Analysis Of Oscar Wilde's Aesthetic Movement

Wilde was a budding author in his own lifetime, during Victorian era which early period was usually associated with 'prudishness ' and 'repression ' (Adams 3). Wilde was claimed to be a follower of the Aesthetic Movement which begs the question, what was he trying to imply in creating his novel? Wilde was not the leader of the Aesthetic movement but rather “a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art’s sake” (Luebering 133). Dorian’s story shows how aesthetic beliefs can ruin the life if to pursue them blindly. In this way, Oscar Wilde not only demonstrates the Aesthetic movement in all its glory but also tells about its poisonous effect to moral that can occur. Basil worshipped Dorian’s

The Picture showed that not only Wilde did not just challenge the society’s beliefs; but he seemed to promote his own continuously.

Wilde summarized the complete principles of the Aesthetic Movement popular in Victorian England; that is to say, real art takes no part in moulding the social or moral identities of society, nor should it. Epicurus (342270 B.C.E.), a Greek philosopher active during the Hellenistic period, had a defining influence on those identified as Aesthetes and Decadents (Konstan) . The movement has its roots in the Romantic period and the Pre-Raphaelites and spread in Western Europe and America during the late 19th century. According to Johnson, “aestheticism is not one single phenomenon, but a group of related phenomena, all reflecting a conviction that the enjoyment of beauty can by itself give value and meaning to life” (10). Aestheticism attempts to separate art from

Outward appearance is also reflected in Wilde’s novel as being one of the main obsessions of the society. The society in The Picture adores beauty, putting youth and physical appeal at the top of the main values. Wilde’s novel shows his engagement with aestheticism, the late-nineteenth-century arts movement that promoted art for the sake of its beauty alone, not for any utilitarian, moral, or political purpose. Dorian is desperate to maintain his beauty and youth because he fears for other people’s opinion. It was true then as it is now that humans will go to great lengths to impress society. If Wilde has written about Dorian in the 20th or the 21st century, it would undoubtedly be different. Dorian might have been a person addicted to beauty products instead of having a love-hate relationship with a magical portrait. Aesthetic movement was against traditional Victorian’s moral values. According to the critic Alex Ross, “Wilde’s aestheticism, his fanatical cult of beauty, was the deepest and most lasting of his passions, and it is now the most radical thing about him” (Ross para 5). Wilde was a member of the Aestheticism movement which tried to free art from being a tool for moral enlightenment and sought art as only being beautiful. In his preface, Wilde writes: “The purpose of Art is to have absolutely no purpose”. That is exactly Wilde’s philosophy of Art, the same philosophy generated by Basil in The Portrait. Basil seems to lead a truly simple life and is depicted by