SUMMARY:
DORIAN GRAY
, PLOT OVERVIEW:
Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an
who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty;
He believes that Dorian’s beauty is responsible for the new mode in his art a
painter.
Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled b
aristocrat's hedonistic worldview:
that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in li
Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire
his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade.
The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied and amoral
experiences, while staying young and beautiful;
all the while his portrait ages and records every sin.
, SUMMARY: THE PREFACE
The Preface is a series of epigrams, or concise, witty sayings, that express the major points of Os
Wilde’s aesthetic philosophy.
In short, the epigrams praise beauty and repudiate the notion that art serves a moral purpose.
The Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray is a collection of epigrams that aptly sums up the philo
tenets of the artistic and philosophical movement known as aestheticism.
Aestheticism, which found its footing in Europe in the early nineteenth century, proposed that art
serve moral, political, or otherwise didactic ends.
Whereas the romantic movement of the early and mid-nineteenth century viewed art as a produc
human creative impulse that could be used to learn more about humankind and the world, the ae
movement denied that art must necessarily be an instructive force in order to be valuable.
Instead, the aestheticists’ believed, art should be valuable in and of itself—art for art’s sake.
Near the end of the nineteenth century, Walter Pater, an English essayist and critic, suggested th
itself should be lived in the spirit of art.
His views, especially those presented in a collection of essays called The Renaissance, had a prof
impact on the English poets of the 1890s, most notably Oscar Wilde.
, SUMMARY: THE PREFACE
Aestheticism flourished partly as a reaction against the materialism of the burgeoning middle
class, assumed to be composed of philistines (individuals ignorant of art) who responded to a
a generally unrefined manner.
In this climate, the artist could assert him- or herself as a remarkable and rarefied being, one
leading the search for beauty in an age marked by shameful class inequality, social hypocrisy
and bourgeois complacency.
No one latched onto this attitude more boldly, or with more flair, than Oscar Wilde.
His determination to live a life of beauty and to mould his life into a work of art is reflected in
beliefs and actions of several characters in Wilde’s only novel.
The fear of a bad—or good—influence is, in fact, one of the novel’s primary concerns.
As a work that sets forth a philosophy of aestheticism, the novel questions the degree and kin
influence a work of art can have over an individual.
Furthermore, since the novel conceives of art as including a well-lived life, it is also interested
the kind of influence one person can have over another.
The artful Lord Henry himself has as profound an effect upon Dorian’s life as Basil’s painting d
DORIAN GRAY
, PLOT OVERVIEW:
Dorian Gray is the subject of a full-length portrait in oil by Basil Hallward, an
who is impressed and infatuated by Dorian's beauty;
He believes that Dorian’s beauty is responsible for the new mode in his art a
painter.
Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, and he soon is enthralled b
aristocrat's hedonistic worldview:
that beauty and sensual fulfilment are the only things worth pursuing in li
Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire
his soul, to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade.
The wish is granted, and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied and amoral
experiences, while staying young and beautiful;
all the while his portrait ages and records every sin.
, SUMMARY: THE PREFACE
The Preface is a series of epigrams, or concise, witty sayings, that express the major points of Os
Wilde’s aesthetic philosophy.
In short, the epigrams praise beauty and repudiate the notion that art serves a moral purpose.
The Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray is a collection of epigrams that aptly sums up the philo
tenets of the artistic and philosophical movement known as aestheticism.
Aestheticism, which found its footing in Europe in the early nineteenth century, proposed that art
serve moral, political, or otherwise didactic ends.
Whereas the romantic movement of the early and mid-nineteenth century viewed art as a produc
human creative impulse that could be used to learn more about humankind and the world, the ae
movement denied that art must necessarily be an instructive force in order to be valuable.
Instead, the aestheticists’ believed, art should be valuable in and of itself—art for art’s sake.
Near the end of the nineteenth century, Walter Pater, an English essayist and critic, suggested th
itself should be lived in the spirit of art.
His views, especially those presented in a collection of essays called The Renaissance, had a prof
impact on the English poets of the 1890s, most notably Oscar Wilde.
, SUMMARY: THE PREFACE
Aestheticism flourished partly as a reaction against the materialism of the burgeoning middle
class, assumed to be composed of philistines (individuals ignorant of art) who responded to a
a generally unrefined manner.
In this climate, the artist could assert him- or herself as a remarkable and rarefied being, one
leading the search for beauty in an age marked by shameful class inequality, social hypocrisy
and bourgeois complacency.
No one latched onto this attitude more boldly, or with more flair, than Oscar Wilde.
His determination to live a life of beauty and to mould his life into a work of art is reflected in
beliefs and actions of several characters in Wilde’s only novel.
The fear of a bad—or good—influence is, in fact, one of the novel’s primary concerns.
As a work that sets forth a philosophy of aestheticism, the novel questions the degree and kin
influence a work of art can have over an individual.
Furthermore, since the novel conceives of art as including a well-lived life, it is also interested
the kind of influence one person can have over another.
The artful Lord Henry himself has as profound an effect upon Dorian’s life as Basil’s painting d
