Aestheticism reflected in Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”
Camilo Andrés Ferro Suárez
Universidad ECCI
Bogotá, D.C., May 19th, 2018
It can be said that beauty is a concept almost as old as humanity itself. Due to this, this term has
evolved and changed throughout the years. Also, it has become a subjective concept that has
taken part of human development in different fields by being molded according to cultural
references and personal perspectives. When talking about how the conception of beauty has taken
an important role in human development, more specifically in the field of art, aestheticism shows
up to illustrate this idea.
First of all, it is well-known that aestheticism is an art movement which arose during the
nineteenth century. This movement was focused on the doctrine that art exists for the sake of its
beauty alone. This means that aesthetic values were more important than social or political
themes for expressing feelings and emotions through arts. For this reason, its main purpose is to
exalt taste, the pursuit of beauty, and self-expression over moral expectations in order to set
beauty as a fundamental standard of living. Now, it is necessary to talk about one of the most
notable figure from aestheticism is Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, whose one and only
novel titled “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is highly influenced by this movement, being perhaps
the most prominent example of aestheticism in nineteenth century literature.
Taking into account the previous fact, and focusing on the idea of beauty, the book’s
main characters, Dorian Gray and Lord Henry, are the perfect examples of how aestheticism
influenced Wilde’s famous narration. On the one hand, Mr. Gray is a man who focuses on beauty
as the highest pleasure in life, putting aside morality. On the other hand, Lord Henry is a man
who follows the aesthetic ideals with some kind of elegance and boldness that persuades Dorian
to trust and follow everything he says. Furthermore, based on what Wilde (1891) writes on page
36 from Lord Henry’s character:
Beauty if a form of Genius […] People say sometimes that Beauty is only superficial. That may
be so. But at least it is not so superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders.
It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the
visible, not the invisible… (p. 36)
It is very remarkable that the author is engaging and encouraging the idea that beauty
must be experienced aesthetically in order to get the pleasures it offers to people’s lives. He
reflected this in Dorian, who lived under the ideal of the worthiness of living life in accordance
with aesthetic values.
In addition to this, another good example of the influence that aestheticism had in
Wilde’s writing process can be found in the first chapter of the book. In this case again, it is Lord
Henry the one who refers to beauty from the movement perspective when he says: “[…] beauty,
real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself an exaggeration,
and destroys the harmony of any face.” (p. 5). This is purely the way Wilde wanted to let his
readers know his personal opinion about aestheticism, and he actually got it. This reasserts the
main purpose of aestheticism, when it comes to give more importance to beauty issues than
others.
However, it can be seen that the Irish genius also wanted to advice the readers that
aestheticism has also its negative aspects, and that morality is at some point something that can
really affect people negatively if it is left aside. To illustrate, it can be seen how Dorian Gray
starts getting crazy due to his concern about beauty. This lead him to end up doing things that go
against moral values, like murdering people both intentionally and unintentionally, and finally
killing himself. So this could mean that it is very essential to know how to have a balance
between morality and the ideals of aestheticism, in order to keep a good self-relationship as well
as a mental and physical balance.
As a way to conclude, it is important to say that the ideals of aestheticism didn’t just
influence Oscar Wilde’s literary style, but his life in general since he showed through his art that
he was aware of how man cannot live without moral values, because even though everyone
pursuits beauty and pleasures, it is innate in human beings to express emotions into what is
experienced or perceived every day. So, aestheticism needs to go hand-in-hand with moral values
despite many popular figures from the movement thought otherwise.
References
Wilde, O. (1891). The Picture of Dorian Gray. Planet Publish. Taken on May 18, 2018
from: http://www.planetpublish.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/11/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray_NT.pdf
