his favorite passages, those about violent acts, poisons and seductions. Dorian’s life has become fuelled by dangerous ideas.