Pictures are meant to capture happy moments in time, so that you can remember them forever. In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, pictures are used to symbolize a completely different thing. The novel, which takes place in the later 18th century, centers about an innocent but beautiful man, Dorian Gray. After meeting a man named Lord Henry, Dorian Gray is corrupted to give into the temptations of the world, vowing to give in to every pleasurable whim he has. He is also convinced that the only thing that matters in the world is beauty, and wishes that instead of aging himself, that a painting of him would instead, since in his opinion it would be drastically unfair for him to age, and the painting to stay perfect. His wish does come true, and as time passes, he does horrible things, but the only signs of the atrocities that he has done are on the painting, which has become old and evil looking, while Dorian remains young and perfect.
The picture of Dorian Gray shows Dorian the physical burdens of age and sin from which he has been spared. For a time, Dorian sets his conscience aside and lives his life according to a single goal: achieving pleasure.. His painted image, however, asserts itself as his conscience and hounds him with the knowledge of the horrible things that he has done over the years. In the end, it is the picture and not Dorian himself that causes him to accept responsibility for the things that he has done over his life, and to feel any sort of remorse. Since Dorian in a sense sold his soul for the chance to remain young and beautiful forever, it is the portrait symbolizing his conscience in the end that causes him to atone for what he had done.
The portrait also acts, not only as a conscience for Dorian, but also as kind of a holy object to him. He locks it away for years, and every couple of years, goes up and stares at the portrait and what it has become, unable to look away. In this case, the portrait represents the damaging influence art can have over an individual. If Dorian had never been so fascinated with himself as a young man, and with the pleasures of the world, he probably could have aged normally like everybody else. It serves as a warning to those who surrender themselves so completely to an influence, symbolizing that if you do give yourself completely to an influence (in Dorians case, the pursuit of pleasure) it will not end well.
As the novel progresses, the portrait ages instead of Dorian. While this does not pose a significant problem at first, the horrible things that Dorian did for 30 years, which are never fully disclosed in the book, lead to significant changes in the portrait. At the start of the book, everybody marvels at how innocent and pure Dorian is, and 30 years later, people are marveling at how pure and innocent he looks. Instead of the portrait just becoming an old man, it becomes even worse, and evil looking. This does not show necessarily how Dorian would look physically if he had continued to age, but symbolizes the degradation of his soul as the novel progresses, from pure to black and evil.
The portrait is just one of the many symbols in the Picture of Dorian Gray, but is also one of the most important symbols in the whole book. It has a whole lot of different things that it stands for, and is a major part of the entire book. Most importantly, the portrait symbolizes beauty, and how high everyone in the novel though of it. Because even though beauty remains of importance throughout the entire novel (the picture reverts to its original form at the end) it shows that the price of beauty is extraordinarily high. Alas, poor Dorian Gray had to pay the biggest price in the end with his life.
