Today's culture sells a lifestyle of pleasure to people all over the world. Society says that the way to live life to the fullest and achieve happiness is to do whatever makes the individual feel good, whatever the action. This lifestyle was also sold earlier in world history and went by many names including Epicureanism in Greece and Aestheticism in the 19th century. Although it has had many different names, it simply means to live based on emotions alone, usually pleasure. Since many people have at least some kind of moral foundation, it is sometimes difficult to see how a purely hedonistic life would unfold and what consequences it would bring. In his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde brings light that pierces the shadows surrounding aestheticism. He makes his argument against a purely hedonistic lifestyle through the use of figurative language, such as diction, symbols, and characterization. Wilde uses rather strong diction to express his disgust with the hedonistic lifestyle, which the protagonist, Dorian Gray, as well as his friend, Lord Henry Wotton, chooses to live. For example, Lord Henry said: "and the only charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deceit absolutely necessary for both parties", to which Basil Hallward replies: "'I hate the way you talk about your married life, Harry [also known as Lord Henry]'” (Wilde 109). Wilde further reveals his disdain for their way of life as he explains what their way of life is really like. They “enjoy for their mere artificiality those renunciations which men have recklessly called virtue, as much as those natural rebellions which wise men still call sin" (190). this is not a widely read book around the world, so many people still don't fully understand all that is wrong with a purely hedonistic lifestyle. Works Cited Benson, Peter "Wilde and Morality Now." . Philosophy Now, issue 65 January-February. 2008. Network. May 23, 2014. http://philosophynow.org/issues/65/Wilde_and_MoralityDuggan, Patrick. "The conflict between aestheticism and morality in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray." Boston University Arts and Science Writing Program. Boston University, 2008-2009. Network. May 23, 2014. http://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/past-issues/issue-1/duggan/Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. The works of Oscar Wilde: including poems, novels, plays, essays, fairy tales and dialogues. Comp. William Dendy. Rosyln, New York: Black's Reader Service, 1927. 107-256. Press.