Estheticism In Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Oscar Fingal O ' Flahertie Wills Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in July 1890. Its revised and expanded book form appeared a year later in April 1891. In my thesis, I am analysing the latter version.

In literary criticism, many books and articles were written about the novel. According to Richard Ellmann whose book is considered to be the most complex critical biography of Wilde, the novel was born in an era when “aestheticism suffered for lack of example: Dorian Gray filled the need” (288). The biographer also states that “With its irreverent maxims, its catch phrases, its conversational gambits, its insouciance and contrariness, it announced the age of Dorian (289). Wilde’s

In Atlanta, a Constitution reporter named him “The Great Esthete” in an article entitled “Oscar Wilde: Arrival of the great Esthete” (Mikhail 93). However, numerous contemporary writers similar to Beardsley did not accept his aestheticism mainly because of his immoral lifestyle. In an interview which he gave on a visit to America he defined aestheticism in the following way: “aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science through which men look after the correlation which exists in the arts. It is, to speak more exactly, the search after the secret of life” (Mikhail 37). Wilde himself lived a covert life so after this explanation it is not surprising that he was attracted by aestheticism.

In her essay, Aesthetic Principles in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Sarah Gustaffson claims that Wilde uses this novel to spread his own interpretations of Aestheticism. Pater taught Wilde the basic ideas of Aestheticism in the same way Lord Henry teaches Dorian Gray about the values of life. Dorian Gray proves to be a perfect student because he shortly becomes a dissolute hedonist similar to Lord Henry who strives for finding selfish solutions to his problems. Many of Lord Henry’s statements, for example, „the aim of life is self-development” are Wilde’s own opinions, so he uses Lord Henry to share his philosophy of Aestheticism with the