There is truly nothing I love more than this book. I grew up a bookworm, I study literature in college, and yet I am certain that The Picture of Dorian Gray will continue to be my favorite book of all time. You can ask my professors, my friends, my family, and they will all tell you the same thing—that I will take every opportunity to talk about this book. One of the reasons for this (besides the gorgeous writing and complex characters) is how relevant this book remains. This novel will never be one that is dusty or outdated, past its time, or aging like Dorian’s portrait; instead, remaining forever young and beautiful—while showing us how toxic that wish is. I will actually go so far as to argue that this book has never been as relevant as it is right now.
This novel is wrapped up in the flashy, flourishing world of the 1800s elite in London. It is filled with characters that are horrid, unlikeable, and immoral—how could we ever relate? However, The Picture of Dorian Gray is based on the need to appear perfect, the concept that beauty is the most important vice, that it is valued above all else. It is based entirely in moral consideration and aestheticism, the price of one for the other. Wilde wrote about characters that were narcissistic and utterly unlikable, an entire novel on just how much we value beauty, what we are willing to give for it, and just how dangerous it can become. Does this not sound eerily familiar? Is this not the world we live in? Are our social media apps, and our Instagram posts, not our very own portraits? A moment of carefully curated perfection frozen in time, unauthentic and beautiful, remaining forever unchanged to capture all that we once were. Aestheticism has never been at the height that it is now; the concept that the image is all that matters. Wilde was a notorious supporter of this movement, and I cannot help but wonder what he would say about all this. Would he love how much aesthetics has sunk its claws into our society? Or would he be absolutely horrified?
In some ways, I can see how the former may seem like something he would support. After all, Wilde once wrote that art is made to be beautiful and nothing more—the standard of perfection today. The philosophy of aestheticism was “Art for art’s sake.” Now, “Beauty for beauty’s sake” is the mantra of our world. That being said, the latter argument is stronger. The tragic fate that Dorian met is a clear indicator that while Wilde believed in aestheticism, he also believed that it should not go too far, creating this story as a warning that we never took, becoming all too alike to the main character in his work. Dorian was gorgeous, unempathetic, and a blatant warning sign that to value appearance above your soul is to condemn yourself to eternal suffering. The polished versions you see when scrolling, the girls you compare yourself to, the AI that you did not catch right away, it all leads to descend down a slippery slope that makes you realize this novel is not as fantastical as it may seem.Given all of this, I will forever implore people to read The Picture of Dorian Gray, and not just because it is a wonderfully written piece. This book is constantly relevant and has a message that all need to hear—especially now. So even if you are not an English major, even if you think old books are boring, I am begging you to read this one. It is an artwork that will stick with you for longer than you know and has left an impact on me that will never fade. In fact, I am entirely convinced that if I ever happened to have a portrait of myself that had my soul trapped inside of it, you would see the mark this book had made across the paint strokes that make up the piece.