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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 10 page paper discussing Oscar Wilde's only novel. The paper argues that Wilde's choice of subject matter and treatment creates an artistic experience unencumbered by the need to moralize over it -- in short, ‘art for art's sake.' Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
10 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Dorian.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
by an artist-friend. The young man, Dorian Gray, is then lured into a life of hedonism and degeneracy. The ravages of his decadence do not show on his face --
in fact, he does not even age -- but these changes show up on the portrait. At the end of the novel Dorian, repelled at the recollection of a life
of vice, slashes a knife into the portrait. When his body is found, the knife in his own heart, he has turned into a loathsome creature, and the portrait depicts
the innocent, handsome man Dorian has always seemed to be to the rest of the world. This paper will argue that Oscar Wildes choice of subject matter and treatment for
this novel reflected not only motifs that reflected realities of his own life (such as homosexuality), but also a desire to communicate arts essential disengagement from morals or cultural sensibilities.
In order to put this very strange story into perspective, it is necessary to know a little bit about Oscar Wilde himself. Wilde was an Irish-born writer who was recognized
in his own time as a playwright and satirist (among many other comedies, he wrote the sparkling and droll Importance of Being Earnest, still a standard fixture in the repertoire
of community theaters and high-school drama clubs). On the complete opposite end of the spectrum from his drawing-room comedies, he wrote the powerful and haunting "Ballad of Reading Gaol." And
somewhere in between these two extremes (but written around the same time as his plays) is The Picture of Dorian Gray. In surface style it shares much with his lighter
works; there is irrepressible wit in many of the scenes, particularly those involving Henry Wotten. But the underlying themes are much darker, and largely cast a pall on the witty
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