The Artistic View from The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray mainly tells a beautiful youth destroyed himself step by step. When Dorian Gray saw the portrait painted by Basil， he was fascinated by his own beauty. Considering that he would age and become ugly， he felt so painful that he hoped his portrait could bear the ugliness in place of himself and he would keep young forever. Amazingly，his dream realized. He became more and more corrupt and his portrait became uglier and uglier. Finally, he could not bear the pressure from the ugly portrait and when he stabbed to the portrait, he died while his picture regained beauty.
The novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray can be called as a classic work which contains a lot of aestheticism thoughts which are, therefore, worthy interpreting. [1] (P186) According to the researches, the description and plots show Wilde’ s thought of “ The Supremacy of Art ,” “ Art for Art’ s sake ”, and “ Life’ s Imitation of Art.”[4](P23)
Personally, art is not totally separated from life, but it is limited by morality in some way. We can see Wilde’ s artistic view from the deaths of the painter Basil, the actress Sibyl and the youth Dorian.
Basil’ s death shows that art is higher than morality. Basil represented the morality, who always upheld ethical morality. Basil spent all his passion on the pursuit of beauty and the picture of Dorian meant his best work. From the beginning, Basil hoped Dorian keep innocent and stay away from Henry, but Dorian was deeply influenced by Henry and gradually became totally evil and corrupt. Even when Basil saw the ugly portrait which showed Dorian corrupt soul, he still wanted to save Dorian’ s soul by using moral power. “Pray, Dorian, pray. It is never too late. ”[2](Wilde,P152) However, Dorian could not face his corrupt past, then he hated Basil and he blamed everything on the Basil and the portrait painted by Basil. Finally Dorian killed Basil in a sudden madness. Basil could not save Dorian’s soul, and his death shows morality gives place to art.
Sibyl’ s death shows that life is the imitation of art. Sibyl was a gifted actress, but when Dorian’ s love took her to the real world, she lost her talent of acting. “ Dorian, Dorian, before I knew you, acting was the one reality of my life. The painted scenes were my world. I knew nothing but shadows, and I thought them real. You came-oh, my beautiful love!- and you freed my soul from prison. You had brought me something higher, something of which all art is but a reflection. You had made me understand what love really is. My love! My love! Prince Charming! You are more to me than all art can even be. ”[2](Wilde,P83) However, What Dorian loved was pure art all the time instead of Sibyl. It was Sibyl’ s wonderful interpretation of art that made her attractive to Dorian, so when Sibyl failed her performance, Dorian was furious. “You have killed my love. I loved you because you were marvellous, because you had genius and intellect, because you realized the dreams of great poets and gave shape and substance to the shadows of art. You have thrown it all away. You are shallow and stupid. You have spoiled the romance of my life. How little you can know of love, if you say it mars your art! Without your art, you are nothing. What are you now? A third-rate actress with a pretty face!”[2](Wilde,P84) Dorian found his perfect female model in poems and plays first and then he forced his dream on Sibyl, which led to Sibyl’ s tragic destiny. “All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals. Life and Nature may sometimes be used as part of art’ s rough material, but before they are of any real service to art they must be translated into artistic conventions”[3] (Wilde, P78). Wilde held that “ Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life” [3](Wilde, P38), so when people separate from art and enter the real life, art will be destroyed. Sibyl’ s death shows the conflict of art and life. Dorian’s death shows that art is higher than life. Dorian thought his corruptness was due to that portrait and he finally decided to begin a new life without evilness. Since the portrait recorded every sin of him and showed his ugly soul, he could not bear the pressure brought by the ugly portrait, so he decided to destroy the portrait. When he lifted the knife which killed Basil and stabbed to the portrait, he died but the portrait regained beauty. In order to gain eternal youth, Dorian gave up his soul, and in the end, he paid for his sins.
Dorian’ s death shows that the beauty of life is short but the beauty of art is eternal, so art is higher than life. Meanwhile, Dorian realized his sins and he tried to change himself by destroying the portrait, which shows his pursuit of morality. Thus Dorian’ s death shows art is higher than life, and his tragic ending shows art is limited by morality in some way.
In conclusion, Wilde advocated “ Art For Art’ s Sake ”, “ The Supremacy of Art ” and “ Life’ s Imitation of Art ”, which he showed from this novel by the three people’ s death: Basil, Sybil and Dorian. Though he claimed that art is higher than everything including life, he also paid his attention to the social morality. The fantastic ending of this novel can show art’ s supremacy, but meanwhile, it implies that if art becomes uncontrollable it will be destroyed, which means, art is limited by morality in some way.