Art's Influence on Life: Insights from 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'

Art is seen as a human’s natural form of expression. It has a way of expressing the artist’s beliefs and can be influential to many of its viewers. The passion of revealing art’s meaning and its relevance to an individual is a strong topic that has been expressed by Oscar Wilde. In his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde proposes to his audience that life is influenced by various pieces of art and depicts this through many different techniques and characters in his writing piece. He continues to further dive into the topic as he conveys the influence art plays in society, how art is able to express the artist’s true self and the role of art in determining the morality of one’s life. Through these three arguments, Wilde uses a variety

The influence of the portrait on every character’s morality can be seen through this novel as well. Wilde presents art in many forms and reveals the danger of when it is taken too literally or believed too deeply. The first character that was influenced by this painting is Dorian Gray himself. He sold his soul to have eternal youth to this painting and ended up becoming immoral. He sees the changes to his painting and fails to recognize that was truly his own soul until he stabs it, eventually killing himself. His immoral self in the painting is shown in the novel when it states,
Life had decided that for him- life, and his own infinite curiosity about life. Eternal life, infinite passions, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins- he was to have all of these things.The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all (Wilde

Every evil act he performed, he already knew the impact would be on the painting and not himself. Readers can see how the influence of the painting made him progressively corrupt. This corrupting influence of art is also seen in Lord Henry’s character. Lord Henry saw that this painting was Dorian Gray’s prized possession and used this painting to easily influence Dorian. “All influence is immoral... To influence a person is to give him one’s own soul”
In this quote, Wilde foreshadows the relationship between Dorian Gray and Lord Henry. In addition, as we read the novel, readers start to become aware of the power of art to each of the characters in the novel. When being under a negative influence, this can make the individual corrupt or contribute to their downfall. Due to this painting, all characters were influenced which proves that art can significantly influence the morality of an individual. As a piece of art itself, the novel invites us to question its form and purpose, as the preface