Dorian Gray Research Paper

In the core of Aestheticism, there lies the idea of appreciation of the beauty. This idea, values the art for its own sake, and believes that focusing on the beauty is more important than anything else. Oscar Wilde, being one of the represantatives of the the Aestheticism movement, reflects his understanding of the art and appreciation of the beauty in his novel called “The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). When we look at the novel, we see that the character Dorian Gray has been influenced by a “ poisonous book” and that is the book which leads him to his tragic death. That book is, Joris Karl Huysmans’s Against Nature (1884), a book that values the aesthetic beauty and artificial sensations. It is clear to see that this book has not only influenced

These plays were the plays that brought success to Wilde as a playwright. His use of wit and irony made him unique in his plays and other works of art. Apart from his plays, short stories and poems, he also published a book in which he tried to show his perspective on the idea of beauty. Wilde was the proponent of Aesthetic movement, meaning to put emphasis on beauty itself rather than moral or social themes. His only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is the ultimate example of the representation of the aesthetic values. He declared in the preface of the book that a work of art can not be considered as moral or immoral. Although he said that a work of art can not be considered to be moral or immoral, his work was considered to be an immoral art and was not appreciated by people. In an era like Victorian, Wilde was critized for his work because of his work’s opposite ideas with the Victorian values. His relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, end up with him being on a trial, and that was enough for Victorian thinking to judge him. The conservative perspective of the Victorian era, found Wilde’s work as degenarate, for its implications about homosexuality, and caused him to be harshly critized after his trial. In fact, just like Huysmans’s work, his work was also considered to be scandalous. Wilde’s inspiration in writing the The Picture of Dorian Gray was the “poisonous book”: A book that embraces artificial sensations, beauty and pleasures. Being an almost plotless story, Huysmans’s Against Nature is the main source of Wilde’s work for its understanding of the beauty, sensations and idea of