The Theme of Decadence in the Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde Essay Sample

Gazing from the definition found in the lexicon. the degeneracy is a literary motion particularly of late 19th-century France and England characterized by refined aestheticism. ruse. and the quest for new esthesiss. [ 1 ] In degeneracy. of import is non needfully what is seen. but the hermeneutics: what adult male feels when he sees the originative consequence of this feeling. It is the current that requires a co-operation from the populace to the artistic work for the intents of re-creation. The image proposed by the decadents is a violent 1. an image that shocks by holding a fascinating and terrorizing power. It is a image that stimulates and besides stimulates. To accomplish such effects. these images ( whether they are painted. engraved or created through the word ) should be wandered every bit much as possible from the usual. The fast one lies in the coloring material. in the invention. in the manner of utilizing the beauty of the jewellery and the treasures. For the decadents non life is devoted to art but art is devoted to life. life is art. Degeneracy shared in the creative activity of infinite for the ulterior Ascension of an internationally oriented vanguard ; and in conclusion. Decadence besides required the Godhead to be independent of the environing society. therefore doing it one of the first manifestations of an alternate subculture.

Degeneracy in the ocular humanistic disciplines represented the dynamic dichotomy of order and pandemonium. the painful minute of the birth of a new life and a new construction. [ 2 ] The same feeling is shared by the dude. Dorian Grey. the character in the novel ‘The Picture of Dorian Grey’ by Oscar Wilde. For his decadent spirit. as it seen in his literary plants Huysmans or Wilde. the love for the artificial is nil else but the love for flawlessness. where the clip does non go forth Markss. They are dudes who live in a universe made by themselves. they create their ain lives as if their lives were some asocial shows. turned the incorrect manner. and loving the art because they replaced their lives with it. The aggravated and induced esthesiss are so strong that such characters can non separate the world from art and frailty versa any longer. as likely happened with the decadent creative persons who lived with such strength of feelings. misidentifying their ain lives with the graphicss. One of the plants in which the decadent motion makes its presence felt is in The Picture of Dorian Grey. by Oscar Wilde. considered to be his most important work. The Picture of Dorian Gray is the merely published novel by Oscar Wilde. looking as the lead narrative in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine on 20 June 1890. printed as the July 1890 issue of this magazine. [ 3 ]

The magazine’s editors feared the narrative was indecorous as submitted. so they censored approximately 500 words. without Wilde’s cognition. before publication. Wilde subsequently revised the narrative for book publication. doing significant changes. canceling controversial transitions. adding new chapters and including an axiomatic Foreword which has since become celebrated in its ain right. [ 4 ] Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde’s supporter is a character dominated by negativeness. taking a life of orgy. In his instance. immorality will hold tragic effects. Sin seems to intrigue him. he besides draws in this sort of life other immature people like Adrian Singleton and Alan Campbell. Its immorality effects will be besides suffered by the immature actress. Sibyl Vane. the one Dorian falls in love with and it ends by destructing her life. Seduction is followed by him go forthing her. a move that brings her to desperation and pushes her to perpetrate self-destruction. The reverberations of his immoral life are heard by the high society which he frequents. but the lone thing Dorian Grey attentions about is his ain ego. his beauty and his young person. His moral deformation is associated with the deformation of the image made by his friend. Basil Hallward. this being the lone component which has a connexion between the two lives Dorian lives. Here is shown the ageless subject of “beauty without age and life without death” .

Basil Hallward is the 1 that links the two lives. the two faces of Dorian. which at first is guiltless. inactive. unconscious of his beauty and strength. so he transforms under the influence of Lord Henry. His construct is hedeonistic. If Basil is the art Godhead. the picture’s Godhead. Lord Henry is the Godhead of Dorian’s new facet. The experience of the wickedness is finished by killing his friend. Basil Hallward. His act does non stirs compunction. his lone concern being to wipe out the hints in order to avoid acquiring discovered. His demonism can be compared to the one of Des Esseintes. which attempts to transform a immature adult male. Auguste Langlois. into an bravo. through frailty. but the difference is that the Huysmans’s character has non the power to perpetrate a slaying himself. The slaying is followed by the devastation of the portrayal. A strong component related to the effete motion is the foppishness. the societal phenomenon. intending a adult male who places peculiar importance upon physical visual aspect. refined linguistic communication. and easy avocations. pursued with the visual aspect of unconcern in a cult of Self. [ 5 ] A first finding of foppishness is shown when old Lord Fermor says to his nephew Henry Wotton “Well. Harry. what brings you out so early? I thought you dudes ne’er got up till two. and were non seeable boulder clay five. ” [ 6 ]

