“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly” (Bible Psalm 1:1). It is ironic that Oscar Wilde and his fictional character Dorian Gray were both victims of bad advice. Wilde refused to listen to his close friends when they insisted that he ignore the accusation made by Marquess Queensberry. Instead, Wilde sided with his close friend and possible lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, who asked him to fight the charge. Thanks to Douglas's advice and Wilde's pride, he ended up in prison, which ultimately led to his untimely death. Douglas advised Wilde to fight something they both knew to be true, if only they had humbled themselves. Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray should have given him insight into what it meant to be corrupted by vanity. There are so many parallels between the writer and the character. Dorian Gray was a victim of Lord Henry Wotton just as Oscar Wilde was encouraged and in love with Lord Alfred Douglas. The writer and the character believed themselves to be above the laws, biblical and social. In the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, good and evil are represented and evil clearly prevailed, in the sense that Dorian Gray died unrepentant. When reviewing The Picture of Dorian Gray, many critics saw it as a debate between two of its main protagonists. characters, Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wotton. Basil and Lord Henry represent a choice between good and evil. Basil is good, talented and conventional. He has faith and pure values. He believes that "the universe is a moral order in which God punishes evil and rewards good, and that human beings are guided by a moral code in which sympathy and compassion are paramount values" (Liebman, 1999) . He believes in the goodness of man. As mora...... middle of paper ......y unacceptable weaknesses. It is said that Wilde sought to understand his own conflicting feelings on the subject through his novel. London's Daily Chronicle called The Picture of Dorian Gray toxic, impure and heavy with the foul odors of moral and spiritual decay. The St. James Gazette judged this to be unpleasant and nauseating, and suggested that the Treasury or the Vigilance Society might wish to pursue the perpetrator in court. Most worrying was a brief notice in the Scots Observer stating that although "Dorian Gray" was a work of literary quality, it dealt only with matters suitable for the Criminal Investigation Department. Sodomy was a very serious crime and considered evil in England from the 1500s onwards, at one point it was punishable by death. So for Wilde to write so openly on the subject was either brave or very foolish, especially since he led a suspect lifestyle..