The Picture of Dorian Gray ART By Tarran Chana

Aestheticism Aestheticism involves a devotion to art and indicates the importance of beauty compared with other values, such as morality and material utility It attempts to separate art from life in order to reduce moral implications. This means instead of letting attitudes towards life influence a work of art, art is valued for the aesthetic pleasure it involves.

Oscar Wilde and Aesthetics Wilde was seen as a controversial symbol for aestheticism. He was introduced to the aesthetic principles by his college teachers, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. He kept Pater's words of philosophy and put them into a book, he named the 'Golden Book' because he though they were life changing. The Picture of Dorian Gray shows the issue of devotion to art, where the main characters, Basil, Dorian and Lord Henry seeking beauty in life.

The role of the painting as a 'Mirror' When Basil talks about 'a dream of form in days of thought' (p. 12) he is referring to an idea familiar to educated victorians: Plato's 'Theory of Forms'. This states that life is filled with imperfect copies of a divine reality and that the perfect form – whether it is a table or relationship - exists in another place The painting shows something about Dorian that is true, but not 'real'. It gives an insight of what Dorian would look like if he didn't wish to change places with the picture

Basil shows that he has entered his own picture Basil shows that he has entered his own picture. He sees his feelings in 'every flake and film' of it' (p. 92). He also tells Lord Henry that anything painted with passion 'is a portrait of the artist, not the sitter' (p.8) which reinforces the idea of the painting acting as a mirror. Plato felt that art could only copy the copies, however Basil says to Dorian 'yes, you are just like that'(p.27) when talking about the painting, but has also put his own admiration into the painting and suggests that it is 'the real Dorian'(p.26), this could mean that Basil has painted a better Dorian, than the one pushing him away.