Hello there 
I have just finished reading Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and, while I enjoyed it immensely, I must admit that it has confused me a little, as I am not sure how to reconcile Wilde's aestheticism with the "morality tale" elements of the novel.
In his preface, Wilde writes that "there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book"; that "all art is quite useless"; that art should not be concerned with teaching moral lessons, but with beauty. And as far as I know, he did value the sort of life which Dorian Gray sets out on--- rejecting conventional morality and striving to experience beauty in all its forms, etc.
Yet the novel seemed to me to be a morality tale of sorts--- Dorian lives what some might call a "decadent" lifestyle - what Lord Henry considers a truly "beautiful" life - but this leads to an unbearable guilt (his portrait is, I think, repeatedly referred to as his "conscience"). Moreover, I did occasionally feel that Lord Henry took his ideas to VERY extreme lengths (his comments after Sybil Vane's death, for instance, seemed especially callous). I did wonder if perhaps Wilde did somewhat expect his readers to question Lord Henry at these points...
Also, at one point, Basil remarks that Lord Henry might be something of a hypocrite, preaching these ideas about flouting conventional morality and living purely for experiencing beauty, but never actually following those ideas: "you never say a moral thing, and you never do an immoral thing"--- something to that effect. Again, I simply can't work out whether Wilde is expecting readers to question these ideas or not.
Any comments would be much appreciated!
I have just finished reading Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and, while I enjoyed it immensely, I must admit that it has confused me a little, as I am not sure how to reconcile Wilde's aestheticism with the "morality tale" elements of the novel.
In his preface, Wilde writes that "there is no such thing as a moral or immoral book"; that "all art is quite useless"; that art should not be concerned with teaching moral lessons, but with beauty. And as far as I know, he did value the sort of life which Dorian Gray sets out on--- rejecting conventional morality and striving to experience beauty in all its forms, etc.
Yet the novel seemed to me to be a morality tale of sorts--- Dorian lives what some might call a "decadent" lifestyle - what Lord Henry considers a truly "beautiful" life - but this leads to an unbearable guilt (his portrait is, I think, repeatedly referred to as his "conscience"). Moreover, I did occasionally feel that Lord Henry took his ideas to VERY extreme lengths (his comments after Sybil Vane's death, for instance, seemed especially callous). I did wonder if perhaps Wilde did somewhat expect his readers to question Lord Henry at these points...
Also, at one point, Basil remarks that Lord Henry might be something of a hypocrite, preaching these ideas about flouting conventional morality and living purely for experiencing beauty, but never actually following those ideas: "you never say a moral thing, and you never do an immoral thing"--- something to that effect. Again, I simply can't work out whether Wilde is expecting readers to question these ideas or not.
Any comments would be much appreciated!