LINGUISTICS: PICTURE OF DORIAN GARY

AESTHETICS AND MORALITY IN THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GARY Wilde, through his literal text, The Picture of Dorian Gary, the author shows the superficial nature of society through the character of Dorian Gary. As a painter, the play starts with basil painting the picture of Dorian, and it comes out as a very beautiful portrait; and Dorian cannot help but admire his beauty and youth on the canvas. Lord Henry Wotton realizes the beauty that Dorian possesses, and he tells him to keep on searching for new sensations in life because of his beautiful features. From the results of the picture, Dorian is marvelled at how he looks and wishes that he could remain beautiful and young forever. Through the character of Dorian, Wilde explores aestheticism to show that beauty serves no purpose, and in the same case, beauty might predominantly cause immoral behaviour. Wilde argues that all art is useless, and through his thought process in making this conclusion about art, it is evident that art plays no role in modelling the moral principles of a society. Art should be a beautiful presentation that is attractive to the eye of an observer. However, in real life, beauty and attractiveness in a person can influence the morality of an individual. Dorian is influenced by Lord Henry Wotton’s principles that he should find the sensations of life, and this gets into the head of Dorian. Because of the praises Dorian gets from Lord Henry Wotton; he believes that his youth and beauty should get him what he wants. Gary approaches the aesthetic life with bad intention. For example, Dorian wishes that it is his portrait that ages and not him, and this shows that he is a person who pursues personal gratification only. Dorian shows self-denial and lack of appreciation of the natures of life, where it is normal for people to age. Because of aesthetics, Dorian rejects beautiful aspects of life. Even though aesthetics is beautiful and attractive, to what purpose they serve is someone ready to lose their true self to live in them. Aesthetic life comes with immoral living, and this is well demonstrated in the way Dorian chose to live after he got his wish. In one of his letters, Wilde argues that “All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment,” and this is the case with Dorian. Aesthetic life makes Dorian crave a lot of desire, which causes him to make a wrong decision, which is a reflection of bad morals. For example, Dorian falls in love with Sibyl Vane, an actress, but when she starts falling in love with him, she dismisses her, saying he only fell in love with her art, which drives Sibyl to take her life away. However, Dorian is convinced that the death of Sibyl is an advantage to him because he will take on her beauty as she has died young. Dorian is impressed, and this shows the cunningness and selfishness that comes with aesthetics. Conclusively, aesthetics and morality are closely linked because through the desires of things; one ends up becoming superficial. When people want superficial so much, they might end up sacrificing their moral grounds to achieve just like Dorian in the literal text. Show Less