{"id":748,"date":"2018-10-28T12:42:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-28T16:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=748"},"modified":"2018-10-28T12:42:04","modified_gmt":"2018-10-28T16:42:04","slug":"indulgence-in-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2018\/10\/28\/indulgence-in-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"Indulgence in Beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em>depicts both the raging aestheticism and decadence that permeated the late 19th<\/sup>century.\u00a0 The story centers on a painting of Dorian Gray, a young man whose beauty captures everyone\u2019s attention.\u00a0 Basil Hallward, the painter of Dorian Gray, states, \u201che is all my art to me now\u2026there is nothing that Art cannot express, and I know that the work I have done, since I met Dorian Gray, is good work, is the best work of my life\u201d (16).\u00a0 At this point in the story, Basil describes meeting Dorian Gray and being so fascinated and enamored with his presence that he feels he must paint him in order to capture all of his beauty.\u00a0 Basil describing Dorian as \u201call my art\u201d signifies an obsession that again revolves around Dorian\u2019s beauty and physical appearance.\u00a0Later, when Basil states that \u201cthere is nothing that Art cannot express,\u201d he is making the claim that Art, which is what his life revolves around, is capable of capturing and expressing all things, even the indescribable beauty of Dorian Gray.\u00a0 Basil feels that it is his duty to paint Dorian for the sake of Art.<\/p>\n

The idea of \u201cart for art\u2019s sake\u201d that is on full display in The Picture of Dorian Gray <\/em>also appears in Carolyn Burdett\u2019s article \u201cAestheticism and Decadence.\u201d On aestheticism, Burdett writes, \u201cArt had nothing to do with morality.\u00a0 Instead, art was primarily about the elevation of taste and the pure pursuit of beauty\u201d (Burdett 2014).\u00a0 Using this text and specific quote as a lens for The Picture of Dorian Gray,<\/em>it becomes clear that Basil is an aesthete who is primarily concerned with grasping the beauties of life and reproducing it into art.\u00a0 Basil is not concerned with the fact that he has developed an obsession with Dorian and acts possessive over him when Harry wants to get to know Dorian as well.\u00a0 He was willing to destroy his masterpiece when Harry and Dorian began to argue over who got to keep the painting and asked, \u201cwhat is it but canvas and colour?\u201d (35).\u00a0 Basil does not fall into the category of decadence like Harry because he is primarily interested in Dorian\u2019s beauty not the painting itself.\u00a0 He is solely concerned with creating a beautiful portrait of a beautiful person because that is his duty as an artist.<\/p>\n

Lionel Johnson\u2019s poem \u201cThe Decadent\u2019s Lyric\u201d can also be used as a lens for understanding The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em>.\u00a0 Johnson begins the poem by talking about the \u201cvery joy of shame\u201d or the excitement gained in doing something wrong.\u00a0 In the novel, there is a moment when Dorian is pouring tea for Basil and Harry and is being objectified by the two men.\u00a0 Wilde writes, \u201cDorian Gray went over and poured out the tea.\u00a0 The two men sauntered languidly to the table and examined what was under the covers\u201d (36).\u00a0 Johnson\u2019s poem speaks to the aspect of selfishness in decadence, such as investing in expensive material items merely for their beauty as Harry does.\u00a0While it is understood that it is often wrong to be selfish, decadence argues that selfishness is justified because one is appreciating beauty and art.\u00a0 Selfishness is enjoyable even though it is understood as shameful.\u00a0 In this scene, Basil and Harry are objectifying Dorian, who can be viewed as a beautiful item, as he pours the tea.\u00a0While they understand that it is wrong to do so because Dorian is a much younger man and their actions could be viewed as homoerotic, the men stare at Dorian anyway because he is so beautiful.\u00a0This moment is yet another example of how both decadence and aestheticism are at work in the novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Picture of Dorian Graydepicts both the raging aestheticism and decadence that permeated the late 19thcentury.\u00a0 The story centers on a painting of Dorian Gray, a young man whose beauty captures everyone\u2019s attention.\u00a0 Basil Hallward, the painter of Dorian Gray, states, \u201che is all my art to me now\u2026there is nothing that Art cannot express, … Continue reading Indulgence in Beauty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3874,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125359],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2018-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}