Joyce Carol Oates sees "The Picture of Dorian Gray" as a revelation as to another side of Wilde; one that questioned the aestheticism professed by Lord Henry and other characters in the novel.

She claims that the book evokes Faust and the devil, as the portrait of Dorian Gray was surely evil and the aesthetic beauty of Dorian corrupted by demonic influence. In this light, A Picture of Dorian Gray is a cautionary tale and its protagonist a tragic hero that is eventually overcome by his own carnal lusts. Oates focuses on the homoerotic undertones of the book and that by invoking Dorian's beauty, Basil sewed the seeds of his own fate.

What she fails to recognize in the book, however, is the role of pederasty and how Basil is in effect a tragic hero, as is Humbert in Nabakov's Lolita. A careful read of Wilde's work will show us...
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