Lord Henry Wotton is to the full a dude. most of the qualities found at him. His mode of taking the people he comes into strengthens the claim that Henry is a dude. ” I choose my friends for their good expressions. my familiarities for their good characters. and my enemies for their minds. ” [ 7 ] The first rule of aestheticism. the doctrine of art by which Oscar Wilde lived. is that art serves no other intent than to offer beauty. Throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray. beauty reigns. It is a agency to regenerate the jaded senses. as indicated by the consequence that Basil’s picture has on the misanthropic Lord Henry. It is besides a agency of get awaying the ferociousnesss of the universe: Dorian distances himself. non to advert his consciousness. from the horrors of his actions by giving himself to the survey of beautiful things—music. gems. rare tapestries. In a society that prizes beauty so extremely. young person and physical attraction become valuable trade goods. Lord Henry reminds Dorian of every bit much upon their first meeting. when he laments that Dorian will shortly plenty lose his most cherished properties.

In Chapter Seventeen. the Duchess of Monmouth suggests to Lord Henry that he places excessively much value on these things ; so. Dorian’s eventual death confirms her intuitions. For although beauty and young person remain of extreme importance at the terminal of the novel—the portrayal is. after all. returned to its original form—the fresh suggests that the monetary value one must pay for them is extremely high. Indeed. Dorian gives nil less than his psyche. [ 8 ] The Picture of Dorian Grey reunites so many grounds and literary subjects as the subject of the mirror. the subject of double personality. which were common even to the Romantics. but Oscar Wilde relates them in the domain of effete art which expresses through the argument about the morality contained in this novel.

All the vague and stylistic elements of the effete literature work as a mean of flight from traditionality and therefore to make a new signifier of art that is more concerned with the earthly kernel of people and how it affects their personality: “ The ideal which the hero aims to set up by cutting the plenary life without ethical or spiritual suppressions. to all esthesiss. through a perfect harmonisation between affect and mind. by accepting the domination of senses as a regulation of life focal points on the expression ” A New Hedonism “ . “ [ 9 ]

Plants Cited

“Decadent motion – Wikipedia. the free encyclopaedia. ” Wikipedia. the free encyclopaedia. N. p. . n. d. Web. 18 Jan. 2013. . Expers. Nominis. “Hedonism. ” Angelfire: Welcome to Angelfire. N. p. . n. d. Web. 18 Jan. 2013. . “SparkNotes: The Picture of Dorian Gray: Subjects. Motifs & A ; Symbols. ” SparkNotes: Today’s Most Popular Study Guides. N. p. . n. d. Web. 18 Jan. 2013. . “The Conflict Between Aestheticism and Morality in Oscar WildeA?AˆA™s The Picture of Dorian Gray A» Writing Program A» Boston University. ” Boston University. N. p. . n. d. Web. 18 Jan. 2013. . Wilde. Oscar. Edgar Mansfield. and James L. Thielman. The image of Dorian Gray. Paris: Charles Carrington … . 1908. Print.

[ 1 ] American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. Fourth Edition [ 2 ] hypertext transfer protocol: //fnewsmagazine. com/2007-may/art- & A ; -decadence. php
[ 3 ] The Picture of Dorian Gray ( Penguin Classics ) – Introduction [ 4 ] Notes on The Picture of Dorian Gray – An overview of the text. beginnings. influences. subjects and a sum-up of The Picture of Dorian Gray [ 5 ] Cult de soi-meme Charles Baudelaire. “Le Dandy” . noted in Susann Schmid. “Byron and Wilde: The Dandy in the Public Sphere” in Julie Hibbard et Al. . explosive detection systems. The Importance of Reinventing Academy award: versions of Wilde during the last 100 old ages 2002 [ 6 ] Oscar. Wilde “The Picture of Dorian Grey “ . Chapter 3 [ 7 ] Oscar. Wilde “The Picture of Dorian Grey” . Chapter 1 [ 8 ] hypertext transfer protocol: //www. sparknotes. com/lit/doriangray/themes. hypertext markup language

[ 9 ] Gheorghe. Mihaela. Dandysmul – mod de existenta artistic. Cluj-Napoca: Limes. 2004. . p. 150