Within the tale of Dorian Gray, we are given the clearest depiction of self-discovery through the mind of the novel’s central figure, upon the instance in which his portrait is revealed to himself. There are several emotions that are allocated toward the experience, and amongst all of them, the shortest duration is given to that of pleasure, which lasts but “for a moment” (Wilde 33). The importance of this emotion should not be undermined by its brief stay, as it is the first of many to be invoked through the viewing of the portrait by its subject. It gives way to a force far much stronger than it in the form of a joyous wonderment,  leaving Dorian “motionless” and “dimly conscious” (Wilde 33). It is in this state that Dorian begins the gradual estrangement from himself as he fails to grasp the world around him, the reality in which he inhabits, and the age of which he is present. As he becomes more familiar with the transformative nature of the painting, he loses control of his senses in exchange for “the sense of his own beauty” (Wilde 34). The price of this awareness is marked by the loss of his initial pleasure and signifies in this abdication a shift of priorities within the subject’s consciousness. From the state of pleasure, which requires the instinctual awareness of the present, Dorian is carried through time and arrives in the past, existing momentarily in retrospective observation of it on the nature of influence.

Here begins the exploration of the role that influence has on self-discovery. Basil is the first figure of influence worthy of consideration. Dorian finds the artist’s role in his discovery of his own beauty to be “merely the charming exaggerations of friendship” (Wilde 34). The artist, in this sense, is made to be no more than a satirizer of reality whom we must tolerate before we are able to acquire true knowledge of the world and of ourselves. The pleasure that Basil brings Dorian lacks substance and reveals no deeper truth to the subject because it fails to challenge him in any meaningful way. Mere reflection can prove to be only the beginning into self-discovery because, after its initial depiction, revelation arrives only through the influence of the critic. The voice to which Dorian pays no attention at the beginning of the passage, upon his initial encapsulation by the artist’s depiction, returns in its familiar form as the critic Lord Henry. The words imparted in their meeting reappear as forces of transformation where they counter the all-too-familiar, reassuring depiction from the artist with a threatening realization in the form of Lord Henry’s “terrible warning” (Wilde 39) of youth. The juxtaposition of tonality associated with the different influences serves to reveal the oppositional nature of the critic and the artist, and in doing so establishes the nature of self-discovery as one of conflicting influences. 

 For Dorian, it is the influence of the critic that wins out in the end. It is this influence which carries him away from the innocence of his discovery and severs his ties as a subject, noted most somberly by the realization that  “the full reality of the description flashed across him” (Wilde 34). Time and space are yet again the metrics by which we measure Dorian’s transformation. Now, his position within the two spheres of existence is altered by the element of influence. More than before, his estrangement from himself is solidified by this process of severance, as he now stands as another in relation to that which he observes. As Dorian observes “the shadow of his own loveliness,” he finds that he is no longer the same person depicted within the portrait, for the new observation of art requires a change in the observer (Wilde 34). The critic has succeeded in this regard: imparting the former subject of the artwork with the knowledge required in order that he may find something new in the art, of which the artist and their art can never be aware. The shadow then, as identified in the aforementioned statement, is not only that of a piece of art that has been transformed by the critic’s influence, but one that now reflects the transformation of the subject now staring back at it. In this relational dynamic between the mode of depiction and the observer, the cyclical nature of self-discovery is realized; the work of art exists  in duality as both a source of reflection and a point of transformation. 

All that is left now for Dorian to complete the journey of self-discovery is the affirmation of the transformation, which has been reflected back to him by his ever-changing object of desire. When he responds “Yes, there would be a day when his face would be wrinkled and wizen,” he is thinking to no one but himself (Wilde 34). Dorian’s point of consideration required for its manifestation the intervention of the critic, but it is not to him that Dorian proves the effects of his influence. Both the artist and critic alike disappear into the background, giving way to the self as the only figure whose position on self-discovery proves to be paramount for the validation of transformation. It is in this championing of the self as the essential artist and critic that the journey of self-discovery is truthfully completed, leaving only for specific observations that are destined to be subservient to its revelation. 

The tragedy of Dorian Gray lies in this entire journey of self-discovery as a process which defines a person through the desire to know oneself, but only ever as a being who is detached from their present state. The tragedy of Dorian Gray lies in the observation of a boy who can no longer experience youth without the knowledge of its temporality and so can never truly experience it. It lies in the damming assertion brought about by reflection and realization alike that “the life that was to make his soul would mar his body” (Wilde 34).