When Dorian's friends meet Angela Lansbury for the first time, Lord Henry Wotton suggests that he should tell his fiance to stay with him for the night. She cries and leaves but comes back. I think I have an idea as to why Wotton told him to do that, but honestly I am not sure. Why did he tell her to stay?
shareIt's a test of her virtue. Dorian boasts to Wotton that she is innocent and incorruptible. Wotton expresses skepticism and says Dorian is simply besotted, so he describes a "test" and Dorian accepts the challenge. (This is one of the first signs that Dorian is turning into a bad person.)
In asking Sybil to "stay," he is requesting that she spend the night with him, implying that this is what he wants from her and he will reject her otherwise. In order to "pass" the test, Sybil should, despite her love for Dorian, refuse him and have the dignity to leave. (In the 1890s, to spend the night with a man who isn't your husband was a disgrace.) She loves him so much, she'd rather disgrace herself than be without him, so when she turns back at the last minute, he cruelly determines that she is not the noble creature he held in such high esteem.
It's not clear to me if he sleeps with her, but his rejection of her afterward that drives her to suicide is his first major sin.
Thank you, that is what I thought.
shareOh, I think he definitely slept with her.
Then he threw her away.
It was so cruel and the poor girl not only lost her innocence to the man she loved, who rejected her afterward, but foe that period of time -- she was ruined too. He destroyed Sybil.
Absolutely agree, 100%! That scene was just one of the cruelest things I have even seen.....in movies and real life. He totally destroyed her. :(
Wait! Wait! Where are you going? I was gonna make Espresso!