Hoxton road happens to be a very important road in the story, The Picture of Dorian Gray. This is the area in which young Sibyl committed suicide. After looking at this road in both the old bailey and charles booth sites, I am very surprised that the two didn’t correspond more. Usually when an area has a low social standing the crime rate goes way up. But here we can see the Hoxton square is mainly a poor neighborhood, but yet there was only a few robberies when I searched the old Bailey. Though maybe it makes sense to the story. Why else would a local newspaper write about some poor actress killing herself unless there wasn’t much crime in the area to report?  In a way it is interesting also, that Sibyl kills herself when in the beginning of the story, Dorian claims that HE will kill himself if he grows old.

“”Your picture has taught me that. Lord Henry Wotton is perfectly right. Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself.”” -The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapter 2

It is funny that in a way Dorian said he would kill himself if, basically, he (though meaning a young pretty him) ever left him, he would kill himself. It’s interesting because that is exactly why Sibyl probably killed herself. Dorian told her he never wanted to see her again. It’s also funny that her art was effected by young Dorian just as Basil’s art is effected by him.

Basil’s picture of Dorian is forever changing throughout the story due to the wish that Dorian stated in the beginning. He wanted basically him and the picture to switch places, he gave his soul for this and he gained the pictures endless youth. But in this whenever something would happen to Dorian it wouldn’t age him, but the picture. The same goes for Sibyl’s art. She was an amazing actress but than when she fell in love with Dorian she lost focus and could not act properly, she even admits to it.

“Tonight, for the first time, I became conscious that the Romeo was hideous, and old, and painted, that the moonlight in the orchard was false, that the scenery was vulgar, and that the words I had to speak were unreal, were not my words, were not what I wanted to say. You had brought me something higher, something of which all art is but a reflection. You had made me understand what love really is.” -The Picture of Dorian Gray Chapter 7

So two works of art that Dorian has proper control over. In the end also ends up being the cause of both Basil’s and Sibyl’s death. Sibyl when she commits suicide and the eventual murder of Basil. It’s funny also how the original reason Basil doesn’t want to show the picture is that he claims too much of himself. It is funny because in the end it is showing all of Dorian quite literally. All the aging of Dorian goes to the photo.

Art is a powerful medium and this story helps to prove that. When Sibyl commits suicide on Hoxton road it shows how much art can have control over someones life. Her sudden lack in the ability to act led Dorian to realize he wasn’t in love with her and him telling her that lead her to killing herself.