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Dorian Gray Aestheticism

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The popularity of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde has much to do with the scandals surrounding the author as well as being known for homoerotic codes within the writing. Eventually, Oscar Wilde had to deal with the charge of sodomy and gross indecency for which he was sentenced two years of hard labour in prison (Drew XXVI). In the Victorian age, homosexuality was not only judged as something amoral, but was a punishable crime under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885, along with sodomy (Drew XI). Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, born in Dublin in 18546 developed an interest in writing, influenced by witty ideas and his philosophy of life. Approaching his thirtieth year, he married Constance Lloyd, with whom he …show more content…

Accordingly, Wilde stated that “all art is quite useless” (Wilde 4) in his preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray. The enhancement of aestheticism lies upon the significance and value of beauty. The admiration of Dorian Gray’s beauty is comprehended as a basis for homoerotic interests. The painter Hallward himself expresses the importance of Dorian’s beauty as well as the aesthetic value of their relationship for his art: “He is absolutely necessary to me. […] He is all my art to me now. […] – his personality has suggested to me an entirely new manner in art, an entirely new mode of style.” (Wilde …show more content…

Art has no influence upon action.” (Wilde 172). This statement is opposing to Wilde’s idea presented in his first letter to the St. James’s Gazette, where he claims that The Picture of Dorian Gray is a “story with a moral”, that “all excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment” 8. Thus, it can be argued that Wilde did not alter the idea of a moral story, but rather covered the idealised love of the painter Hallward for his muse to hide any homoerotic

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Do not wait until you have the popular opinion, for it will not help you in the long run. One should want to claim their opinion as their own, not as another’s. This is his first attempt to make his readers self-reliant—or at least make them want to take the first step. Emerson then says that “a man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best” to let the reader know how it would feel if they put their all into something that was important to them—whether original or not. Ideally, an individual would feel quite happy after starting and finishing their own work, just like the “eminent painter” Emerson mentions in the first line of his essay.

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191 Words | 1 Pages

Oscar Wilde is the author of “The Picture Of Dorian Gray” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray: Preface”. Based off of these two texts, I infer that Oscar Wilde is often misread. This is shown in both of the texts because they are about how things are often misconceived. First, the text titled “The Picture Of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde states, “: Forgive me, sir! I almost killed an innocent man.”

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If he were to have Dorian’s handsome stature with his own intelligence and kindness, the creation would resemble a positive figure, but that was not the point of Shelley’s and Wilde’s argument. They propose that people should look beyond a pretty face or an ugly one to truly see the man

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1115 Words | 5 Pages

The researcher decides Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned to be the objects of the study on inferiority and superiority complex causing hedonistic lifestyle in main character. The first reason, both of literary works cover the changing of each life of the main character, society and ultimately the individual. Second, they both share the same social background of the main character in The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian, displays a well-respected young man. He doesn’t recognize his own beauty until he sees it reflected in Basil’s portrait, and, once he does, it’s all too late. While Anthony in The Beautiful and Damned is illustrates reaching pleasure as the lifestyle and it becomes a habit.

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1215 Words | 5 Pages

‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ is the title of this book which wrote by a great author named Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde had writing many books based on his experiences and most of his genre is quite dark and mysterious, same as this book he wrote which contain gothic genre. I found this story had gothic genre because the storyteller, which is Oscar Wilde illustrating supernatural event in this story such as the Dorian’s wish seem like coming true as the portrait was the one that kept aging instead of Dorian Gray himself. Thus, the portrait has reflected as Dorian Gray’s soul and his personality grew darker and more evil as his life continued. This book that I read has quite artfully as it is like engaging me to keep reading more to know the

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168 Words | 1 Pages

I read a short summary of the novel which stated that in the book there is a painting of a man. The man stays young and beautiful while the painting grows old and turns ugly. After I read that, I became curious. I wondered how it would work? How would Dorian feel?

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750 Words | 3 Pages

The Picture of Dorian Gray written by Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray shocked the moral judgments of British book critics. Some of them said Oscar Wilde deserved to be pursuance for breaking the laws guarding the common morality because the uses of homosexuality were in that time banned. This book was for that time unusual because it had a pretty serious criticism on the society from that time. The novel is about a young and extraordinarily beautiful youngster, named Dorian Gray that have promised to his soul in order to live a life of eternal youth, he must try to adapt himself to the bodily decay and dissipation that are shown in his portrait.

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882 Words | 4 Pages

When Dorian first notices the difference on the outer appearance of the portrait, “The quivering, ardent sunlight showed him the lines of cruelty round the mouth as clearly as if he had been looking into a mirror after he had done some dreadful

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2219 Words | 9 Pages

His words and painting influenced Dorian’s life immensely and this made him so determined to want to retain his youth after taking a look at his

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1108 Words | 5 Pages

(Wilde 23). This conversation leads Dorian to wish that he will only age in the painting, and not in reality. Wilde creates a theme of superficiality as he shows through motifs and symbols how Dorian’s sinful and horrific inner beauty becomes excused as the characters of the novel primarily superficially values Dorian’s outer beauty. A main motif that helps Wilde illustrate the theme of superficiality is the colour white.

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1283 Words | 6 Pages

Wilde is greatly influenced by the societal movements in the Victorian Era, therefore the theme of hedonism is prominent displaying the influence of Aestheticism in The Picture of Dorian Gray and further explaining the consequences of selfishness and self-pleasure. The Aestheticism movement shockingly challenged all past standards of love, pleasure, and sexuality. Specifically this Victorian movement “promotes sexual… experimentation. ”(Burdett)

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“” At least you are like it in appearance. But it will never alter,” sighed Hallward. “that is something.”” (Wilde 33) The reader begins to perceive that Dorian is both intrigued and disgusted by the never changing portrait of his innocence.

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782 Words | 4 Pages

The Picture of Dorian Gray, one of Oscar Wilde’s masterpieces, portrays one of the most important values and principles for him: aestheticism. As a criticism to the life lived during the Victorian era in England, Wilde exposed a world of beauty a freedom in contradiction to the lack of tolerance a limitation of that era; of course inspired due to Wilde’s personal life. All the restrictions of the Victorian England lead him to a sort of anarchism against what he found to be incoherent rules, and he expressed all this to his art. His literature is a strong, political and social criticism. He gave a different point of view to controversial topics such as life, morality, values, art, sexuality, marriage, and many others, and epigrams, for what he is very well known, where the main source to the exposure of his interpretations of this topic.

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1994 Words | 8 Pages

M.H. Abrams’s The Mirror and the Lamp: romantic theories and the critical traditions is one of the most influential books in the field of western criticism. It was published in the year of 1953. The title of the book refers to the two contradictory metaphors used to portray the artist – one comparing the artist to a mirror which reflects nature as it is or perfected whereas the other compares the artist to a lamp that illuminates the object under consideration. Professor Abrams in his book illustrates the transition of the perspective of the theorists on the artist from one to the other and the ramifications of the latter in aesthetics, poetics and practical criticism. The essay “Orientation of critical theories” is the first chapter of this book.

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937 Words | 4 Pages

The reader gets the impression that the portrait is a representation of Dorian 's inner self, and how it becomes uglier and more disgraceful as time gradually passes and with every horrific crime that he commits, as can be seen in the following quote: “The picture had to be concealed. There was no help for it.” (Wilde 113). The portrait serves as an image of Dorian 's true nature and the relationship between how his soul progressively becomes more nefarious, and how the evil of his soul becomes visible on the painted surface of the canvas. The way Wilde uses the portrait as a motif throughout the story helps the reader to see and understand how Dorian himself is not yet entirely unfettered by the influence of the portrait.

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