ABSTRACT:Oscar Wilde, known for his distinguished tenets of “art for art’s sake”, fully expresses his aesthetic creeds in The Picture of Dorian Gray. However, after thorough reading of the representative work of aestheticism, some discrepancies of Oscar’s ideas reveal themselves. This paper attempts to find out the use and misuse of aesthetics to explore the essentials of Wilde’s aesthetic theories. “Life mimics the art”, and “art is amoral” are famous principles of aesthetics according to Wilde, but are also goals he fails to achieve in this novel. This essay will try to form an original idea of the purpose of Wilde through the rise and fall of characters.
Wilde’s aesthetic ideas will be presented in the beginning. Henry is a character who serves as the spokesman of Wilde. Being a typical aesthete, he is a perfect person from who we can get to know the aesthetics.
Dorian Gray, the hero of the story, is also an aesthete in action. He lives by those aesthetic principles. However, his degeneration and final death form a sharp contrast with what Wilde favors for. From his gradual change from an innocent, shy person to a sophisticated, frivolous, and ruthless person, we see clearly how the abuse of aestheticism affects one’s soul. That’s why Wilde cannot escape from the boundary of ethics. He tries to build a detached island burdened with his concern for the society, and subsumes the aesthetics under the morals.
Keywords: Oscar Wilde; Aestheticism; discrepancy; morality
中文摘要:本文以王尔德的作品《道林格雷的画像》为例，探讨他的唯美主义思想在这部代表作中的具体体现。并以王尔德的“生活模仿艺术”，“艺术与道德无关”这两个唯美主义观点为切入点，重新解读小说中的主要人物，以便从人物的一言一行，命运沉浮来揭示出王尔德观点的内在矛盾性。
本文第一部分简述王尔德的唯美主义观点。并将侧重点放在亨利这个人物身上，他是王尔德在这部作品中的代言人，他思想上是个典型的唯美主义者，借由这个人物来认识唯美主义的基本观点。
第二部分侧重于主人公道林格雷。他是唯美主义的践行者，而他最终的堕落乃至死亡也与王尔德最初的主张形成了最鲜明的对比。通过对他的言谈举止，揭示出唯美主义思想对人的精神，生活的多重影响。最后，分析王尔德这个作者创作中的矛盾，他是如何试图建立美的象牙塔却无法割舍对尘世的关注，以及如何试图将艺术独立于功利和道德说教却总是功败垂成。
第三部分总结本课题的论点，概况自己对唯美主义的新认识。
关键词：王尔德，唯美主义，矛盾，道德
This novel revolves around Dorian’s pursuit of happiness. All his actions were meant to maximize the joy and beauty in life, and nothing more. Wilde favors that by creating a Henry who had many witty and paradoxical ideas. However, Dorian’s death tells us that there is something more than merely happiness and beauty. And that’s morals. Wilde couldn’t release his concern about what the abuse of aestheticism will lead to. Before following one’s heart and impulse, one have to think of the consequences of his actions. Dorian took in an unrestrained aestheticism, which led him to a cruel, evil, and degenerated life. If in the pursuit of one’s desires, many others’ life is jeopardized, this happiness won’t last for long, as is in the case of Dorian. As Wilde makes clear, it is only through a more restrained philosophy that aestheticism and morality may eventually align.
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