Symbolism In The Picture Of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde

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Oscar Wilde Beauty isn’t subjective. It’s one of the only things in the world that cannot be denied. Things are either beautiful or they are not. Art is beautiful. Art is not always meant to be interpreted, sometimes you just need to admire it for its beauty, not for what it means. Oscar Wilde, an Irish writer best known for his book The Picture of Dorian Gray and for writing plays like The Importance of Being Earnest, wrote this and almost based the book earlier mentioned on the whole ideal that beauty doesn’t have to mean more than just beauty. I feel like Oscar Wilde’s greatest strength is his play on words and often use of caricature that really livens up what he writes. He lived during the Victorian era, when art was meant to be used to teach and to influence the minds of society, so as he wrote the book The Picture of Dorian Gray, he strived to prove a great point and contradiction to the era he was living in, as well as the way he uses Dorian’s two best friends to show the hideousness of the bigotry he was living in, as he was arrested and imprisoned for being gay. Oscar Wilde’s use of irony, foil, and symbolism really portray his total disgust towards the age he was living in by rebelling and contradicting the use of art as a tool and the intolerance he was surrounded with during this Victorian age. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. He is known greatly for the book previously mentioned and for many plays. Wilde won many awards, including the Newdigate Prize for the best English verse composition by an Oxford undergraduate. At the time he released the book The Picture of Dorian Gray, it was criticized highly because of the fact that it lacked a sense of “morals” that w... ... middle of paper ... ...ey saw his watch on the wrist of that old, wrinkled corpse. The symbolism on the painting is much more than just his aging. Since the art in Wilde’s era was held up to mean so much more when it didn’t need to, the art was not able to be admired for its true beauty. After Dorian wished to stay young as his painting would age, HE became meaningless, HE became what Wilde considered true art, and the painting, as contradicting as it may sound, now meant much more than just beauty. It meant all of Dorian’s sins and wrongdoings. It represented all of the repugnancy in Dorian, and now Dorian did not mean anything, he became art. He was meaningless. Ill finish this soon Mrs. Reed, sorry for the late work, it’s been tough to keep up with school with what’s been going on at home, I apologize greatly and hope that you enjoyed reading the roughest of my drafts. -Max Herrera

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