The Picture of Dorian Gray #3

Oscar Wilde continuously reaffirms his beliefs time and time again in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. One of his most prominent beliefs, the one which prompted the novel and his condescending preface, is that of the aesthetic movement and the concept of beauty over everything else. The mere representation of Dorian Gray as a handsome and beautiful young man is not nearly enough to satisfy Wilde’s cravings for the aesthetic understanding. Consequently, he includes Dorian Gray’s love into the mix of all things beautiful, not analytical. When describing the nature of his love for Sibyl Vane to Lord Henry, Dorian seems to exclude everything about the mistress in an attempt to augment her beauty: “‘Sibyl is the only thing I care about. What is it to me where she came from? From her little head to her little feet, she is absolutely and entirely divine’” (39). Based on the context of the passage, we can infer that Dorian is alluding to her physical appearance. He does not care about her past; instead, Dorian is only fascinated by the characters she is prescribed and the natural beauty in all of them. Dorian’s fixation on her beauty rather than her background is a strong resemblance towards Wilde’s view of art altogether. Wilde believes that art should be appreciated for its beauty, not for its symbolism or its underlying meaning. This is similar to how Dorian appreciates Sibyl’s beauty as a human being and not the connotation that comes with her occupation and the characters she portrays. The premise behind the aesthetic movement will appear quite often in the novel through characters, portraits, and scenes, but the goal of introducing these configurations carries no more importance than to alert the audience of what they should truly be focusing on: beauty.