Chapter 4.

"Sibyl? Oh, she was so shy, and so gentle.  There is something of a child about her.  Her eyes opened wide in exquisite wonder when I told her what I thought of her performance, and she seemed quite unconscious of her power."

Oscar Wilde characterizes Sibyl through childlike diction.  He uses the words shy, gentle, child, and wonder in order to make his point.  The way Sibyl is characterized is a lot like the way Dorian Gray was characterized when he first met Lord Henry.  The two are very similar.  Wilde also uses denotation to characterize Sibyl.  Her first name Sibyl means: a woman able to foretell the future, and her last name Vane, if we use vain instead, means: having or showing an excessively high opinion of one's appearance, abilities, or worth.  I think the denotation of her name, is a foreshadow of the role she will play.  Or maybe, because she and Dorian Gray are so alike, what happens to her will foretell what will happen to Dorian Gray. 

There is irony in the fact that Dorian Gray is the one characterizing Sibyl in this way because this is the same way he had been characterized by Lord Henry.  This represents a change in character.  Now that Dorian Gray is more like Lord Henry, I get the feeling that he will soon be influencing/corrupting young Sibyl.