Analysis Of Aestheticism In The Picture Of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde

The human mind works in mysterious ways; it knows what it needs yet desires what it wants. You can conclude it as the battle between one’s ID and Super ego; they both need a controlling factor which is the ego (Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory). Similarly the mind needs a controlling factor which could be, idealistically put as; “morals”

In a world that we live in, a person without morals is no person at all, yet an embarrassment in the form of rebellion created by society itself. But we will not use morals as the extremely set ideals in this argument, instead the very basic morals of human nature that exist in us naturally; the feeling of guilt, love, tears, joy etc.

The psychoanalytical theories best describe the shifts in nature on

This novel is quite similar to the above mentioned novel in terms of psychoanalysis, the only differences being the protagonists; children on one hand young fine men on the other. On location; an abandoned island on one hand fancy English homes on the other. On background; War on one hand Victorian parties on the other. Yet both reveal the beasts inside humans, which make one question, if madness is the truest form of human nature. If left in the natural habitat will the man become the oh so feared animal? They say when a man hunts; he becomes the creature, and the creature a man. Such novels hint a very cleverly subtle remark on the English society that they praise so much, as Jack quotes “We are not savages, we are English, and the English are best at everything,” yet English are the ones who get themselves in trouble the most, reveal their savagery, and prove themselves wrong. But then again, each author may mock their own heritage and its

Also, he remained not a man of himself, yet created by one who was afraid. A man who “talked no morals and did nothing wrong” Dorian became what Henry couldn’t become. It really is a pity, being so beautiful yet so dumb that it forces you into becoming an ugly fiend. Pictures are meant to be immortal, no matter how much he might run away from it, he can’t escape reality, but then he shows moments of indecisiveness, since he wants to leave his corruption yet he wants to keep going. Dorian Gray truly depicts the fall of innocence and that outer beauty is meaningless if the seed is rotten. And just to add a bit more spice to the novel, it also has hints of Jungian criticism, which is prevalent in Henry and Basil’s fascination towards Dorian, the unexplainable feeling their hearts go through as well as the “sensation of terror, explains a lot. It could also highlight how Wilde felt about Lord Alfred Douglas for he claimed “I can’t live without you” equivalent to Basil’s “my life as an artist depends on him.” All in all, this novel is one of the greatest pieces of arts created in its era, which perfectly highlights the mental corruption of the human