2。2 Pervasiveness of Aesthetic Sense 9

III。 Aesthetic Lifestyle—New Hedonism 11

3。1 Dorian’s Fall 11

3。2 Pursuit of Instant Pleasure and Instinctive Liberation 12

IV。 Aesthetic Immorality 15

4。1 Beauty from the Ugliness and Darkness 15

4。2 Beauty from the Hidden Homosexuality 16

V。 Aesthetic Form—Wilde’s Innovative Style and Language 20

5。1 Plot design 20

5。2 Tactful Language 22

VI。 Conclusion 24

Bibliography 26

I。 Introduction

Oscar Wilde, as the spokesman of Aestheticism in Britain, is more famed for his plays than for his novel。 However, his aesthetic ideal in art is best shown in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray。 The novel tells of a young man by the name of Dorian Gray, innocent and incredibly beautiful。 It opens when Dorian works as the subject of an artist Basil Hallward who is impressed by his beauty and believes him to be the inspiration for his new artistic mode。 By Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry and is immediately enthralled by his decadent world view。 Greatly influenced by the popular hedonism then, Lord Henry highly praises his beauty and assumes that the only thing that matters in life is beauty and sensorial pleasure。 Realizing his beauty will fade anyway, Dorian whimsically wishes him to stay young and beautiful while his portrait by Basil ages instead of him。 Mysteriously, his wish comes true。 When the young and beautiful Dorian subsequently lives a life of decadence and debauchery, the portrait endures the consequences that each sinful act has acted upon his soul, and displays as disfigurements of his appearance and signs of aging。 In the end, the portrait becomes so ugly that he attempts to kill the figure in the painting, but actually commits a suicide。 The picture regains its beauty while Dorian lies dead on the ground, ugly and old。

The novel suffered public attacks and condemnation for its immorality and decadence when it was first published as a story in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in the July of 1890。 It was said to be “poisonous” and “unclean” in some newspapers。 In the trial where Wilde was charged with homosexuality, it was used as evidence。 The Picture of Dorian Gray was also deemed as such an immoral novel that people felt guilty to discuss it。 However, many books and papers about Wilde turned up after he died in 1900。 At first, people paid much attention to his life and personality, especially to the infamous lawsuit and his homosexuality。 Gradually, scholars set more emphasis on Wilde’s artistic views and their influences。 In 1995, a variety of activities were held in Britain to commemorate Oscar Wilde, making him a hot topic again。 Elman highly praised Wilde and even claimed that his significance would never disappear within the passage of time。

In China, the academic research on Wilde began much earlier。 Zhou Zuoren translated Wilde’s The Happy Prince in 1909, and then many translated versions of his works turned up, which provided Chinese scholars with valuable materials to study Wilde’s aesthetic ideal and art。 At the beginning, Wilde was often considered as a decadent artist。 In the 1980s, scholars shifted their attention to his aesthetic ideal and his artistic value was widely admitted。 More than a decade later, scholars tended to adopt comprehensive measures to study Oscar Wilde by linking him with his time and culture then, such as, Zhang Jieming’s “From The Picture of Dorian Gray to Discuss Oscar Wilde”, Zhou Xiaoyi’s “Aestheticism and Consumer Culture”, Liu Maosheng’s “Wilde: Agreement of Hedonism and Aestheticism Art” and so on。