The Pictures of Dorian Gray is a literary work that typically induces strong emotions from the reader. They either love it or hate it. For one thing Oscar Wilde depicted the world as he saw it; harsh, shallow and terminal. Brutal honestly is often not accepted en masse and some readers expect a feel good story as entertainment. Critics say that the novel is homoerotic and vulgar. It is important to know that "Socratic love" has been around for a long time and it was considered quite natural by the Greeks whom we consider the founders of our western civilization. The young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward, who is greatly impressed by Dorian''s physical beauty and becomes strongly infatuated with him, believing that his beauty is responsible for a new mode in his art. The fact that Basil Hallward is a bachelor hints that he is not interested in the opposite sex. Meeting in Basil''s garden, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a friend of Basil''s, and
