In the work of the Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde connects sound with emotion with the love of music that the character Dorian has and how he feels about it. In the beginning, Dorian is introduced as "seated at the piano ... turning over the pages of a volume of Schumann's 'Forest Scenes.'" Later, Dorian adds, "You must lend me these, Basil, I want to learn them." (p. 14) This suggests the emotional state of admiration and determination that Dorian has with music because Dorian wants to learn it.
Later on in the story, Wilde wrote that "music expresses, in some way, the movement of the feelings that cling to the unconscious processes". Those 'feelings' are considered to be the emotional state that an individual may have. According to Wilde, those feelings 'cling to the unconscious processes' which could represent an abstract idea of psychology about the unconscious. With music, an individual can either accept or reject a concept or action of something.
Wilde described Dorian and his passion with music. He wrote that "Music had stirred him like that. Music had troubled him many times. But music was not articulate. It was not a new world, but rather another chaos, that it created in us." Music moved Dorian to act the way he did, even though music did not always have the answers for him. Chaos is another state of emotion that Wilde expresses with the description of Dorian.
Another example of sound acting as an emotional effect is how Dorian describes the first girl he falls in love with, Sibyl Vane. Dorian says "and her voice � I never heard such a voice. It was very low at first, with deep mellow notes, that seemed to fall singly upon one's ear. Then it became a little louder, and sounded like a flute or a distant hautbois. In the garden-scene it had all the tremulous ecstasy that one hears just before dawn when nightingales are singing. There were moments, later on, when it had the wild passion of violins. You know how a voice can stir one."
Dorian describes the girl to music such as when he describes her voice being low "with deep mellow notes, that seemed to fall singly upon one's ear". He describes her voice and way of speaking as a form of singing. Then he later describes her voice sounding like a flute or of violins. Wilde is able to use sound as a bridge between the emotional state of the character and reality.
Later on, when Dorian hears news about Sibyl Vane's death he remarks "I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, to dominate them." Again, Wilde emphasizes on emotion and in this case he suggests that Dorian has learned to become indifferent.