Essay Dorian Gray (key concepts, aesthetic theories, the role of the artist), Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Essay Dorian Gray (key concepts, aesthetic theories, the role of the artist) e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! The Picture of Dorian Gray is a symbol of the aesthetic movement, in fact, in the preface and in the novel itself its theories are presented. Firstly, in the preface, Wilde claims that the role artist’s role is that of the creator of beautiful things, moreover, he does not have to prove anything. In addition, all art is quite useless, it has absolutely no didactic aim whatsoever. Since it is not meant to teach, one should not describe the work of art as moral or immoral. In the novel, Oscar Wilde uses interesting narrative techniques. For example, the narrator is unobtrusive and the story is written using the third person. However, the perspective is internal. Thanks to this, the reader can identify himself better with the character. What’s more, the settings are described with words that appeal to the senses and the characters reveal themselves through what they do, which is typical of drama, this fascinates and engages the reader more. By the way, multiple themes are presented by Wilde. The theme of the double is one of the main ones: the picture represents Dorian’s dark side; it is also a symbol of the immorality and hypocrisy of the middle class. This because Wilde plays on the Renaissance idea of the correspondence between physical and spiritual realms: beautiful people are good, ugly people are bad. Dorian’s death allows the reader to realize the moral of the story: every excess must be punished and reality cannot be escaped and art survives people. In fact, at the end Dorian tries to get rid of the picture because it makes him think about all his wrongdoings. The protagonist stabs the artwork but it returns to its normal state and Dorian dies, his corpse turns into an old and ugly man.