Aestheticism and Decadence

PG 21
19th century
This movement re ects the frustration and uncertainty of the artists, their
reaction against materialism and the restrictive moral code of the bourgeoisie.
There’s the need to rede ne the role of art
Artists escaped from the political and social scene and into what Gautier called
“Art for art’s sake”
According to the Aesthetic Movement, art had no reference to life and therefore
it had nothing to do with morality and did not need to be didactic
ART DIDN’T FOLLOW THE COMMON MORALITY

The bohemien protested against the monotony of bourgeois life and led an
unconventional existence, pursuing sensation, excess, cultivating art and beauty

James Whistler imported this movement from France to England. Walter Pater
is considered the theorist of the Aesthetic Movement. According to Pater art was
the only form of certainty, the only way of stopping time. Pater thought that life
should have been lived as if it were a work of art itself
The task of the artist was was to feel sensations, to be a transcriber not of the
world, but of his sense of it
“Live a life full of sensations, live a life as a work of art”

Features of Decadent artists’ works:

• excessive attention to the sel
• Hedonistic and sensuous attitude (hedonism= love for pleasure
• Perversity
• Disenchantment with contemporary societ
• Evocative use of language (symbolism
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 Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, in 1854. He attended the Trinity College there
and then he was sent to Oxford where he gained a Classics’ Degree. He adopted
the Aesthetic theory of “Art for art’s sake”. Then he moved to London where he
began living as a dandy, showing o his wit and his elegance. He soon became
famous and in 1883 he married Constance Lloyd, who bore him two children.
His work in the 1880s
- the Canterville Ghos
- Lord Arthur Savile’s Crim
- The happy prince and other tale
- The picture of Dorian Gray (1891
He also wrote some famous plays, such as
- A Woman of no importanc
- Lady Windermere’s Fa
- The Importance of Being Earnest (1895

Many of Wilde’s works were considered immoral. For example, The Picture of
Dorian Gray (because of the hidden homosexual references) and Salomè (play
which was considered scandalous and therefore banned from many theatres).
In 1891 he met the young Lord Alfred Douglas, together they had a homosexual
a air. Because of this Wilde was sentenced to two years of hard labour. While in
prison he wrote De Profundis, a long letter to his lover which was published
posthumously in 1905
When he got out of prison he was a broken man, his wife refused to see him and
he went to exile to France. He died in poverty of meningitis, in Paris (1900)

Oscar Wilde put into practice the theory of Aestheticism, living his life as a work
of art. He was a dandy = a bourgeois artist who, in spite of his unconventionality,
remained a member of his class (di erent from a bohemian who allied himself to
the rural or urban proletariat)
His elegance was a symbol of the superiority of his spirit. Wilde used his wit to
shock. He believed that life was meant for pleasure and that pleasure was an
indulgence of the beautiful. Wilde’s interest in beauty had NO moral stance
“There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are we written or badly
written. That is a
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Oscar Wilde believed that only “Art as a cult of Beauty” could prevent the
murder of the soul. The artist was an alien in a materialistic world. His pursuit of
beauty and ful llment was the tragic act of a superior being inevitably turned
into an outcast
Oscar Wilde thought artists were superior to common people, and that they were
able to look at society and see through the hypocris

Aestheticism and The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Lord Henry = OSCAR WILDE’s alter eg
The dandy - gentleman (aesthete) who is eccentric and likes dressing up, has a
behavior that is prone to excess in EVERY aspect of his life (spending money,
drinking, drugs, sexuality). He followed the theory of yielding to temptation
(he did everything he wanted without caring of the consequences)

The Picture of Dorian Gray

First published in 189
Setting: London, 19th centur

Protagonist: Dorian Gray

Narrative Technique: unobtrusive third-person narrator. Internal perspective
which allows the reader to identify with the character.
Themes:
1) Art and life - the portrait is the true mirror of Dorian’s soul. Art is eternal, it
survives people (characters that represent art: Basil; Lord Henry, who lived his
life as a work of art: Sybil who was an actress
2) Vanity - Lord Henry tells Dorian that beauty is the best thing he has, so
vanity becomes his biggest and worst vice. As a matter of fact, everything
after this conversation is motivated by vanity. For example, at the end of the
novel, Dorian decides to become a better person not because it was right, but
because he wanted to improve the physical aspect of the portrait
3) Looks vs who we rea y are - this theme is very important to Wilde because
he puts it in other novels as well. In this book Lord Henry and Sybil give
Dorian advice not for his sake but to improve his public image. Dorian has a
SPLIT IDENTITY: the facade society sees (pleasant looks = good person)
and the real Dorian, depicted by the dreadful portrait, who became evil

