The Picture of Dorian Gray

The novel as a whole seeks to interrogate the norms and failings of the British aristocracy of the 19th century. The chief vice that Wilde skewers in this narrative is that of vanity, and the pursuit of formalized artistic pleasure above all else. The enchanted and morphing painting of Dorian Gray is the perfect instrument for Wilde to achieve his critique. Firstly, the likeness of Dorian Gray inside of the painting bears visual evidence of the man’s moral corruption, of which his physical body bears no signs. The fact that it is a painting—the aristocratic class’s most prominent art form—symbolizes the manner in which the wealthy skirt responsibility and project their own ugliness onto objects and items external to themselves, thereby exculpating themselves. The fact that the painting ultimately succeeds in reifying Lord Henry’s destructive and morally bankrupt devotion to art for art’s sake, as well as his blind elevation of beautiful objects through its ultimately pristine and beautiful appearance at the narrative’s end—while Dorian himself, as well as several others, have met with violent and painful ends—forwards the notion that aristocratic vices are slippery and difficult to nail down and resolve.