Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2022)

The Incompatibility between Art and Morality

Oscar Wilde’s Aestheticism in The Picture of Dorian Gray

Authors
Zhiwei Ai1615883228@qq.com
English Department, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China.
Corresponding Author
Available Online 8 April 2022.
DOI
10.2991/assehr.k.220401.038How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Oscar Wilde; aestheticism; art; morality; incompatibility
Abstract

“All art is quite useless” is one of Oscar Wilde’s epigrams prefaces his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. He argued that art did not hold any purpose, nor did it take any responsibility in influencing society’s morality, religion, or education. Its sole purpose should be to find beauty, attain beauty and please its appreciators and nothing more— “Art for art’s sake.” This statement of Wilde encapsulates the very core of the aesthetic movement in Victorian England, of which Wilde himself was a fervent supporter. Proponents of the aesthetic philosophy, known as the aesthetes, extend the theory to life itself. “It is life that mimics art.” To them, ideal life is also quite useless. It should be all about beauty and happiness and nothing more. Therefore, The Picture of Dorian Gray was overtly read as an espousal of an aesthetic lifestyle. However, that would be too arbitrary and shallow an interpretation. Upon further examination, we would note that Dorian’s embrace and unrestrained practice of new hedonism led to his utter depravity and corruption. A juxtaposition of the philosophy of aestheticism and Dorian’s ruination would intrigue us to further probe into Wilde’s actual stance in aestheticism and, more importantly, the seemingly predetermined incompatibility between art and morality.

Copyright
© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2022)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
8 April 2022
ISBN
978-94-6239-560-2
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/assehr.k.220401.038How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.
Open Access
This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

Cite this article

TY  - CONF
AU  - Zhiwei Ai
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/04/08
TI  - The Incompatibility between Art and Morality
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 186
EP  - 193
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220401.038
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220401.038
ID  - Ai2022
ER  -