Vanity of a Man

Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, shows a man’s vanity, self- indulgence and utter lack of regard for others through art. The portrait of Dorian Gray, created at the height of Dorian’s beauty, youth and charm is a reflection of the evils in basing the worth of someone on appearance rather than character. Since those around him find him beautiful and charming, Dorian believes that that the only thing matters is his appearance, so that he is able to focus on his own needs and wants. Showing how vain people in a society can really be, and its destructive force, is Wilde’s ultimate statement. After Basil Hallward paints a magnificent portrait of Dorian Gray, the painting changes along with Dorian’s soul, but Dorian’s physical presence stays the same. Evolving into this new person, Dorian tends to collapse people’s reputations and also ends up ruining his own reputation, leaving a path of destruction in the pursuit of his own pleasures and those things to which he feels entitled. Oscar Wilde draws attention to society’s vanity by creating an element of supernatural within the painting. When Dorian does things that are horrid, the painting captures what he has done and starts looking cruel and evil while Dorian’s youth and beautiful appearance remains the same. The painting is a metaphor for Dorian’s soul. His soul and the painting are changing for the worse, but Dorian Gray always looks like the nearly twenty year old boy he was when the painting was first composed. Dorian’s vanity is all that matters.

Dorian claims to find the love of his life in Sibyl Vane. However, his feelings for Sibyl have little to do with her as a person and far more to do with what is important to Dorian and how in loving her, she...

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... indifference to Sibyl’s suicide, to corrupting other people, leading eventually to murder.

Oscar Wilde wants the world to know how truly vain and selfish everyone really is. The portrait painted of Dorian Gray, like a supernatural mirror, reflects not the external appearance but the results of our actions on our souls. Wilde creates the painting to show the readers that message. As he begins his novel in the preface, Oscar Wilde states, “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors” (Wilde, vii). The painting displays Dorian’s vanity and increasing selfishness as he gets older, the painting looks, in the end cruel. As Dorian’s soul is become more self-absorbed, so is the painting absorbing the essence of Dorian. Dorian Gray is willing to sell his soul to the devil, to keep his youth and good looks, but in the end he cannot escape his reflection.