A Brief Review Of The Picture Of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde

When published, The picture of Dorian Gray was criticized and addressed as an immoral book. It was published during the Victorian Era which was a period of time in Britain in which the religion beliefs were strict and morality was a big part of society. Good manners and moral actions were extremely important during this time and people were judgemental when they were not applied. When published, it was judged by critics. Wilde was tagged as an immoral author. On the preface of the book, Wilde talks about the role of art in society. “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all” (Wilde). In this quote present in the preface, Wilde gave his opinion and he then explained why he believed that morality should not be involved with art. He referred to art as a useless thing which was just a way in which artists

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, this immoral acts are the ones that lead to the tragic ending of the book and the unhappy life that he had on his last years of living. During a substantial portion of the book, Dorian felt the weight of his conscience and he never describes it as a pleasant feeling. His only escape became the opium in one point. “There were opium-dens, where one could buy oblivion, dens of horror where the memory of old sins could be destroyed by the madness of sins that were new” (Wilde, 16). He was trying to forget his sins but the weight of them was unbearable, he was living an unhappy life. The book makes reference to his immoral acts but they are the ones that lead to unhappiness. What the author is doing is not idolize the life of sin but criticising it because the ending is tragic and it is not a life that a normal person would want. People tend to look for happiness and the book shows that a life of sin does not make an individual happy, it actually makes people feel regret and a weight on their