“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” The aesthetic movement dealt with the nature of art and the simple beauty that is encompasses. Wilde prefaces his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, with a reflection on the artist, the art, and the value of both. In Oscar Wilde’s novel, Wilde describes his part of the aesthetic movement and bases the events in the novel on his own experiences. The aesthetic movement was an artistic and literary movement that was centered on the saying “art for art’s sake” and arguing that art was not to be utilitarian or practical. The movement wanted art to exist for the sake of its beauty alone, and that it did not need to serve any political or didactic purpose. The pieces of art created by the artists in the movement did not tell stories or sermons; their art was visual, delightful, hinting at sensual desires; their poetry was pure. The proponents of the movement say that the experience of art is the most intense experience available in life and that nothing should be allowed to restrict it. The intensity of the aesthetic experience is the dominant goal in human life. If there are morally unwanted things of art, they do not really matter in contrast to this all-important experience which art can give. When the Aesthete, Oscar Wilde, first showed up with his loving association with art it was seen by many as almost “unhealthy” and dangerous, “Wilde himself was accused of corrupting a young man (Lord Alfred Douglas), and his writings (including The Picture of Dorian Gray) were help up as evidence of his dangerous ideas” (Boilard). Some of his writings were frowned upon because they focused on subjects of sensual love, lust and cruelty. It was said that Wilde did not... ... middle of paper ... ...osed in the preface of the novel and through Lord Henry’s intellectual talks with Dorian, “Wilde’s odd preface, which reads like an aesthetics’ version of Blake’s ‘Proverbs of Hell,’ warns that ‘there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book’” (BRC). Wilde understood and showed in the life of Dorian Gray, a necessity for a more controlled and careful attitude toward aestheticism, without which morality will inevitable be indefinable. The aestheticism expressed by Dorian results in self-absorption and intellectual deterioration. “If in the hunt of one’s desires and of the beautiful parts of life, the condition of others’ or of one’s own mind is put at risk, the pleasure gathered must sometimes be surrendered for the greater good” (Pearce). As Wilde makes known, it is only through a more controlled attitude that aestheticism and morality may finally line up.
...y others to be a devoted aesthetic due to his concerns to consumerism and fashion, but not a feminist (Mintler 139). Thus, the neglect of women in Dorian Gray is evident and Oscar Wilde had more pursuit over aesthetics than the feminist movement, which is reflected by Dorian’s means of aesthetic pursue over the care of women.
Dorian Gray is a grand Gothic experiment from the moment in Basil Hallward’s studio when he desperately swears that he “would give [his] soul” if only he “was to be always young, and the picture … was to grow old” in his stead (Wilde 28). Even before this moment, Dorian was a test subject of Lord Henry’s, who wanted to see how many of his own ideas he could inject into the boy. This influence rapidly planted in Dorian the ideas of eternal youth and beauty and led to the encasement of his soul in the portrait. After the switch, Dorian not only is under Lord Henry’s influence, but he is also Oscar Wilde’s subject. In his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde manipulates Dorian, his surroundings, and his circumstances to capture a realistic portrayal of the character’s downfall by depicting the nature of the body, mind, and soul, and the relationship they share.
Oscar Wilde’s novel, Picture of Dorian Gray, portrays the dichotomy of the double life led by Dorian Gray.1 The contrast between the portrait and Dorian personifies the universal battle of sin versus morale and ultimately serves as a moral compass for society.2 Dorian’s development of a double life identifies with the results of sociological oppression leading to confinement.3 The development of this contrasting lifestyle inevitably influences a fatal deterioration of his soul and heart.4 Oscar Wilde’s exaggeration of the effects of the double life of Dorian Gray within his novel Picture of Dorian Gray ultimately conveys the degradation due to a confinement of the soul, and personifies the dualism between private and public lives.5
Wilde shows Lord Henry grasping onto Dorian and his moral beliefs, “There is no such thing as good influence Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral-immoral from the scientific point of view.” Dorian quickly transforms from an innocent young man, to a wicked deceitful man. Lord Henry knowingly influences Dorian, “People say sometimes that beauty is only superficial. That may be so, but at least it is not so superficial as thought is.” The craving for eternal beauty acts alongside with Lord Henry in the demise of Dorian. “As he thought of it, a sharp pang of pain st...
