"Central to the decadent movement was the view that art is totally opposed to nature, in the sense both of biological nature and of the standard, or natural, norms of morality and sexual behavior" (Abrams, 54). In "The Decay of Lying" Oscar Wilde uses his decadent ideology in an attempt to reverse and therefore reject his audiences "normal" conceptualizations of nature, art, and morality. Wilde believed that "society was in danger of extinction because of its insistence on material values to the exclusion of the spiritual and imaginative dimensions of existence; and that it could be liberated from this fate by means of an artistic process which would establish an amoral zone secured by mutual respect between the individual and society" (Pine, 290). Wilde's views of life and art are illustrated through the use of Platonic dialogue where the character Vivian takes on the persona of Wilde. Wilde's goal is to subvert the norm by reversing its values. Wilde suggests to us that society is wrong, not him.
             The dialogue opens with Cyril describing nature with numerous romantic cliches. Vivian rejects Cyril's interpretation of nature and claims:
             People tell us that Art makes us love Nature more than we loved her before; that it reveals her secrets to us. ... My own experience is that the more we study Art, the less we care for Nature. What Art really reveals to us is Nature's lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition. Nature has good intentions, of course, but, as Aristotle once said, she cannot carry them out. ... Art is our spirited protest, our gallant attempt to teach Nature her proper place. As for the infinite variety of Nature, that is a pure myth. It is not to be found in Nature herself. It resides in the imagination, or fancy, or cultivated blindness of the man who looks at her. (Wilde, 1859)
             Vivia...