Theme Of Morality In The Picture Of Dorian Gray - 789 Words

Everyone in the world lives their lives following a set of personal morals. However, as every individual person decides what their morals are, arises moral ambiguity. Moral ambiguity is defined as a lack of ethical decision making. Everyone defines what is morally correct and incorrect, but there comes a point where most people cannot decipher if a decision is truly correct. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian Gray’s morals are ambiguous. Dorian Gray’s moral ambiguity stems from his actions only benefiting himself due to the influence of Lord Henry and Basil and parallels the dangers of engrossing yourself in Aesthetics. A widely expressed idea in The Picture of Dorian Gray is that becoming too absorbed in the Aesthetics movement is†¦show more content†¦The unclearness also comes from Dorian going back and and forth between seemingly caring about and not caring about people. After he broke his engagement with Sibyl Vane, Dorian realizes he had been â€Å"sel fish and cruel to her,† and decides to â€Å"go back to Sibyl Vane, make her amends, marry her, try to love her again,† but fails to follow through because she dies (67). If Dorian was able to go through with marrying Sibyl, to the outside observer it would seem to be in favor of Sibyl, but Dorian still benefits from this. So, we see that even though his actions would have benefited someone else, the same actions also would have benefited him, in that he would be marrying someone he loved and there would no longer be conflict between Dorian and Sibyl. Lord Henry and Basil are very influential in that they both play a role in Dorian’s moral ambiguity due to their attempts to get Dorian to agree with their ideas. Lord Henry forced Dorian to think about the human race and the concept of Beauty. Dorian was â€Å"bewildered† by Henry’s ideas, such as the idea that people have a â€Å"desire for a new sensation,† (14, 163). Many of Dorian’s questionable thoughts stemmed from Henry’s influence. Even Dorian outright says Lord Henry brings up â€Å"subtle poisonous theories† and he had to â€Å"resist† the â€Å"temptation† of listening to these theories (67). Basil also greatly influences Dorian by showing Dorian his own beauty. BasilShow MoreRelatedThe Theme of Decadence in the Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde1553 Words   |  7 PagesThe theme of decadence in The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde Staring from the definition found in the dictionary, the decadence is a literary movement especially of late 19th-century France and England characterized by refined aestheticism, artifice, and the quest for new sensations. [1] In decadence, important is not necessarily what is seen, but the hermeneutics: what man feels when he sees the creative result of this feeling. 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