To illustrate my point, regarding the key theme Wilde uses symbols and literary devices in order to highlight authority of one leading to negative consequences. Dorian was innocent in the beginning of the book and changed into a criminal by the middle. The influence behind the cruel man was Lord Henry; Dorian’s manipulative “friend”. Henry’s lectures and cynical attitude reeled Dorian in and soon led to his negative behavior. For example, the portrait, a key symbol in the novel is a mirror image of how Dorian’s life is going, “This portrait would be to him the most magical of mirrors. As it had revealed to him his own body so it would reveal to him his own soul” (Wilde 8.25). The portrait represents art, time, beauty, cruelty, and old age.
