At times
people can portray themselves as a different kind of person then they truly are
inside. They give off an image that they think people will appreciate and
approve of rather than just being who they really are. In the Picture of Dorian
Gray by Oscar Wilde, the character of Sibyl Vane points out this discrepancy in
Dorian. Throughout his life, Dorian is easily influenced by Lord Henry and does
everything he says because he wants others to approve of him in his society.
Sibyl is the kind of person Dorian could be with if he wasn’t so concerned
about the approval of others. When Lord Henry said, “If you had married this girl, you would have been
wretched…I say nothing about the social mistake, which would have been abject,
which, of course, I would not have allowed, but I assure you that in any case
the whole thing would have been an absolute failure,” Dorian immediately lost
his guilt over Sibyl’s suicide. If he wasn’t so absorbed with what others
thought of him, then he may have married Sibyl anyway. In his true nature, he
fell in love with a simple girl. If only he just stuck to that nature…
In the world today people are just
as easily influenced by others as Dorian was. Some people put on an image that
they think others will find “cool”, or “popular” even if it isn’t how they want
to act or be seen. It is sad that people can’t act themselves without being
judged for being different or not “cool” enough. But in who’s standards are
these? Why do people seek to please others? More emphasis should be placed on
being who you are and not caring what others think. People need to embrace
their own thoughts and feelings without worrying about how others people view
them. People need to find the "Sibyl's" in their life and stick to them.
