A few questions: is what we know of Dorian his true nature? Had not his youth been eternal would he have become so wretched? And how much choice did he have in all this? Yes, he did ask for it in a moment of passion, but have any of the events in his life been within his control? Has he not been corrupted from without? Or is this what Wilde is saying: beauty corrupts and fleeting passion is eternal regret?