13. The Picture of Dorian Gray-Oscar Wilde

'How sad it is!', murmured Dorian Gray, with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. 'How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June.... If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that-for that-I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!'

-The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde 

I have written about two works by Nietzsche, and Machiavelli's The Prince. These books underline the importance, or the value, of reality over morality. Freedom over conformity. And individuality over culture. Maybe this book is Oscar Wilde's response to such stance in life. Dorian Gray-upon saying the quote above-really has it all. An Adonis deep into hedonism, influenced by Lord Henry, and in turn influencing others. But what makes him get sick of his hedonistic decadence, or his being a aesthete? 

The life of Dorian Gray leads him to want many things. But what makes him desire innocence eventually? It's hard to believe that the sole reason is his conformity with Victorian London society; are the repercussions for his misdeeds the only reasons for his wanting to change? I conclude for now that it is because of his surrender to the ephemerality of pleasure, thereby the ephemerality-destined hollowness-of hedonism. 

He reduces to tears when he finds out that James Vane is shot to death. This exoneration from the revenge upon his sins obviously moves him greatly. Although he tries to adopt Lord Henry's approach on life,-carefree and pleasure-seeking-this emotional response seems to shed light on the fact that no one really is completely free from his culture and society. The freedom is unequivocally infringed to certain extent once one decides to live in a city. He may not be afraid of dying, but he is not truly free as he once was before the portrait aged on behalf of him, before he met Lord Henry, before he was corrupted. 

I really liked the ending where Dorian Gray dies upon trying to murder the portrait. And it really is exquisite that the knife that did away Basil Hallward was used in this attempted murder. He repeats the exactly same action-plunging knife into both Basil and the portrait- and takes away both Basil's and his own lives. It's almost as tragically beautiful as Sibyl's suicide-if you can say any death can assume some kind of poetic symbolism.

It's funny how the novel talks extensively about influences, corruption, repercussions of pursuit of beauty and pleasure, and hedonism, yet the novel starts out with this passage, almost a sonnet:

The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true can be proved.

Can this novel really not influence readers? And as for corruption and whatnot:

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book.
Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. 

Oscar Wilde, from the beginning, tells the story, without assuming any responsibility of the potential influences of the novel upon the readers. Its stance on morality and hedonism are mere device to create this fabulous character Dorian Gray. Or, is it...?