Aesthetic values in Oscar Wilde’s creative works. Cult of beauty in art and life in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
Oscar Wilde was able to express the crisis in the late Victorian age. He was the major representative of the aesthetic movement, which considered art more than important than life as a reaction to the ugliness and the materialism of industrialization, but also as a protest against the falsity and the prudery of the Victorian age.
Wilde’s aestheticism was based on the cult of beauty and pleasure, what Lord Henry defines “a new Hedonism”, which was to replace to Puritanism of Victoria society. He transposed in his life style what he believed in and wrote it in his works; he dressed in an elegant and eccentric way in order to shock the Victorians. One side of the society rejected him as an immoral dandy, while another part sustained him, fascinated by his brilliant conversations.
In 1890 he published his novel “The picture of Dorian Gray”, whose Preface became the manifesto of the English Aesthetic movement. The book was a scandal since it considered “Art for art’s sake” without any moral intent. Wilde was criticized for his work, but it made him famous and his literary prestige increased in the following years, thanks to his “society plays” that brought him fame and money from 1892 to 1895. The common characteristic of Wilde’s plays was a satirical attitude and a criticism towards the terrible seriousness of the Victoria society.
The Picture of Dorian Gray: the story has analogues with folk and fairy tales of a person whose life is dependent on a magic object, but Wilde managed to put into it the fullest literary statement of his aesthetic doctrine: for Dorian, the pursuit of pleasure and beauty was the true purpose of life. This novel also contains an element of mystery that is essential to its success. The end of the novel is in line with classic horror and crime stories. The novel seems to have no moral basis; Dorian Gray leads the kind of hedonistic life that disregards moral considerations and even ordinary human feelings (his dedication to pleasure causes the death of three people). However, the end of the story is moral, and seems to suggest that there is a price to be paid for a life of pleasure. Dorian Gray, a young man of outstanding beauty, is sought after by the best London society. Everybody loved him and wants to be in his companion; Lord Henry Wotton introduces him to the philosophy of a new Hedonism, a life of pleasure founded on Youth and Beauty. The artist Basil Hallward paints a portrait of Dorian that wonderfully captures the young man’s extraordinary charms. Dorian, impressed by the perfection of his own beauty, wishes never to grow old and his wish is granted: his dissolute and immoral life (he causes the suicide of his fiancé and murders Basil) leaves no sign on his face but disfigures the painting.
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Disgusted by the portrait, Dorian tries to destroy it but, as soon as he does it, he dies. After his death, the portrait resumes its perfect beauty while the signs of age and physical corruption appear on Dorian’s body.
The world of chivalry. The genre of romance in medieval literature. The main theme and personages of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
A number of romances were based on Celtic legends, especially those about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The heroes of these romances, unlike the characters of Church literature, were human beings who loved, hated and suffered. Their worship of fair ladies motivated the plots of the stories. A knight’s duty to serve God and the King had a religious orientation and a legal force; it was not just an honor code in lit. Chivalry was historical as well as literary; its cultural prestige was spread through Romance. They typically describe the adventures of quest-seeking, legendary knights who are portrayed as having heroic qualities. Chivalric romances celebrate an idealized code of civilized behavior that combines loyalty, honor, and courtly love.
First english chivalric romances in english appeared in 13 century. The most famous english chivalric romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written in Middle English in the late 14th-century and is one of the best known Arthurian stories. The “Green Knight” is interpreted by some as a representation of the “Green Man” of folklore and by others as an allusion to Christ. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, it draws on Welsh, Irish and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important poem in the romance genre and it remains popular to this day.
The world of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is governed by well-defined codes of behavior. The code of chivalry, in particular, shapes the values and actions of Sir Gawain and other characters in the poem. the five virtues of knights: friendship, generosity, chastity, courtesy, and piety. Chivalry provides a valuable set of ideals toward which to strive, but a person must above all remain conscious of his or her own mortality and weakness. Truth is one of the central themes of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The Middle English word "trouthe" carries many more connotations than the modern word "truth." Trouthe implies not just veracity but faithfulness and a sacred promise. By failing to trust in the Virgin Mary and keeping the green girdle, Sir Gawain breaks his chivalric oath.
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Sir Gawain - The story’s protagonist, Arthur’s nephew and one of his most loyal knights. Although he modestly disclaims it, Gawain has the reputation of being a great knight and courtly lover. He prides himself on his observance of the five points of chivalry in every aspect of his life. Gawain is a pinnacle of humility, piety, integrity, loyalty, and honesty.
Green Knight - A mysterious visitor to Camelot. He is an ambiguous figure: he says that he comes in friendship, not wanting to fight, but the friendly game he proposes is quite deadly. The Green Knight shows himself to be a supernatural being when he picks up his own severed head and rides out of Arthur’s court, still speaking. At the same time, he seems to symbolize the natural world, in that he is killed and reborn as part of a cycle.
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