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The ultimate sin was killing the only person who ever saw true beauty in him.
For its time, this book was extremely well done, and the writing cannot be faulted in the light of Victorian English literature. The story, in fact, is still a good tale, but the long passages of exposition, even in the guise of conversation, makes it difficult for today's audience to read. It is so full of discussions of philosophy and morality that I have to suspect that it was intentionally done to point out the excessive moralizing in much Victorian literature. Nearly every rule of political correctness is broken by one or more of the characters. Yet the story underlying the whole is compelling. Since reading and discussion of literature was a major pastime of the day the books holds its own. However, since we seldom see ourselves in an unflattering light in the literature we read, most readers of the time would not have seen themselves in this story. Wilde was a master of dry humor and wit. I doubt seriously, from reading his other works, that any of the contents in this book...
Therefore we have to see it on two levels. The story as a work of art for its time must have been well received, as it conformed to the norms of his society.
However, in conforming, Wilde has created a totally different work of art. It is a marvelously well done piece of subterfuge. Many true artists, writers and poets of his day were harshly criticized by an unforgiving public which wanted to see morality in its idols. At the same time, they enjoyed a good story about how sin will be punished. Oscar Wilde created a story which had to be accepted, because it contained all the morality they sought. All immoral or otherwise unacceptable statements were made by antagonists, so they did not reflect on the author. That there was really far too much moralizing and far too many conflicting messages probably slipped by the Victorian audience. However, from our perspective it is much easier to see. This work of art actually uses message to make a statement of its own and I think it was a good joke that must have had Wilde secretly chuckling.
Indeed, Dorian Gray does end up doing much wrong to Miss Vane which induces her to commit suicide. However, her brother, a worldly seaman, does not get the opportunity to fulfill his promise, for he too ends up dead through the machinations of the evil Dorian Gray. Dorian's third mistake occurs at the conclusion of the story when he decides to destroy the painting which after many years has become
aestheticism movement found, in Oscar Wilde, its most eloquent and staunch supporter; consequently, his only novel, the Picture of Dorian Gray, is a monument to the notion that art is the pure manifestation of beauty and reveals Wilde's particular reverence for classical western society's artistic achievements. Oscar Wilde fundamentally sought to dislodge art from morality within his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and in so doing, pay his respects
Queer Theory and Oscar Wilde Analysis of "Queer Theory" by Annamarie Jagose in relation to Dorian Gray's character in "The picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde In her discussion of "Queer theory," author Annamarie Jagose provides a distinction between the concepts 'queer' and the dichotomous relationship between 'lesbian' and 'gay.' Jagose argued in her discussion of this theory that queer was a concept that had politically evolved through the years in
Theoretically Informed Intertextual Analysis There are numerous similarities existent between Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and William Wordsworth's "Resolution and Independence" Despite the fact that the former is a novel and the latter a poem, both were composed by English authors in the 19th century and were preoccupied with the singular theme of youth. This theme becomes even more magnified and lucid when these pieces of literature are examined
" (41) it is unclear how to understand "things are because we see them." Traditionally perception is conceived as a passive process: we open our eyes and receive input from the world. Kant suggests that perhaps it is not so passive: we "organize" the world into temporal and spatial dimensions, attribute cause and effect, etc. But what Wilde suggests here is even more radical. The "things are because" suggests a
Ultimately, Mrs. Dalloway's opinion of herself is highest when she is giving parties. Woolf writes, "Every time she gave a party she had this feeling of being something not herself, and that every one was unreal in one way; much more real in another" (Woolf 171). She knows she has a gift for bringing people together, and it is this gift that makes her life worthwhile. It is odd, because