The Emphasis on Youth

  At the heart of Oscar Wilde's text, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is the wish to be eternally youthful. With this being said, Dorian Gray, himself, continually highlighted his need for external youth and beauty, even if his inner self was ever-deteriorating. In furthering this, Wilde explains Gray's longstanding mindset in stating, "Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins - he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame: that was all" (Wilde, Chapter 8). With that being said, Wilde highlights Gray's sole need for outward beauty, while he could seem to careless about his rather rotten inner being. While reading the text, Gray's mindset continually reminded me of the way society forces young people, today, to feel - simply, forcing young individuals to believe that if their outward self is presentable, then who is to care about their inner being?

With this being said, we are continually told of the importance of keeping up our youthful appearance - maintain a healthy diet, exercise often, seek outside means, if necessary - just do what it takes. Similar to Gray, many of us today, find ourselves being more concerned about how society views us at first glance, as opposed to being wholly concerned about how someone may perceive our personality or intellect. In saying this, while yes Gray was perceived as a rather impressionable, hellish being, but maybe he was not too far off from the modern day young individual? Additionally, the pairing of Gray's mindset to that of the modern individual continually reminded me of Lana Del Ray's song entitled, "Young and Beautiful," which was released in 2013. "Young and Beautiful" greatly highlights that of Gray's major concerns - simply, will he still be viewed in the same respect and esteem once his youthful beauty diminishes?