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Aestheticism

Aestheticism. In The Picture of Dorian Gray. Definition:. “ a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty .” “study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste .” . ".

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Aestheticism

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  1. Aestheticism In The Picture of Dorian Gray

  2. Definition: • “a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty.” • “study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste.” • ."

  3. L’art pour l’art • Intrinsic value of art • Humanism • Beauty found in nature • Subjectivity • Perception • Purity in substance and form • Sensory Pleasure

  4. “…a handsome aspect does not constitute a beautiful creature,” • regardless of the pleasures that they may give or enjoy.

  5. “Rather than enjoying life with what the Victorians advocated as ‘refinement’ or ‘taste,’ Dorian indulges in hedonistic pleasures and devotes himself to the study of perfumes, embroideries, and other benign aspects of fine art.”

  6. “[Dorian] was leaning against the mantelshelf, watching with that strange expression that one sees on the faces of those who are absorbed in a play when some great artist is acting.” • Dorian’s surrounding himself with objects of exquisite beauty is not his greatest sin, because those objects promote pleasure, which is the greatest good, according to the aestheticism belief. • Dorian’s greatest sin is that he grows to depend upon those things to maintain and interest in life. • According to aesthetes, it is not materialism itself, but rather “materialism that substitutes for spiritualism that is undesirable.”

  7. “My dear boy, you are really beginning to moralize… As for being poisoned by a book, there is no such thing as that. Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile.”

  8. “Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that are really mirrors.” (Preface)

  9. Wilde’s novel is not as wholly embracing of aestheticism asitimplies. • Wilde realized and depicted in the life of Dorian Gray, a need for a more controlled and deliberate approach to aestheticism, without which morality will inevitably be elusive.

  10. “Wilde uses Dorian Gray not as an advertisement for aestheticism, but rather, he uses Dorian’s life to warn against aestheticism’s hostility toward morality when uncontrolled.” • “Wilde himself admits, in a letter to the St. James’s Gazette, that Dorian Gray “is a story with a moral. And the moral is this: All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment”

  11. Bibliography • http://www.booksie.com/other/essay/havok/the-role-of-aestheticism-in-oscar-wildes-the-picture-of-dorian-gray • http://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/past-issues/issue-1/duggan/ • A Picture of Dorian Gray

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