Essayist, dramatist, novelist, and poet Oscar Wilde was better known for his scandalous lifestyle than his literary theories and their execution in his dramas. However, subsequent generations have regularly revived his delightful comedies of manners, and now it seems as though his work will survive his notoriety. (Twentieth Century Literary Criticism) Literary critics were often unenthusiastic, or even hostile, toward his works, finding them to be overly contrived or recklessly immoral. (Critical Survey of Long Fiction) This conclusion is obviously drawn because of his scandalous lifestyle.
             Wilde's life affected his work greatly and differently at different times in his life.
             "Much of the life of Wilde is so bound up with his work as to be incapable of separate treatment."(-Arthur Ransom in Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study: p.25). And Wilde himself said that "Drama is the meeting place of art and life" Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray illustrates how Wilde's life is bound together in his writings.
             The story centers around three figures: and artist (Basil Hallward), his clever but impudent friend (Lord Henry Wotton), and a young, attractive, and impressionable man (Dorian Gray). Basil paints a full-length portrait of young Dorian and presents it to him as a gift. Lord Henry, who meets Dorian for the first time at Basil's studio, talks at length about the supreme value, but transience of youth. Immediately drawn to Lord Henry's theories. Dorian observes the just completed portrait of himself and remarks on "how sad it is" that he "shall grow old and horrible, and dreadful." But this picture will remain always young...if it were only the other way!"
             Wilde uses Lord Henry (whom Wilde later declared to be a depiction of how the public perceived Wilde) to provide the corruptive theories and ideas. Throughout the book, Lord Henry utters clever a...