Oscar Wilde’s novel titled The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) questions what holds true value: Victorian purity or the centre of aestheticism, beauty and explores the dynamic between Victorian notions such as morality, purity and Christian teachings, and Paterian ideas, including aestheticism, decadence and New Hedonism. Through the characters of the actress Sibyl Vane and the painter Basil Hallward, Victorian assumptions about femininity and masculinity, women, actresses and homosexuality are depicted and criticised. Although initially it may seem as if the suicide of Sibyl and the murder of Basil was the result of violating Victorian and Christian conventions, they are rather punished for trying to follow or remain loyal to them. In my thesis, I will explore how the novel condemns Victorian morality and the concept of purity through the two artist figures’ love for Dorian Gray.