I would give my soul

This extract introduces the title character, Dorian. In this part of the novel, his physical beauty is well underlined.

Lord Henry, an important character of the novel that represent an esthetic, finds Dorian's vulnerability and starts to work. He has planted the seeds of terror in the young man, an unreasonable fear of growing old and losing his youthful beauty. Dorian is easily swayed by Lord Henry's seductive ideas, revealing that Dorian's true morals are vague.

The reader might first attribute Dorian's weakness and fickle nature to youth, but the change in his nature occurs only after he has realized the importance of his own beauty, a very material attitude. In this short extract, the reader not only meets the main character of the book, but also reach a complete transition in his nature. Now Dorian's wish that the painting show those horrible signs of age that he fears, leaving him forever young. He prefers to abandon the immaterial things (like soul) for material (and not eternal) things, like beauty and young; for this, he prefers to give his soul for the immortality. Dorian reflect the Esthetic example of life-vision that considers body and beauty more important than soul and knowledge.