What good does it do a man to gain the whole world yet forfiet his soul? None, perfection, the goal we all reach for, yet is it really attainable to become perfect without giving something in return, possibly your soul. This is a theme challenged in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. We see the tragedy of a young beautiful Englishman, Dorian Gray, who becomes a vain sinner dedicated to pleasure. Dorian’s inner secrets and weakness of mind becomes his downfall. In this novel Dorian Gray’s apparent perfection is destroyed by his weakness of mind and naiveness, which becomes the downfall of his soul as his mind is opened to sin and Hedonism by Lord Henry Wotton.
Dorian’s apparent perfection is expressed to us before he is. We are made to believe that he is the most beautiful and virtuous man ever. When his entrance comes in chapter two we see and understand first hand his beauty only described as natural and pure. He is even told by Lord Henry he is far too charming to go into philantropy. This remark may be the beginning of the flattery that opened Dorian’s mind up to his corruption. Dorian is being moved by Harry’s speech about cherishing youth and enjoying it. His mind was being challenged by the thought of his own passions until the point when he proclaimed “stop! You bewilder me.
I do not know what to say. There is some answer to you, but I cannot find it. Do not speak. Let me think. Or rather let me try not to think”.(Wilde, p.27) Dorian allows himself to be corrupted. He begins to fear aging and begins to think that everything will be loss with the loss of his youth and beauty. Dorian goes from no worries to this thought as Harry speaks. He was convinced that this “new Hedonism”(Wilde, p.31) was the way. This shows the weakness of his mind in his youth it is also the begginning of his fate. With this flaw of character, Dorian seemed to write his fate unknowingly. When Basil Hallward, the painter, rewarded Dorian with the portrait he replied “If I were to be the one always young, and the picture grow old! For that-for that-Iwould give everything! would give my soul for that!”. This was just a plea at the depth of his sorrow, a remark made totally through whim.
As the novel goes on so does Dorian’s life. He begins to be under the control of Lord Henry to some degree. He also begin’s to spend more time with Lord Henry, who is continuously feeding him this hedonism and selfishness. We see the first bad fruit of his bad seed in chapter seven as Dorian falls in love with Sibyl Vane. In reality he is just in love with her beauty and the perfection of her acting. This is exploited when sibyl has a rather bad show, Dorian is disgusted embarrased by this. He tells her she “has killed his love”(Wilde p.96”). It was at this point where he saw the first changes in his porytrait. It seems he did not want to accept it, he just brushed it off and went to bed.
