One Way You Won't Gain Fulfillment

(After reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, Chapters 12-20)

Dorian Gray lived his life doing whatever he wanted with no negative effects on his body. The negative effects were transferred to a certain painting of him instead.

Dorian was a beautiful man. His body did not age beyond the youthful beauty of his early adulthood. When he committed evil deeds, the cruel look that a man's mouth and eyes might begin to acquire through such deeds did not come upon him. Worry lines and the mocking look that he deserved to carry did not touch him. The burden of all those effects was placed on the painting. Dorian would look at the painting of himself turned ugly by his thoughts and deeds, with a twisted sense of pleasure, seeing what he deserved but did not have to account for. His own face retained a peaceful look of youthful innocence and uprightness.

As a result, Dorian did whatever he wanted to do. He had no fear of consequences. He fed all his appetites freely and was cruel to people if it did not suit him to be kind. He lived a life of extravagance and worldly pleasure. He took what he wanted and escaped from reality whenever he wanted and however he wanted. And yet...

He was not happy. Those temporary pleasures ceased to please him. He got bored with them. He became bored with life. His self-indulgence grew worse in an attempt to find satisfaction, but that emptiness could not be satisfied with worldly things. He committed wicked acts, because the only person he ever thought about was himself. His wickedness grew until it was perverse and dangerous. He committed murder, even, and felt justified in it because the other person made him angry by telling him the truth.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a study on what it would be like to live for worldly pleasures. The results of such an experience, lived through Dorian Gray, were completely unsatisfactory, an utter failure. Dorian Gray shows us that living for pleasure cannot bring happiness. Having everything we want cannot bring happiness.

Earthly things and pleasures will not give us fulfillment. For fulfillment, we must look beyond instant gratification, beyond earthly pleasures, beyond what we think we want, beyond living only for ourselves.

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