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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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