The Picture of Dorian Gray - PODG #5 - Reality vs. The Portrait

"If one doesn't talk about a thing, it has never happened. It is simply expression, as Harry says, that gives reality to things" (79).

Dorian Gray uses this line as a response to Basil Hallward as he brings up Sibyl Vane's death. Dorian claims that the idea is told "as Harry says" it, which expresses how Lord Henry still has influence over the naive Dorian's ideas. Dorian's statement that "if one doesn't talk about a thing, it has never happened" goes against the fact that, in the book, whatever Dorian does is marked on the portrait. While unseen by all but Dorian, the reality of Dorian's sins is as plain as day on the portrait, revealing that they did happen, that they were all real.  The idea that "it is simply expression [...] that gives reality to things" is a viewpoint that is flawed, for events always leave some sort of a mark on the lives of those around them. Even while some events can be swept under the rug of life's conversations, the events of Dorian's life cannot be concealed forever, for even Sibyl Vane's death caused the first change in the painting.