Do we sin because we are imperfect and flawed, or do we sin because it's forbidden? What does Dorian think? If sin was no longer a sin, would we still be tempted to do it? Is there something in our nature that makes us play with fire?
I think that we sin because we are imperfect and flawed. I think that at one point we had the potential of perfection, but through Eve and Adam we have lost that potential. However, the one time potential for perfection has given us what we might consider to be a gauge for right and wrong. This gauge for right and wrong, along with the model of perfection, allows us to know that some things are not good (something we might call sin). I think that our perception of sin stems from this knowledge of what perfection is and what goes against that perfection. What is forbidden is derived from what we know goes against perfection. Now, the reason something is forbidden is because we know it goes against perfection, but we are still drawn to it as a result of The Fall. This means we do not do something because it is forbidden, but because we are flawed.
I can't honestly say how Dorian feels about sin. I think that his character shows both tendencies, that we are imperfect and that we go after things that are forbidden because the are forbidden. Dorian says at one point in chapter 11 that, "The more he knew, the more he desired to know. He had mad hungers that grew more ravenous as he fed them" (pg. 131-132). I think that Dorian had kept from experiencing "sin" at first because he knew, instinctively, that it was wrong for him to get into those types of things. I think that after Lord Henry pushed Dorian through the first sin, it moved into the arena of doing things because they were forbidden.
I think that if Lord Henry had not come into Dorian's life, then Dorian probably would have avoided the trap of sin and the things forbidden. He was 'innocent' until that point. It seems that curiosity has struck again and that we will never escape the need to play with fire.
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