Brought to you by OBS staff member Annabell Cadiz

Chapter 15

Characters:
Dorian Gray
Lady Narorough
Henry Wotten

Summary

Dorian attends a dinner party. He is calm and at ease, knowing he has to play the part for the evening of acting as a charming gentleman. He is very surprised at his calm demeanor. He kisses Lady Narborough’s hand since it’s her dinner party and describes Lady Narborough. He tells of how Lady Narorough had been the wife to an ambassador but is now a widow. She has married her daughters off to older men and is a woman who is devoted all things French related: “French cookery, French fiction, French espirt.” Lady Narborough informs Dorian that her daughter has come to town, along with her husband, and is staying with her. She comments she feels her daughter lives a boring life because they live in the country. She tells Dorian at dinner he shouldn’t sit next to them, he will sit next to her and amuse her for the evening. Dorian murmurs some form of compliment and excuses himself to escape. He walks around the room and feels the party is rather boring and so are the guests. Dorian’s mood picks up once Henry Wotten arrives.

Favorite Quotes:

“Women love us for our defects.
If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything,
even our intellects.” ~Lord Henry

“Nowadays all the married men live like bachelors,
and all the bachelors like married men.” ~Lady Narborough

Questions:

1. Would you be able to be as calm as Dorian is at the beginning of the dinner party? Or do you think it would be too hard to contain your paranoia?

2. What do you think when Lord Henry says, “Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects?” Do you agree that’s a true statement?

3. Where do you think Dorian is heading in London?’

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