Themes, Themes, Themes

I have always found it difficult to identify themes, no matter what story I may be reading.  I find that I can pick out major ideas, but those are mostly one word thoughts and do not outline what the meaning of the work as a whole may be.  Like with Dorian's story, youth and vanity were major components, but it is difficult for me to pick out what Wilde means with those ideas.  So here is my best effort at identifying themes.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the major ideas Wilde brings up revolves around the ideas of youth and vanity.  More so I believe that the theme is that youth and vanity allow others to overlook problems, and they can blind us from the truth of a person.  As Dorian goes through his life, the painting that Basil painted is the object that ages rather than Dorian.  This meaning that Dorian's sins did not affect Dorian in a physical manner.  Even as James Vane threatens to kill Dorian for the death of his younger sister Sybil, Dorian is saved by the fact that he looks exactly as he did at the time of her death eighteen years earlier.  But the fact of the matter is that Dorian set about corrupting the people around him and faced no fault because he was not affected physically by his sins.  Most people who met him believed instantly that Dorian, being so youthful and beautiful, could not anything negative or criminal.  Basil even says this, stating "with your pure, bright, innocent face, and your marvelous untroubled youth -- I can't believe anything against you," (149).  The idea that youth, beauty, wealth can allow even the most sinful people to live freely is something I believe Wilde was speaking out against within his society.

Another theme I found was the powers of influence and how they affect characters in the story.  From the very beginning, Basil begs Harry not to influence Dorian, because Lord Henry can only have a bad influence on those around him.  From Lord Henry's first encounter with Dorian, the shift in Dorian's character is quite obvious.  His new found obsession with youth comes from Harry's influence and Dorian's obsession leads to the corruption of himself and is the original cause of the portrait taking on Dorian's sins rather than Dorian himself.  Even though Harry does play a large role in corrupting Dorian, and continues in the story to affect different characters, Dorian begins to do the same to his companions.  Basil came to him one night claiming that Dorian's friends "seem to lose all sense of honor, of goodness, of purity," (150).  This is because Dorian himself does not need to fear the consequences of his sins, because he will not be affected by them.  So as Dorian has the ability to do as he pleases, his influence on his friends is negative in a way that ruins them to the society they are living in.  This all helps to develop the theme that negative influence is powerful and harmful to people.

Overall, I believe Wilde was trying to criticize the upper class and the influence it has over the English society in the story.  Wilde may have been trying to speak towards the society he was living in, because the descriptions seen in the story would fit into the 1890s.  I believe that The Picture of Dorian Gray does still contribute to our society today.  Wealth and beauty still play a large role in how we view certain people and how we treat them.  A clear view of influence in today's society and the harmful role it can play can be seen looking into the presidential election.  A lot of conservative candidates are using the misunderstood stigma's of certain groups of people to strike fear into voters, and those voters believe the candidates are the best solution to their fears.  I believe Wilde's themes could help highlight the faults that even today's society faces.