Oscar Wilde`s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is written primarily out of the aesthetic movement of the Nineteenth Century. Therefore, the text contains a profuse amount of imagery which reflects the concepts of beauty and sensory experiences. By taking the aesthetic approach, Wilde was able to revive the gothic style through grotesque imagery of the portrait and the character whose soul it represents. Wilde is not using gothic elements to shock his audiences; rather he uses the gothic to capture the hideousness of Gray`s corruptness which leaks out of the painting and into the tone of the entire text.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Ed. Isobel Murray. London: Oxford University Press, 1974.
... of his own selfishness. Since Dorian is never much more than an empty container, largely filled up, or determined, by the values of the culture in which Wilde has immersed him, does it not follow that his behavior and punishment also indict the culture that has produced him? By the end of Wilde's novel, Basil the artist is dead, killed by Dorian, but that need not be taken to imply that Wilde considers art useless. Dorian's transgressions are those of an entire class, which in turn stands in for an entire economic order, an order that is not, of course, limited to the aristocracy. Ultimately, Wilde's novel concerns a sphere wide enough to encompass and criticize both the elegant circles within which Dorian and Lord Harry move and the grimy contours of Manchester. When all is said, The Picture of Dorian Gray is still with us to expose the "sins" of Victorian Britain.
Wilde, Oscar, and Michael Patrick. Gillespie. The Picture of Dorian Gray: Authoritative Texts, Backgrounds, Reviews and Reactions, Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2007. Print.
Duggan, Patrick. "The Conflict between Aestheticism and Morality in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray." Journal of the CAS Writing Program (2008): 61-68. Print.
Ominica Crockett: Do you know I always found the book The Picture of Dorian Gray to have such a questioning theme about Morality. When looking at Lord Henry his life seems to be fine though he is the one who corrupts Dorian. Dorian life seems fine if he could forget the picture, he’s young, handsome and rich. So what his conscience might be ruined, at least in this world he has the perfect life.
In Oscar Wilde's novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, beauty is depicted as the driving force in the lives of the three main characters, Dorian, Basil and Lord Henry. Dorian, the main character, believes in seizing the day. Basil, the artist, admires all that is beautiful in life. Lord Henry, accredited ones physical appearance to the ability of achieving accomplishments in life. Beauty ordains the fate of Dorian, Basil, and Lord Henry. The novel embodies the relationship of beauty and morality. Beauty is not based on how attractive an object is to everyone, but how attractive it is to one.
Everyone is merely a product of their surroundings and become what they have been raised to be. While some remain untempted by the vices of their peers, others completely absorb the negative influences in everyday life. Modern society values beauty over substance and The Picture of Dorian Gray serves to reveal that flaw. Oscar Wilde criticizes the superficial nature of people by satirizing the corruption of their views on morality. He says “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame” (Wilde 238). Dorian Gray, the main character, is representative of the direction that humanity as a whole is heading toward. He struggles with his religious identity while also trying to please society’s expectations
The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only novel written by Oscar Wilde. This gothic style story revolves around the protagonist Dorian Gray and his friends Lord Henry Wotton and Basil Hallward in the setting of London, England in 1890. The story is that one day Basil is speaking of a cultured, dignified and attractive gentleman named Dorian Gray to his friend Lord Henry. Lord Henry interested with Basils infatuation with Gray, begs Hallward to introduce him to the fellow. Basil on the other hand does not believe this is a good idea, since he believes Lord Henry will negatively influence Dorian. In the last sitting of Basils’ self-proclaimed masterpiece painting of Dorian, Dorian and Lord Henry finally meet and while Basil is busy painting, Dorian
In conclusion, it has been reiterated that Lord Henry's influence, the changes in Dorian, and the immorality of the yellow book further enforced The Picture of Dorian Gray as a moral book. Oscar Wilde allows for those who could understand the real meaning of the novel by comprehending the importance of these three things to discern that he fully intended on writing this novel as a moral book.
Set in the late 19th Century, Oscar Wilde wrote his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is a story about debauchery and corruption of innocence and well known as a "Gothic melodrama." Violent twists and a sneaky plot make this novel a distinct reflection of human pride and corrupt nature.