An artist's reconstruction of the portrait's youth

What did the picture see in Dorian?

Something very like childhood, perhaps, something to protect and indulge, a cruel innocence, or a pretense of innocence to mask cruelty?

In any case, a conspiracy of equals.

They say we weigh children down with the weight of our aspirations. But aspirations are always weightless; it is their emptiness that makes them oppressive. What we bequeath children is not our disappointment, but the ugliness of our triumph.

What did the picture feel about Dorian, watching itself grow old in his eyes, the light in them contemptuous and fearful, the lack of recognition, the turning away?