Lecturer Dr James Brown Seminar of 19th Century Literature

Lazar Andreea ,II B Ukrainian-English, group 12

Discuss Oscar Wildes quote There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.
The term Morality comes from the latin version of moralitas meaning manner, character, proper behavior,often unacknowledged, plays a cruial role in society. In its descriptive sense, morality refers to personal or cultural values, social mores and codes of conduct that distinguish between right and wrong in the human society.
(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/morality-definition/)

I clearly agree to what the quote states and that these terms (moral-immoral) apply only to the goodness or badness of human behavior.The author suggests that morality is to be applied only in real life situations, and that books are written for the sake of art, despite the events or the characters way of life. It seems fair to dislike badly written books regardless of its content but, to judge well written books regarding morality or immorality can ruin the experience of reading. As a writer Wilde wrote about the corruption of the soul, the thrill for sensations, beauty and others just to create marvelous stories, interesting characters etc, not to convince the readers to take part in such actions. Only a fool or mad person would copy the behaviour told in any sort of book. Wilde insited on the separation between art and life and was well known for the use of aesthetics . Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art and taste and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesthetics Wildes philosophy was that aesthetics overcomes and makes meaningless all other issues. (http://www.suite101.com/content/oscar-wilde-on-morality-in-literature-a316999) He produced a perfect work of art in which form is everything disregarding the common concept of what is acceptable and saying that immoral is an inappropriate word for a pice of art.Wilde saw no contradiction in making judgements in his writing about morality but he kept psychical distance. According to psychologist Edward Bulloughs the concept of being completely objective and to separate oneself from the work of art, helps comprehend and resolve problems regarding the field of aesthetics. However Bernard Williams in his essay Obscenity and Film Censorship examines the effect of offensive material in literature saing that he denies this kind of view of morality in art and that books can transmite more sensations then good or bad, and that he comment on the importance of freedom of expression. (http://www.suite101.com/content/oscar-wilde-on-morality-in-literature-

Lecturer Dr James Brown Seminar of 19th Century Literature

Lazar Andreea ,II B Ukrainian-English, group 12

a316999)Artistic expression is our ability to judge for ourselves and to provide and discuss

ideas in art and literature, without thinking of whatever or not they harm in any way the readers.I dont believe that there should be any particulary established group dictating us what the public should or should not read or watch. Denying these rights censorship takes its lead. The Picture of Dorian Gray was Wildes only published novel that uses aesthetics as a major theme, merely as an abstract that serves to make confussions rather than dignify the concept of beauty.The novel tells the sory of Dorian Gray, an aristocrat and a man of society ,and that of his friends Basil Hallward and Henry Wotton. Because of Dorians good looks, Basil paints a portrait of him, which becomes the window of his soul. The scene of Dorian wishing for eternal youth is presented in a rather ambiguous way and can be seen hedonistic.The second and major theme of the novel is hedonism, being suggested by lord Henry saying that is the only thing worth pursuing in life. As a result Dorian becomes influenced by his friend and becomes drawn into a corrupt double life, indulging his desires in a secret life of pleasure and excess while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. As Dorians behavior sinks further into debauchery the portrait bears the traces of his decadence. The critical reception of the book was poor with the book gaining certain notoriety becase of the novels homoerotic overtones, which caused something of a sensation amongst Victorian critics when first published.Also the hedonism described in the book was seen as something inventive , and the distorted views of conventional morality.The newspapers stated that this kind of literatue stained the mind of young people and in responde Wilde curtailed some of the homoerotic overtones and added six chapters to the book in effort to add background. Also he added later the Preface that Wilde used it to address the criticism and defend the novels reputation. It consists of a collection of statements about the role of an artist, art , and beauty, and serve to indicate how Wilde intends the novel to be read and understand. Another bad regarded by the critics is influence being a recurring theme throught the book. Influence is largely depicted by the author as an immoral act, as it may convince people to take part into actions or make decisions that are not true to themselves, the best exemple being Dorian Gray. However the author states that al people are influenced and act as influenced, and ironically the book may influence its readers though the preface paradoxically states that no artist, in their work, desires to prove anything or has ethical sympathies. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray) Dorian is an example as he is influenced by his friend lord Henry. Dorians portrait also influenced him and Basil was influenced by his own painting of Dorian. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde includes scenes in which Dorian is influenced by a yellow book, presumably being a well written book since it has a profund effect on Dorian. At the end of Chapter XIX Dorian reproched Lord Henry that the book he gave to him had influenced him in a negative manner, Yet you poisoned me with a book once. I should not forgive that. Harry promise me that you will never lend that book to any one. It does harm. Lord Henry replies that it is no such thing as an immoral book reveling to the readers that he is the voice of the author , As

Lecturer Dr James Brown Seminar of 19th Century Literature

Lazar Andreea ,II B Ukrainian-English, group 12

for being poisoned by a book, there is no such thing as that. Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile. The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. That is all. The scene in which Dorian reads the book wasnt used by the author to state that a book has the ability to influence lives ,Wilde makes another quote sying It is the spectator, not life that art really mirrors suggesting that because of Dorians wickedness and vanity already present within him from the start , he wouldnt had been marked. The topic resembles Faust, in both stories an offer of temptation is placed before the main character and he wishes to gain the love of a woman that dies because of him and also the girls brother. Unlike Faust Dorian never makes a pact with Evil Forces, becoming convinced by the hedonistic teachings of Lord Henry, they seem also to carry the role of the Devil, tempting the pure Dorian at the begginig of the novel.

Although The picture of Dorian Gray was at first criticize this wasnt the only novel to have a controversial plot. There are a lot of novels dating from the 17th century twards our modern days, that had unusual themes like the 20th century novel Lolita written by Russian Vladimir Nabokov, about a collage professor who has feelings of sexual love over a teenage girl. The novel is similar to Wildes with the use of metaphors , offers a romantic point of view over the characters obsession, disregarding scientific or psychologic explanations. Another way of making the characters more likable was used by both writers in which they include other characters that influence or becomes the source of evil in the book.(example Quilty in Lolita and Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray) Another great example of similarity although not a piece of English literature I find the novel Perfume; The Story of A Murderer written in 1985 by german Patrick Suskind, the novel explores the morality of the human spirit and the relationship with the emotional meaning that scents may carry. The story is about a young man that is born with a scence of smell beyound a regular human but he is unnable to smell his own skin , he then tries to crate the perfect perfume in which to capture the purity of the soul, and because of this he gets carried away and starts murduring maidens, being convinced that they are the ingredients of the perfume and finaly he succeds into creating it. This has defenately a controversial subject but it clearly cannot be coppied in real life. In conclusion Wildes work continues to stimulate our minds and souls and may have not cause psychological harm to anybody yet his statement helped others understand this kind of literature and has helped other writers to show their state of mind despite the critics and the inappropriate use of the term morality in art.