Review: The Picture Of Dorian Gray
While the darker content in this book should be kept in mind when introducing the story to young teenagers, these elements of murder, misogyny and morally abhorrent behaviour are integral parts of its central theme of corruption.
Even those who haven’t read the book know the story in some way. The idea of a wish gone wrong is the beginning of many of the moral lessons we teach to children. He longs to be able to stay as young and beautiful as he is in that moment while the portrait ages in place of him – and so it is done. Particularly, young people in an era of social media face pressure to conform to current beauty standards and to centre much of their behaviour around aesthetics rather than their own joy or development.