Regarding the temperament of Dorian Gray, this can be determined by means of his actions and behaviour throughout the novel. If we take in consideration the clasification of temperaments realised by Eysenck, Dorian Gray is part of the cholerico-sanguinic category, presenting a high degree of instability.

Dorian Gray oscillates between enthusiasm, temerity and the state of abandon , deception, specific to the strongly disbalanced type, which corelates with the choleric temperament. This oscillation can easily be noticed in his relationship with Sibyl Vane.Dorian becomes enthusiastic, leading almost to idolatry in regard to Sibyl , just to wake up the next day suffering from a terrible deception. Dorian becomes aware of the fact that his love had not been for the person backstage, but for her act, for the characters which she interpreted. The moment in which Sibyl discovers real life and stops living through her characters brings about great desillusion in Dorian, realising that the person he thought he loved was nothing but a stranger.

That which underlines even more the instable character of Dorian are his outbursts, which, from that moment on, will become more and more frequent.He is so disgusted and so strongly lead by his rage that Sibyl only manages to irritate him through her tears and her attitude. What is actually a paradox is that righ after this incident, which represents the moment of his future transformation, Dorian will become exactly what he was accusing Sibyl of being, "a 3rd hand actor, with a beautiful face"

Another temperamental characteristic of Dorian is his tendancy to exagerate, not only friendship or love, but also ostility, as he is by definition an extrovert. He not only exagerates his love for Sibyl Vane or his friendship with Harry, but also the ostility he is capable of just because he gives in to his ourbursts , as it is the case of braking up with Sibyl or of killing Basil. This way, his tendancy for exageration jeopardizeshis emotional balance.

Dorian's decision not to brake the engagement with Sibyl inspite of his deception, is taken from pure vanity, in order to calm his ego, as lord Harry notices: "the source of generous decisions is pure vanity". Actually, most of Dorian's fatal decisions are due to his unlimited desire to mend his hurt ego, or due to fear and the refusal of accepting "the disclosure", as it is the case of Basil's murder.

What causes Dorian that unrestrained fury which culminates with the murder of his friend is in reality the fact that basil manages to hurt Dorian's ego profoundly . This happens when Basil brings to light Dorian's horrible deeds and their consequences. He is also disgusted when seeing the painting, which was actually Dorian's true self, the mirror of his soul. Without relising, basil describes exactly what he was about to see in the painting: the decaying image of Dorian's soul. Not only the accuracy of Basil's words but also his horrible reaction when seeing the portrait will lead to his death.

One of the characteristics of the sanguinic temperament which fits Dorian is the ability to easily give up without hurting too much. This happens when hearing about Sibyl's suicide. Dorian neither has the capacity nor the will to cathch at the past, he is totally orientated to present and future. As Dorian himself says, "the only charm of past is that it has remained in the past". The statement of lord Harry("this girl has never truly lived and therefore she couldn't truly have died") makes Dorian easily forget this dramatic incident. Moreover, Dorian has the capacity to give this happening an artistic note, without having any remourse. The imposibility of "living this tragedy as profoundly as I would like" comes from his incapacity of reliving the past or the mistakes made in the past and makes him act consequently. Sibyl's drama even causes Dorian an estetic pleasure: " How fantasticaly dramatic life is!"

His remarkable capacity of acting is given by his neverchanching physical appearance and his temperamental instability, to him being at ease to pass from one state of mind to another, specific to cholerico-sanguinics. As Dorian confesses, " man is never more at ease than when acting". His true face, the portrait, being hidden from the looks of others, practically obliges him to act consequently in order not to reveal it. Therefore, his all existance since the appearance of the portrait is nothing but an act played for the outside world. He soon ends identifying himself so good with this role that living in accordance with his true identity seems unimaginable.Lord Harry's words become the reality in which Dorian lives, they become a "modus vivendi", due to his quality of impostor.

In the end, Dorian oscillates drastically from the desire to confess everything in order to be punished to the totally opposed idea that this would be unbearable and even useless. However, this indecision culminates with the decision to destroy the portrait, which comes from the desire of self-confort, by destroying the only existing evidance to his deeds. This fatal decision leads to unwilling suicide, as destroying the painting meant the annihilation of his own soul. The instability of his manifestations leads to selfdistruction.

Voinea Iuliana, X F1

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