How Is Dorian Gray Morally Ambiguous

Throughout the tragic and enlightening novel The Picture of Dorian Grey, by Oscar Wilde, the author uses a morally ambiguous character in order to highlight the universal truth that if someone lives a life of reckless self indulgence, then both the person and their friends will be corrupted and ruined.
The portrait of Dorian grey features a morally ambiguous character, Dorian Grey, who is convinced to live a hedonistic lifestyle and pays for it with his life in the end. At first Dorian is portrayed as an innocent young man who is incredibly beautiful and influences the people around him without trying to, but once he meets Lord Henry, he is slowly convinced during his talks with Henry that he should live a life of self indulgence. Once he adopts his new lifestyle, his life is dramatically changed. At first, he simply …show more content…
As Dorian Grey moves on from his past lover’s death and starts to close his heart to painful emotions, he begins to act similarly to his role model, Lord Henry, and convince others to go down the treacherous path of sin and self indulgence. One example of this is when his friend, who is encouraged to live hedonistically by Dorian, ends up losing his reputation to an opium addiction and another one of Dorians friends that ends up committing suicide after he can no longer live with the guilt of helping Dorian commit a crime. Over time, Dorian ends up hurting nearly all of his friends and develops such a wicked reputation that most people are afraid of him and try to avoid him. Dorian can still be viewed as a morally ambiguous character after he ruins his friends because he believed he was doing a good thing and was leading people down the path to happiness and fulfillment in life. Through Dorian, Wilde is able to show how an excessive self indulgent lifestyle can damage the sinful person’s friend’s lives and reputations in addition to his