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The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Is morality real? How much of it can be compromised? Is conscience real? How much hits can the conscience take before it goes down and takes the whole body along with it?

These are the questions explored in the gothic philosophical drama "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. Story told from changing point-of-views, but without the acknowledgement of the change, just like other novels of the time, revolves around the title character Dorian Gray and the moral spiral he decides to climb or descend.

His inspiration and guide is Lord Henry who is the Devil himself. Or at least that is what I believe. Attributing Lord Henry to the Devil himself is not an attempt by me to dehumanize him. But rather an attempt to humanize the Devil. It is my way of pointing at the lines inside our hearts that divides our conscience into a battle between good and evil.

The person who deserves to be called the Devil is the one in whom the evil has already won the battle and has enslaved the good. He is also the person who touches things and turns them as bad himself or even worse. One day he decides to touch Dorian.

Dorian! Ah Dorian! We were all Dorian! A clean slate, A romantic's pen, An unbesmirched piece of white cloth. Yes Dorian! The Naive, Curious, Passionate and turbulent Dorian, the beautiful Dorian whose sight was a treat to sunken hearts and sore eyes. Touched by the Devil Dorian begins his journey through the spiral.

But on this journey Dorian has something in his hand that every other traveler had in his heart(Or wherever the resting place of Conscience is supposed to be). Dorian had his conscience in his hands. It was possible for him to see his conscience using his eyes. But he didn't like how his conscience looked. In fact he hates the effect the conscience has on him. He hates the feelings the very sight of conscience creates in him. So he decides to put a curtain on it and hide it from others who might look at it and judge him. Then he decided to keep it away hidden in a Dark room and hide it from himself who periodically looks upon that and judges him. At last he decides to do something irrevocable with it, which results in exactly that: something irrevocable.
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