In The Picture of Dorian Gray, written by Oscar Wilde, many different themes are presented throughout. But the theme that seems most important to me is beauty and appearance. At the beginning of the book we are introduced to Basil, a painter, he paints a portrait of Dorian Gray. The painting ends up possessing the mythical power to keep Dorian young and perfect and transform the person in the painting into a crude old man. Dorian keeps the painting under lock and key where no one will find it so he can forever keep the secret of why it looks so perfect. Dorian throughout the book is dedicated to everything related to the arts. In a society that places beauty above all else, youth and physical attractiveness become valuable assets. Dorian places too much importance on youth and beauty that it would lead to his own demise. And it really ruins any chance for him to have a real relationship with anyone throughout his life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay First, after a conversation with Lord Henry, Dorian becomes convinced that youth is the only thing worth living for. Dorian goes to speak to Basil after having a long argument with Lord Henry over his opinions on the subject of youth. He then realizes that he will grow old one day and then thinks about how the portrait will stay young. After realizing this, he becomes angry with Basil for always creating the painting in the first place. Then Dorian shouts to him: “I know now that when you lose your beauty, whatever it may be, you lose everything. Your photo taught me that. Lord Henry is absolutely right. Youth is the only thing worth possessing. When I get old, I will kill myself.” Dorian is visibly quickly convinced by Lord Henry's argument, and he finally realizes that he will grow old one day. But this doesn't seem like a new idea to Dorian, not knowing that he's been thinking this way all this time, but Lord Henry has just made him understand. Dorian has always behaved and acted differently towards different people, towards beautiful people he listens to and admires and with ugly people he treats as if they weren't even there and this conversation with Lord Henry showed that this theory is correct. This goes back to the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover.” Secondly, how Dorian is driven by beauty and blocks everything else and this is the main reason for his engagement to Sibyl. He only focuses on her beauty and doesn't care about her other attributes, which prevents him from realizing who she really is. Lord Henry tells Basil about Dorian's engagement to Sibyl. They say that the only thing Dorian told them about her was about her beauty and nothing more. Lord Henry tells Basil that “Dorian says she is beautiful, and he is not often wrong about things of that sort. Your portrait of him was quick and his appreciation of the personal appearance of others“. As Lord Henry tells Basil about Dorian's engagement to Sibyl, he explains what he knows about Sibyl from Dorian. His appearance made a strong first appearance with Dorian, a key piece of information that Lord Henry feels necessary to convey to Basil. Although Dorian must obviously have known of her beauty long before Basil's portrait, he did not place much importance on her appearance until he first saw the portrait. As a result, he now focuses only on the appearance of something which blinds him from everything related to it. This is really the reason he got engaged to her in the first place..