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 because of his obsession with beauty. The duplicity between his public and
private self shows that being beautiful on the outside doesn’t always stand for
inner beauty as well and viceversa.
4) Youth and Beauty (v. Beauty is a form of genius) - Lord Henry values these
things more than anything else and his in uence on Dorian bring the young
man to worry more about his physical appearance rather than the condition of
his soul
Even though Wilde didn’t have a didactic aim in his works, Dorian’s story
can be considered a WARNING of the danger that thinking too much about
external appearance and too little about our inner welfare represent
5) In uence and corruption (v. Dorian’s death, pg 247) - where does the
responsibility lie? This novel is about “taking responsibility” for one’s actions.
Dorian becomes corrupted by Lord Henry’s beliefs and subsequently proceeds
to spread the evil and corrupts other character
6) Homosexuality - hidden theme (during the Victorian age it was illegal. Wilde
himself went to prison because of it). The relationships between the
characters present traces of homosexual attraction (especially between
Dorian, Basil and Henry)
Wilde uses the writing technique of “showing not telling”, in which the
reader has to realize on his own what the writer only implies between the lines

Plot:
The story begins in the art studio of Basil Hallward, who is discussing a current
painting with his witty and amoral friend Lord Henry Wotton. Henry thinks that
the painting, a portrait of an extraordinarily beautiful young man, should be
displayed, but Basil disagrees, fearing that his obsession with the portrait’s
subject, Dorian Gray, can be seen in the work. Dorian then arrives, and he is
fascinated as Henry explains his belief that one should live life to the fullest by
indulging one’s impulses. Henry also points out that beauty and youth are
eeting, and Dorian declares that he would give his soul if the portrait were
to grow old and wrinkled while he remained young and handsome. Basil
gives the painting to Dorian

Henry decides to take on the project of molding Dorian’s personality. A few

weeks later, Dorian tells Henry that he has fallen in love with an actress, Sibyl
Vane, because of her great beauty and acting talent. Henry and Basil go with him
to a dingy theatre to see Sibyl, but her performance is terrible. Sibyl explains to
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 Dorian that now that she knows what real love is, she can no longer pretend to
be in love on stage. Dorian is repulsed and wants nothing further to do with her.
When he returns home, he sees a cruel expression on the face of his portrait, and
he decides to seek Sibyl’s forgiveness. Henry arrives the next day, however, with
news that Sibyl committed suicide the previous night, and he convinces Dorian
that there is no reason for him to feel badly about it.

Dorian has the portrait removed to his attic. Henry sends Dorian a book that he
nds poisonous and fascinating (critics have suggested that it might be Against the
Grain by Joris-Karl Huysmans). Under the book’s in uence, Dorian spends the
next 18 years in the pursuit of capricious and sybaritic excess, and he becomes
increasingly drawn to evil. He frequently visits the portrait, noting the signs of
aging and of corruption that appear, though he himself remains unblemished .

One evening he runs into Basil, who tells him that there are rumours that he has
destroyed the lives and reputations of many people. Dorian, however, refuses to
accept blame. Basil declares that he clearly does not know Dorian, who responds
by taking him to the attic to see the portrait. The painting has become
horrifying. Basil tells Dorian that if this is a re ection of his soul, he must repent
and pray for forgiveness, and a suddenly enraged Dorian murders Basil. He
blackmails another former friend into disposing of the body

Dorian goes to an opium den, where Sibyl’s vengeful brother, James, nds him,
but the fact that Dorian still appears quite young dissuades him from acting.
However, another patron of the den later divulges Dorian’s age. At a subsequent
hunting party at Dorian’s country estate, one of the hunters accidentally shoots
and kills James, who was hiding in a thicket

Some weeks later Dorian tells Henry that he has decided to become virtuous and
recently decided against taking advantage of a young girl who was smitten with
him. Dorian goes to see if the portrait has improved because of his honourable
act, but he sees rather that it has acquired a look of cunning. He decides to
destroy the portrait and stabs it with a knife. His servants hear a scream, and,
when they arrive, they see a loathsome old man dead on the oor with a knife in
his chest and a portrait of the beautiful young man he once was
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Allegorical meaning
Wilde plays on the Renaissance idea of the correspondence between the physical
and spiritual realms: beautiful people are moral people and ugly people are
immoral people. The picture stands for the dark side of Dorian’s personality,
which he tries to forget by locking it in a room.
The moral of this story is that every excess must be punished and reality cannot
be escaped. When Dorian destroys the picture he cannot avoid the punishment
for all his sins: death.
The horrible corrupting picture can be seen as a symbol of the immorality and
bad conscience of the Victorian middle class, while Dorian’s pure and innocent
appearance is symbol of its hypocrisy
Finally, the picture, restored to its original beauty, at the end of the book,
illustrates Wilde’s theory of art: art survives people, art is eternal.