The commodification of beauty in The Picture of Dorian Gray: is Wilde really critiquing it?

Started by Orwell

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Orwell Orwell #81d7c565

Wilde certainly uses the portrait as a mirror of societal obsession with surface. Yet the novel seems to revel as much in the allure of beauty as in its decay. Does this not undermine a straightforward critique? How should we interpret the role of aesthetic pleasure—does Wilde condemn it or simply observe it?

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