There is a significant turning point in Dorian’s disposition after he sees Sybil Vane, the girl he is madly in love with for her beautiful acting skills, put on an embarrassingly poor performance as Juliet in front of Basil and Lord Henry. He began to show signs of a change in him after a discussion with Lord Henry about the fleetingness of youth, when his powerful desire to stay young forever emerges. Dorian, who had once professed his love for Sybil and her ability to emulate a beautiful work of art through acting, is aghast at Sybil’s dismal performance as Juliet.
Sybil explains to Dorian that his love has freed her, that her acting was only an “empty pageant” and now she truly knows what love is. (Wilde 72). In a dramatic fury, Dorian tells Sybil, ““you have killed my love. You used to stir my imagination. Now you don’t even stir my curiosity. … I loved you because you were wonderful, because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art. You have thrown it all away” (Wilde 73).
Heartbroken, Sybil kills herself. Basil is bewildered by Dorian’s indifference to the news, to which Dorian replies, “she lived her finest tragedy.” He goes on: “… she died, as Juliet might have died. She passed again into the sphere of art. There is something of the martyr about her. Her death has all the pathetic uselessness of martyrdom, all its wasted beauty. (Wilde 93). Dorian has no interest in Sybil if she cannot embody the artistic beauty he seeks. He tells Basil that he, Dorian, has grown, matured and developed into a new man with new passions. Basil finds himself moved by Dorian’s speech: “rugged and straightforward as he was, there was something in his nature that was purely feminine in its tenderness (Wilde 94)”.
In A Problem in Modern Ethics, John Addington Symonds contends that gay men posses a feminine soul, and are instinctually emotional and full of desire (1896). Dorian’s sexual awakening begins with Lord Henry’s speech, which has altered his view of the world entirely, and is catalyzed by Sybil’s butchered Juliet performance. Dorian himself is dramatic and emotional, aching with desire to blur the lines between life and art.