While they strolling in the garden during the break, Lord Henry took this chance to influence Dorian to live his life to the fullest while he is still a youth. However, Dorian seemd to be captivated by his philosophy of life. For Basil, Dorian was a perfect pure subject to be drawn on a canvas and he did not want him to be spoiled with the Lord Henry’s cynicism principles. He insisted to meet Dorian Gray although Basil Hallward felt reluctant to do so. In the earlier chapter of the book, Lord Henry amused Dorian by his introduction speech about his life principle. Through his dangerous piece of art, Wilde promotes the values of vice and virtue through the characters of Dorian Gray and Lord Henry Wotton where Lord Henry tries to influence Dorian Gray with his life philosophy of hedonism and aestheticism since their first meeting.
Meanwhile, aestheticism is defined as the quality of being aesthetic the pursuit of, or attractive to the sense, especially opposed to an ethically or rationally based outlook. The Wilde’s piece of art shows the readers how the virtue, vice, and art are related to each other by bringing forward the philosophy of practicing hedonism and aestheticism in life throughout the characters in the novel.Īccording to the English Oxford Dictionary, hedonism is defined as the doctrine or theory of ethics in which pleasure is regarded as the chief good, or the proper end of action. Virtue and vice, is it natural born within one’s soul or it has to be developed by the influence of outside factors? The novel titled The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde portrays us how a pure soul of an Englishman deteriorates into a wicked evil character yet still hidden behind a beautiful innocent face.
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