First change in the portrait

The first change in the portrait is the pivotal supernatural event that confirms Dorian Gray's Faustian wish has been granted, transforming Basil Hallward's masterpiece from a static work of art into a living record of Dorian's moral corruption. After Dorian's cruel rejection of Sibyl Vane, he returns home at dawn and notices that the portrait's expression has altered, showing a touch of cruelty around the mouth, a change that no mirror can reflect on his own face. This event establishes the central magical mechanism of the novel: the portrait will age and bear the marks of Dorian's sins while he remains untouched by time or consequence.

Causes and Background

The change is the direct consequence of a wish Dorian made in Basil Hallward's studio on the day the portrait was finished. As he stood before the completed painting, Dorian was struck by the terrible realization that his own beauty would fade while the portrait would remain forever young. "How sad it is!" he murmured, his eyes fixed on his own image. "I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. . . . If it was only the other way! If it was I who were to be always young, and the picture that were to grow old! For this—for this—I would give everything!" The wish was uttered in a moment of intense emotion, fueled by Lord Henry Wotton's earlier panegyric on youth and his terrible warning of its brevity. Lord Henry had told Dorian that he had "only a few years in which really to live," that "time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses," and that he would "become sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed." These words had stirred Dorian deeply, and when he saw the portrait, the full reality of the description flashed across him. He felt "as if a hand of ice had been laid upon his heart." The wish was made in that moment of despair, and the portrait's first change proves that it has been answered.

What Happens

The change is first noticed by Dorian himself in the early morning hours after the disastrous night at the theatre. He had gone to see Sibyl Vane perform as Juliet, but she acted so badly that the audience hissed, and Dorian, in a fury, told her she had "killed" his love. He left her in tears and wandered through the streets until dawn, when he hailed a hansom and drove home. As he was passing through the library towards the door of his bedroom, his eye fell upon the portrait. He started back in surprise, and then went over to it and examined it. "In the dim arrested light that struggled through the cream-colored silk blinds, the face seemed to him to be a little changed. The expression looked different. One would have said that there was a touch of cruelty in the mouth." He drew the blinds up, and the bright dawn flooded the room, but the strange expression seemed to linger and become more intensified. "The quivering, ardent sunlight showed him the lines of cruelty round the mouth as clearly as if he had been looking into a mirror after he had done some dreadful thing." He took up an oval glass framed in ivory Cupids that Lord Henry had given him and glanced hurriedly into it, but no line like that warped his own red lips. He rubbed his eyes and came close to the picture again, examining it with care. There were no signs of any change when he looked into the actual painting, yet there was no doubt that the whole expression had altered. "It was not a mere fancy of his own. The thing was horribly apparent." He threw himself into a chair and began to think, suddenly remembering the mad wish he had uttered in Basil Hallward's studio. "Surely his prayer had not been answered? Such things were impossible. It seemed monstrous even to think of them. And, yet, there was the picture before him, with the touch of cruelty in the mouth."

Consequences and Aftermath

The first change in the portrait sets in motion the entire moral and psychological drama of Dorian's life. It teaches him that his wish has been granted and that the portrait will bear the burden of his sins while he remains young and beautiful. Initially, Dorian is horrified by the change and resolves to reform. He thinks of going back to Sibyl Vane, marrying her, and trying to love her again. He decides he will resist temptation and not see Lord Henry any more. But when he learns that Sibyl has killed herself, he quickly rationalizes her death as a beautiful tragedy and accepts the portrait's role as the bearer of his shame. "Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins,—he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all." The change also forces Dorian to hide the portrait away. He has it carried to the locked schoolroom at the top of the house, where he covers it with a purple-and-gold pall. There it remains for years, growing ever more hideous as Dorian sinks deeper into corruption, while he himself stays untouched by age or consequence. The first change is thus the origin of the double life that defines the rest of the novel: the public Dorian, eternally youthful and beautiful, and the secret portrait, which records every sin and every degradation. It is also the event that ultimately leads to Dorian's destruction, for when he finally tries to destroy the portrait by stabbing it with the same knife he used to kill Basil Hallward, the magic is reversed, and he himself falls dead, withered and loathsome, while the portrait returns to its original beauty.