In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the inability to distinguish between art and reality has tragic consequences. 
In The Picture of Dorian Gray, I agree that the inability to distinguish between art and reality has tragic consequences. The life of Dorian Gray has shown this sufficiently: he took his painting so seriously that he traded his soul for its youth, which made this painting haunt him for the rest of his life.
When Basil Hallward finished the portrait and Dorian saw it for the first time, he was deeply moved by the beauty of the picture, and for the first time, he realized how beautiful he was. However, under Lord Henry’s influence and his theory about beauty and youth, Dorian grew envious about how his portrait could stay young and beautiful eternally and that he will eventually turn old, ugly and wrinkled. Here, Dorian makes a big mistake as he confuses the portrait, which is just an object featuring his appearance, with time in real life. He is envious of an object being able to stay the same, which in this case, features an unchanging beautiful face. Eventually, this envy leads him to make the wild oath to trade his soul for the picture’s eternal beauty.
After Dorian Gray gives his soul to the picture for its beauty, it starts changing. Dorian first noticed it when he abandoned Sibyl, which led to Sibyl’s suicide. The picture started featuring an ugly sneer. The picture turned uglier and uglier for every crime and sin he committed. It also showed the ageing lines that Dorian Gray did not have to bear. To Dorian Gray, watching the picture change was fascinating at first, but the picture started to haunt him after some time. It reminded him of every evil deed he had done in his life, and he did not want to look at it anymore. It also showed blood on his hands after he murdered Basil Hallward in cold blood. In the end, he hates the picture so much that he stabs it, killing his soul and causing himself to die.

In Dorian Gray’s life, he has confused art, his portrait, with reality, trading his soul and his beauty in real life. This essay has shown that Dorian Gray’s inability to distinguish between art and reality led to a tragic life and death.