![]() ![]() Yet, while he enjoys these indulgences, his behavior ultimately kills him and others, and he dies unhappier than ever. ![]() Dorian Gray personifies the aesthetic lifestyle in action, pursuing personal gratification with abandon. To the aesthete, there is no distinction between moral and immoral acts, only between those that increase or decrease one’s happiness yet, Dorian Gray refutes this idea, presenting a strong case for the inherent immorality of purely aesthetic lives. It would be a mistake, however, to interpret the novel as a patent recommendation of aestheticism. In the novel, Lord Henry Wotton trumpets the aesthetic philosophy with an elegance and bravado that persuade Dorian to trust in the principles he espouses the reader is often similarly captivated. However, this story of the rise and fall of Dorian Gray might instead represent an allegory about morality meant to critique, rather than endorse, the obeying of one’s impulses as thoughtlessly and dutifully as aestheticism dictates. Many have read The Picture of Dorian Gray as a novelized sponsor for just this sort of aesthetic lifestyle. Influences on others, if existent, are trivial at best. To the aesthete, the ideal life mimics art it is beautiful, but quite useless beyond its beauty, concerned only with the individual living it. ![]() Here, aestheticism advocated whatever behavior was likely to maximize the beauty and happiness in one’s life, in the tradition of hedonism. Rather, the proponents of this philosophy extended it to life itself. The explosion of aesthetic philosophy in fin-de-siècle English society, as exemplified by Oscar Wilde, was not confined to merely art, however. Art should be beautiful and pleasure its observer, but to imply further-reaching influence would be a mistake. That is to say, real art takes no part in molding the social or moral identities of society, nor should it. In this one sentence, Wilde encapsulates the complete principles of the Aesthetic Movement popular in Victorian England. After careful scrutiny, he concludes: “All art is quite useless” (Wilde 4). ![]() Oscar Wilde prefaces his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, with a reflection on art, the artist, and the utility of both. ![]()
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