IN The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde illustrates a personality split between an insensitively detached public image and an excruciatingly vulnerable private vision. The decadence espoused by Wilde in his own life turns out to be a pathetically insistent denial used to protect himself from being overwhelmed by the anguish of his underlying disillusionment.
Dorian Gray is a physically beautiful man, fully committed to passionate self-absorption, blatantly caring nothing for anyone else. After a life of ever-deepening degradation, he tries to change his ways. But, his inability to maintain a unified self has resulted in his empty, soulless life. Divided, he is his own enemy. Ultimately, he destroys himself.
The story offers each of us an opportunity to wonder how far apart our own private selves are from our public images. And if we never reconcile the two, we do not act in harmony with our innermost selves. How then do we expect to find meaning in life?
Whatever we believe about ourselves, the opposite is also true.