Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Lust for Our True Character

The struggle to seem perfect on the outside is ever so present in today’s society. The desire to project an unrealistic version of ourselves, striving to mask our insecurities with layers of falsehood. The Victorian era is known for its beautiful women, art and architecture. Beneath the surface, it is all false portrayals full of pretend actions and untruthful ideas in order to uphold their aestheticism. Victorian authors used the idea of “destructive doppelgangers”, showing parallels in the contemporary culture of the falsity. In Oscar Wilde’s, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the symbolism of the portrait illustrates the conflict between outer appearance and inner immorality. The central conflict presents the question; is the facade people portray representative of their true intentions? Furthermore, does their deceit ever receive punishment?
In the last three decades of the 19th century people considered art as a substitute of older values. The movement gave importance to the aesthetic value of things rather than the practical ways of thinking. Oscar Wilde used art as a reaction to the ugliness and materialism of industrializing times. Through his writing, Wilde transposed his beliefs and values regarding the aestheticism movement of the Victorian age further making the novel a topic of controversy. The preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray became the platform for the English aestheticism
movement,