The Picture Of Dorian Gray Aestheticism Analysis - 1585 Words

â€Å"We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.† This is a stark claim made by Oscar Wilde in the preface to his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (3). Along with the rest of Wilde’s preface, this sentence rebukes literary realism in favor of aestheticism. This is unsurprising to anyone who is familiar with the playwright’s other plays and lectures; Wilde was an avid opponent of realism and a firm believer in the concept of â€Å"art for art’s sake.† Critic Elizabeth Prettejohn claims that aestheticism includes a focus on the visual elements of a piece of art. Oscar Wilde had previously met the†¦show more content†¦Before exploring Wilde’s preface, it is vital to explore the definitions of â€Å"aestheticism† and â€Å"realism† as Wilde would have understood them. Elizabeth Prettejohn defines aestheticism as a direct descendant of Pre-Raphaelitism in which the visual arts take center stage. These â€Å"visual arts† include paintings and sculptures, but can also be found in nature. Due to the ambiguity of its subjects, aestheticism does not have one true definition, but is commonly described as the movement that preceded Pre-Raphaelitism. While Pre-Raphaelites were concerned with the relationship between nature and reality, aestheticism is concerned with differentiating art from the real (Prettejohn 1-2). According to various lectures that Wilde had given on aestheticism throughout his lifetime, it is said that Wilde used the term â€Å"aestheticism† as a catch-all term for treating all forms of art, natural or man-made, as beautiful for their own sake. (Prettejohn 4). In contrast to aestheticism, realism is defined by author George Eliot as â€Å"the doctrine that all truth and beauty are to be attained by a humble and faithful study of nature, and not by substituting vague forms, bred by imagination on the mists of feeling, in place of definite, substantial reality.† Eliot claims that realism uses modesty to impose the modern, real world into art (Mullan 1). In the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde expresses his distaste of realists (â€Å"Those who find uglyShow MoreRelatedThe Picture Of Dorian Gray Aestheticism Analysis935 Words   |  4 PagesThe notion that art can exist for the sake of its beauty alone is the essence of aestheticism, a nineteenth-century arts movement that had a significant impact on the writings of Oscar Wilde; in particular, his enrapturing novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is an insightful narration that expresses many of the central elements of this aesthetic philosophy. Centered on the life of an attractive young man named Dorian Gray, the novel details how through the influence of others, he becomes morally depravedRead MoreThe Picture Of Dorian Gray Character Analys is830 Words   |  4 Pagesand the way the characters themselves interact with both their own thoughts and the world around them. In the works chosen, the appearances of the characters to be analyzed fall on opposite ends of the spectrum of aestheticism. Dorian Gray, from Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray possesses an â€Å"...extraordinary personal beauty (Wilde 1),† one that controls other character’s reception of him, as well as affecting his own inner thoughts, for he knows that he seen as beautiful. On the oppositeRead MoreAbstract Aestheticism in Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray2148 Words   |  9 Pagesexpression, but also one of social advancement. With this idea at its forefront, art suddenly inundated places where art was never previously found, such as social education and morality. In contrast, Oscar Wilde was a key advocate of an idea known aestheticism, a concept that relied on art simply being art. Oscar Wilde played a major role in Victorian England, having a major influence through his writing. At its peak the movement had a disdain for any traditional, natural, political, or moral ideals;Read MoreThe Picture Of Dorian Gray Essay1871 Words   |  8 Pagesexception. In creating the story of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde used his experience of sitting in on a painting session, done by a Basil Ward. He then proceeded to comment on how it would be amazing if the painting aged while the subject of the painting did not. Throughout the novel, we notice this kind of lifestyle being lived out by Dorian and Lord Henry, but we also see how Dorian handles his conscience based on his actions. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel that, while it has its controversiesRead MoreThe English Renaissance675 Words   |  3 Pagesostracize and scoff at people who failed to exhibit their narrow definition of ‘appropriateness’(Foldy). Aestheticism, more liberal and welcoming, was the main contributor to the downfall of the Victorian era because it combated Victorian exclusivity and embraced expression. A major direct impact of the aesthetic movement was spurred feminism. People invested in more elaborate and bold furnishings for their lives and homes, and boundaries were expanded to give women more freedom, causing them toRead MoreThe Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde1243 Words   |  5 PagesBiography An exuberant nonconformist and controversial playwright, eminent author Oscar Wilde produced critically acclaimed literary works that defined the essence of late Victorian England. Posthumously recognized for his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and satiric comedy The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde initially acquired criticism for his immoral and unconventional style of writing. Additionally, to his dismay, strife followed Wilde in his personal life as he was notoriously triedRead MoreA Streetcar Named Desire: the Importance of Being Earnest9437 Words   |  38 Pagesridicules the cant and hypocrisy of society’s moral arbiters. To a very large extent, this figure was a self-portrait, a stand-in for Wilde himself. The dandy isn’t always a comic figure in Wilde’s work. In A Woman of No Importance and The Picture of Dorian Gray, he takes the form of the villains Lord Illingworth and Lord Henry Wootton, respectively. But in works such as Lady Windermereâ₠¬â„¢s Fan, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde seems to be evolving a more positive and clearly