The Power of Influence: Lord Henry's Role in Shaping Dorian Gray's Downfall

In the book, influence is an important issue. For example, we see that Basil doesn't want Henry to meet Lord Henry since he's afraid that Henry will be a bad influence on him and steal him, and he’s right. Lord Henry is the one who influences Dorian, and he’s not a good influence at all.

Lord Henry believes that religion and society are just there to control us and his comments about that influence Dorian. He believes that one should live for pleasure and beauty. "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.", he says. He celebrates the sense of youth, when you get old life is useless and you lose your pleasure, and passions of youth. He sees the portrait— he sees Dorian as a thing of beauty. He's not bothered about his character or intelligence, Dorian is just a symbol of youth and beauty for him.

Henry believes that nobody influences anybody; if you're influenced by somebody is because you tell people to do what they want to do— that's one of the themes running through. Lord Henry tells Dorian to give in to his desires and his influence on Dorian is major. We see that Henry is a creepy man and he's not living his life: he's living his life through Dorian and his influence on Dorian who is under his spell. Henry studies him and tries to influence him to see what will happen in his life. Dorian is the embodiment of the things that he holds the most dearest: beauty and art.

Lord Henry says that he read a book and it had a great influence on him and he gives the book to Dorian. Dorian later tries to live as that book's character. The story deals with the theme of books being moral influence, as well. Dorian is not creative, he doesn't produce anything, but under the influence of Henry, he makes his life kind of an art form. 

Later, we witness that Dorian goes to some bad places and gets a reputation for being a terrible man and Basil comes to see him to talk about his reputation since he has heard so many horrible stories about how Dorian is behaving. Sin hurts other people and that's what Dorian has done. Dorian has a terrible effect on his friends, as well. He's a bad influence on all the people around him now.

The story makes one wonder what would happen if he never met Henry. Would he still be the same way, or would he lead a better life and make ethical decisions? Or was Lord Henry right all along?