When Dorian sees his own morals of remorse, he is once again thrown into another direction and goes about his actions by Lord Henry, ""Yes; it is very tragic, of course, but you must not get yourself mixed up in it."" (Wilde 87) This gave Dorian another path to walk, other than his own of acting on the remorse he felt. He is torn between his own morals, and that of Lord Henry. He is not sure which path is right, so he simply goes after the one, which was handed to him on a platter. This tone is distinguished by the morals and values that are circulating in Dorian's mind. Conflicting ideals make Dorian confused about his own personal identity, since he uses other's ideals opposed to his own.
The tone of the chaos of morals and values is also evident in Sons and Lovers to help develop its theme of the struggle of personal identity. The tone contributes to the theme by creating a flux of morals and values Paul Morel has and uses. Gertrude Morel puts her own ideals upon Paul, calling upon him to follow her ideals. Lawrence goes as far as to blatantly state how Paul is just a pawn of Gertrude's chess match, "His soul seemed always attentive to her." (Lawrence 59) These morals and values Gertrude has put upon Paul have simply taken over his identity, and replaced it with her ideals. Chaos fills Paul's mindset with the question of his morals and values. Gertrude finds Paul's relationship to Miriam so much not up to her standards, that she regards Miriam as to have, ""occupied you (Paul) so entirely as to burn a whole ovenful of bread."" (Lawrence 201) Paul became hesitant about his love with Miriam only because of the influence Gertrude had over him, not letting him create his own identity. This frustration of who's path to choose, his mother's or his own, creates turmoil to how he wants to live his life. This frustration is passed upon to the reader in the tone of the novel.