Vanity and excessive pride eventually lead to self-destruction. In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde examines these essential flaws of mankind. The main character, Dorian Gray, renounces his soul in return for eternal youth and consequently suffers until his demise. Through the symbolic use of Dorian's portrait, Wilde emphasizes his belief about the decadence of the soul due to narcissism and exorbitant pride.

Wilde opens the novel in the studio of Basil Hallward, the artist who paints the infamous portrait of the "wonderfully handsome" Dorian Gray (16). It is in the studio that Dorian is introduced to Lord Henry Wotton. He immediately begins to influence the innocent young man despite his assertion that "all influence is immoral" (18). He urges Dorian to be selfish with his youth because "unselfish people are colourless" (76). Lord Henry convinces him that when his youth fades, his "beauty will go with it...