Soul Symbol

In The Picture of Dorian Gray the major symbol is the picture alone. This portrait wasn't just a canvas with paint brushed across it. As Wilde stated in the preface, "all art is at once surface and symbol.Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril" (4). This entails that the picture in the book had a deeper meaning - it was a symbol... After speaking harsh, harsh words against Sibyl Vane, Dorian returned home to his painting only to notice "the face appeared to him to be a little changed" (80). It was as if there was a "touch of cruelty in the mouth" (80). Following this strange observation, it left Dorian feeling puzzled. However, he came to realize that the aging portrait was symbolizing his own soul. How he had, overtime, become a poor and apathetic man. The picture of Dorian Gray: a symbol of the corruption of his own soul.