What role does Sibyl Vane play in the novel?
Sibyl is not a character that Wilde spends much time developing. What is important about her is the way in which she embodies art, and the impact this has on Dorian. Sibyl is a young woman who lives in straitened circumstances with her mother and who happens to have a gift as an actress. She acts in a sordid little theater in front of a lower-class audience, who attend the play carrying oranges and ginger beer and eating nuts. Wilde uses these details to contrast how Sibyl is able to rise above her dismal surroundings and soar into the realm of beauty and art. This is why Dorian falls in love with her. He is not the slightest bit interested in Sibyl as a person. He knows nothing about her personal history, and does not want to know. When he praises her for all the different roles she plays in the theater, Henry asks him “When is she Sibyl Vane?” Dorian replies “Never” (ch. 4). When they first met, Sibyl regarded Dorian “merely as a person in a play. She knows nothing of life,” he says.
