"The Picture of Dorian Gray," Vocabulary from Chapters 9-12

This thematic list focuses on secrecy in Oscar Wilde's macabre story of a man who trades his soul for eternal youth and beauty. For general lists for the novel, click the links below.

Here are links to our thematic lists for the novel: Preface-Chapter 4, Chapters 5-8, Chapters 9-12, Chapters 13-16, Chapters 17-20

Here are links to our general lists for the novel: Chapters 1-2, Chapters 3-4, Chapters 5-8, Chapters 9-11, Chapters 12-20
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. gape
    look with amazement
    Were people to gape at the mystery of his life?
  2. revelation
    an enlightening or astonishing disclosure
    "If you want to have a strange quarter of an hour, get Basil to tell you why he won't exhibit your picture. He told me why he wouldn't, and it was a revelation to me."
  3. incarnation
    act of attributing human characteristics to abstract ideas
    You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream.
    The Latin "carnis" means "flesh" so an incarnation is literally something embodied in flesh. In Christianity, Incarnation is the "union of God and man in the person of Jesus Christ." While a god in human form is not suggested by this example sentence, it is seen in many descriptions of Basil's attitude towards Dorian.
  4. idolatry
    the worship of objects or images as gods
    I grew afraid that others would know of my idolatry.
    The first of the Ten Commandments is: "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them." Thus, Basil's worship and portraits of Dorian are seen as sinful. Yet, when Dorian worshiped Sybil, he was not afraid that others would know, because he was unlikely to be similarly judged.
  5. conceal
    prevent from being seen or discovered
    It often seems to me that art conceals the artist far more completely than it ever reveals him.
  6. confession
    an admission of misdeeds or faults
    Yet he could not help feeling infinite pity for the painter who had just made this strange confession to him, and wondered if he himself would ever be so dominated by the personality of a friend.
  7. wrest
    obtain by seizing forcibly or violently, also metaphorically
    And how strange it was that, instead of having been forced to reveal his own secret, he had succeeded, almost by chance, in wresting a secret from his friend!
  8. reticence
    the trait of being uncommunicative
    The painter's absurd fits of jealousy, his wild devotion, his extravagant panegyrics, his curious reticences—he understood them all now, and he felt sorry.
  9. corruption
    moral perversion; impairment of virtue and moral principles
    Now it was to hide something that had a corruption of its own, worse than the corruption of death itself—something that would breed horrors and yet would never die.
    The chosen definition fits the first use of the noun, but the second use refers to "decay of matter (as by rot or oxidation)." The two meanings cover the soul and body, which many believe coexist in one person. But Basil seems to have captured Dorian's soul in the picture. Dorian also wished to give his soul so that the picture would grow old while he stayed young, and somehow, this wish was granted.
  10. rebuke
    an act or expression of criticism and censure
    Compared to what he saw in it of censure or rebuke, how shallow Basil's reproaches about Sibyl Vane had been!—how shallow, and of what little account!
    "Censure," "rebuke," and "reproach" are all synonyms that can be used either as a noun or a verb. A comparison of their roots shows that a rebuke might hurt the most (the Old French "buschier" means "to strike, chop wood"). Here, Dorian feels the rebuke of his picture more than the reproaches from Basil, because "his own soul was looking out at him from the canvas and calling him to judgement."
  11. curious
    beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
    "I am afraid it is rather heavy," murmured Dorian as he unlocked the door that opened into the room that was to keep for him the curious secret of his life and hide his soul from the eyes of men.
    The Latin noun "cura" means "care." This connects to the adjective "curiosus" which means "careful, diligent." This later described a careful attention to detail and picked up the negative sense of being nosy. This meaning can apply to Dorian's fear of curious eyes. But here, the adjective is used in a way that can also be seen in the shortened noun "curio" which means "something unusual, perhaps worthy of collecting."
  12. secure
    free from danger or risk
    But there was no other place in the house so secure from prying eyes as this.
  13. bestial
    resembling an animal, especially by being vicious or cruel
    Beneath its purple pall, the face painted on the canvas could grow bestial, sodden, and unclean.
  14. hideous
    grossly offensive to decency or morality; causing horror
    Why should he watch the hideous corruption of his soul?
    The adjective also means "so extremely ugly as to be terrifying." Both definitions fit and can be seen more clearly in this example sentence: "It might escape the hideousness of sin, but the hideousness of age was in store for it." Actually, the picture does not escape either hideousness, while Dorian escapes the hideousness of age and uses that to embrace hideous sins, which others have difficulty connecting to him because he looks so beautiful.
  15. mystical
    beyond ordinary understanding
    The life of the senses was described in the terms of mystical philosophy.
    Mystical philosophy (mysticism) can be defined as "a religion based on communion with an ultimate reality." But the chosen definition for the adjective is more fitting, since the book's writing style is described with words such as "obscure" ("not clearly understood or expressed"), "argot" ("a characteristic language of a particular group"), "archaism" ("an expression so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period"), and "elaborate" ("marked by complexity").
  16. morbid
    suggesting an unhealthy mental state
    One hardly knew at times whether one was reading the spiritual ecstasies of some mediaeval saint or the morbid confessions of a modern sinner.
  17. sordid
    morally degraded
    They wondered how one so charming and graceful as he was could have escaped the stain of an age that was at once sordid and sensual.
  18. conjecture
    the formation of conclusions from incomplete evidence
    Often, on returning home from one of those mysterious and prolonged absences that gave rise to such strange conjecture among those who were his friends, or thought that they were so, he himself would creep upstairs to the locked room, open the door with the key that never left him now
  19. assume
    make a pretence of
    There were moments, indeed, at night, when, lying sleepless in his own delicately scented chamber, or in the sordid room of the little ill-famed tavern near the docks which, under an assumed name and in disguise, it was his habit to frequent, he would think of the ruin he had brought upon his soul with a pity that was all the more poignant because it was purely selfish.
