CHAPTER 10

Summary

Dorian is in his drawing room when his manservant Victor enters. 2He scrutinizes Victor to see if Victor has looked behind the curtain at the portrait. He watches Victor in the mirror to see if he can see anything but can see nothing but "a placid mask of servility." He sends for the housekeeper. When she arrives, he asks her to give him the key to the old schoolroom. She wants to clean it up before he goes up to it, but he insists he doesnÂ’t need it cleaned. She mentions that it hasnÂ’t bee used for five years, since his grandfather died. Dorian winces at the mention of his grandfather, who was always mean to him.

When she leaves, he takes the cover off the couch and throws it over the portrait. he thinks of Basil and wonders if he shouldnÂ’t have appealed to Basil to help him resist Lord HenryÂ’s influence. He knows Basil loves him with more than just a physical love. However, he gives up on the thought of asking Basil for help, deciding that the future is inevitable and the past can always be annihilated.

He receives the men from the framemakerÂ’s shop. The framemaker himself, Mr. Hubbard, has come. He asks the two men to help him carry the portrait upstairs. He sends Victor away to Lord HenryÂ’s so as to get him out of the way in order to hide the operation from him. They get the portrait upstairs with some trouble and he has them lean it against the wall and leave it. He hates the idea of leaving it in the dreaded room where he was always sent to be away from his grandfather who didnÂ’t like to see him, but itÂ’s the only room not in use in the house. He wonders what the picture will look like over time. He thinks with repulsion of how its image will show the signs of old age.

When he gets back downstairs to the library, Victor has returned from Lord HenryÂ’s. Lord Henry had sent him a book and the paper. The paper is marked with a red pen on a passage about the inquest into Sibyl VaneÂ’s death. He throws it away annoyed at Lord Henry for sending it and fearing that Victor saw the red mark. Then he picks up the book Lord Henry sent him. It is a fascinating book from the first page. It is a plot-less novel, a psychological study of a young Parisian who spends all his life trying to realize all the passions and modes of thought of previous ages. It is written in the style of the French Symbolistes. He finds it to be a poisonous book. He canÂ’t put it down. It makes him late to dinner with Lord Henry.

Notes

Here, Dorian Gray sinks into paranoia in regard to the portrait. He begins to suspect his manservant Victor of sneaking around the portrait. He wonders if Victor will even extort money from him for his secret knowledge of the portrait.

At the end of the chapter, Lord HenryÂ’s influence finds another inroad. He sends Dorian a book by a French Symboliste writer. Dorian finds it poisonous like Lord HenryÂ’s ideas, but he is as fascinated with it as he is with Lord Henry. At one point early in the chapter, Dorian wonders if he shouldnÂ’t have confessed to Basil about the portrait and begged him to save him from the influence of Lord Henry. By the end of the chapter, it is clear that Dorian is far from Basil HallwardÂ’s influence.

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