THEMES 
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

• SPLIT BETWEEN APPEARANCE AND REALITY------------physiognonomy (appearance reveals character)
• ART for ART's SAKE
• SIN AND REDEMPTION
• VANITY
• THE DOUBLE ------------Good and evil
• THE NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF INFLUENCE/MANIPULATION
• ("Corrupting influence")
• THE SUPREMACY OF YOUTH AND BEAUTY
• THE OVERREACHER

The influence of Walter Pater 

Walter Pater was an English critic, essayist, and humanist whose idea of “art for art’s sake” became a cardinal doctrine of the movement known as Aestheticism.

In the concluding essay in The Renaissance, Pater stated that art only exists for the sake of its beauty, and that it has neither moral standards nor utilitarian functions.

Art shouldn’t  instruct or deal with  social, moral, or political problems.

The Artist is the creator of beautiful works of art.