  20. ravenous
    devouring or craving food in great quantities
    He had mad hungers that grew more ravenous as he fed them.
  21. degradation
    a change to a lower state
    There had been mad wilful rejections, monstrous forms of self-torture and self-denial, whose origin was fear and whose result was a degradation infinitely more terrible than that fancied degradation from which, in their ignorance, they had sought to escape
  22. abandon
    the trait of lacking restraint or control
    and in his search for sensations that would be at once new and delightful, and possess that element of strangeness that is so essential to romance, he would often adopt certain modes of thought that he knew to be really alien to his nature, abandon himself to their subtle influences, and then, having, as it were, caught their colour and satisfied his intellectual curiosity, leave them with that curious indifference that is not incompatible with a real ardour of temperament
    The chosen definition is for a noun, but the word is used as a verb in the example sentence. In seeking wild abandon ("a feeling of extreme emotional intensity"), Dorian often abandons ("leave someone who needs or counts on you" or "stop maintaining or insisting on, of ideas or claims") people and modes of thought when they are no longer new and delightful to him.
  23. sensuous
    providing perceptible pleasure or gratification
    He saw that there was no mood of the mind that had not its counterpart in the sensuous life, and set himself to discover their true relations, wondering what there was in frankincense that made one mystical, and in ambergris that stirred one's passions
    Beauty is usually connected to sight, but the definition of "sensuous" covers all the senses. In search of beauty, Dorian studies and indulges in perfumes, music, jewels, textiles, and stories. Influenced by Lord Henry's words, Dorian believes "nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul."
  24. burden
    weight to be carried or borne
    On his return he would sit in front of the picture, sometimes loathing it and himself, but filled, at other times, with that pride of individualism that is half the fascination of sin, and smiling with secret pleasure at the misshapen shadow that had to bear the burden that should have been his own.
  25. access
    a way of entering or leaving
    He hated to be separated from the picture that was such a part of his life, and was also afraid that during his absence some one might gain access to the room, in spite of the elaborate bars that he had caused to be placed upon the door.
  26. tamper
    play around with, alter, or falsify, usually dishonestly
    Sometimes when he was down at his great house in Nottinghamshire, entertaining the fashionable young men of his own rank who were his chief companions, and astounding the county by the wanton luxury and gorgeous splendour of his mode of life, he would suddenly leave his guests and rush back to town to see that the door had not been tampered with and that the picture was still there.
  27. suspect
    imagine to be the case or true or probable
    Surely the world would know his secret then. Perhaps the world already suspected it.
  28. consort
    keep company with
    It was rumoured that he had been seen brawling with foreign sailors in a low den in the distant parts of Whitechapel, and that he consorted with thieves and coiners and knew the mysteries of their trade.
  29. notorious
    known widely and usually unfavorably
    His extraordinary absences became notorious, and, when he used to reappear again in society, men would whisper to each other in corners, or pass him with a sneer, or look at him with cold searching eyes, as though they were determined to discover his secret.
  30. calumny
    a false accusation of an offense
    Of such insolences and attempted slights he, of course, took no notice, and in the opinion of most people his frank debonair manner, his charming boyish smile, and the infinite grace of that wonderful youth that seemed never to leave him, were in themselves a sufficient answer to the calumnies, for so they termed them, that were circulated about him.
    An insolence is "an offensive disrespectful impudent act" and a slight is "a deliberate discourteous act." Because Dorian does not respond to these offenses, and because he continues to be debonair ("having a cheerful, lively, and self-confident air" or "having a sophisticated charm"), many people are likely to accuse the offenders of abusively attacking Dorian's character and good name with false rumors.
  31. scandal
    disgraceful gossip about the private lives of other people
    Yet these whispered scandals only increased in the eyes of many his strange and dangerous charm.
  32. detriment
    a damage or loss
    Society—civilized society, at least—is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating.
  33. myriad
    a large indefinite number
    To him, man was a being with myriad lives and myriad sensations, a complex multiform creature that bore within itself strange legacies of thought and passion, and whose very flesh was tainted with the monstrous maladies of the dead.
  34. conception
    an abstract or general idea inferred from specific instances
    There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful.
  35. vice
    a specific form of evildoing
    Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face. It cannot be concealed. People talk sometimes of secret vices. There are no such things. If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding of his hands even.
  36. profligacy
    dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure
    The middle classes air their moral prejudices over their gross dinner-tables, and whisper about what they call the profligacies of their betters in order to try and pretend that they are in smart society and on intimate terms with the people they slander.
    The noun also means "the trait of spending extravagantly." Both definitions fit, because Dorian spends a lot of money indulging in sensual pleasures around the world. As a rich nobleman, Dorian sees himself as better than those who have accused him of being profligate. While he does not defend himself in public, here in private with Basil, he shows his anger by insulting the middle classes.
  37. hypocrite
    a person who professes beliefs that he or she does not hold
    And what sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.
  38. intimate
    marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity
    They say that you corrupt every one with whom you become intimate, and that it is quite sufficient for you to enter a house for shame of some kind to follow after.
  39. implicate
    bring into intimate and incriminating connection
    Your name was implicated in the most terrible confession I ever read.
  40. pry
    search or inquire in a meddlesome way
    After all, what right had he to pry into the life of Dorian Gray?
Created on Wed Mar 16 13:36:41 EDT 2016 (updated Thu Mar 22 08:51:37 EDT 2018)

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