Art and Life in The Picture of Dorian Gray

Thèmes abordés

Oscar Wilde, Dorian Gray, Art, Life, Anglais, Littérature, English

Résumé du document

Ce travail propose une réflexion sur le thème de l'art et de la vie dans le roman The Picture of Dorian Gray d'Oscar Wilde. Comment ces deux concepts interagissent-ils tout au long du livre? Quels rapports les personnages entretiennent-ils avec l'art? L'art est-il plus important que leur vie? Peut-on dissocier les deux?

Extraits

[...] However the picture remains intact; has survived to all the ugly things that life and time imposed and is the only “character” who goes back in time (at the beginning beautiful like a young boy, then grows old but at the end becomes again as beautiful as at the beginning of life.) And, being the only real work of art, thus Art is superior to life. The Picture of Dorian Gray is a celebration of art and a criticism of life: the characters all die, become old or decadent. The picture has become ugly because of Dorian's decadent life but the fact that at the end it becomes as beautiful as at the beginning proves that it has never really lost its beauty. Dorian's life was hiding the picture's beauty but when he frees the picture by his own death his portrait regains it. [...]

[...] Lord Henry is fascinated by his work of art: Dorian. The real Dorian only imitates Lord Henry who is the creator, the real artist of the play. Lord Henry is not a murderer: Dorian is. Dorian imitates Henry but he misinterprets the ideas, he has no taste. [ ] The whole book is an allegory, a metaphor of art. All the characters' experiences are told to prove art's superiority over nature and reality. The characters' life is used to show Wilde's opinions on the subject. [...]

[...] In The Picture of Dorian Gray the characters confuse art and reality and they become decadent. [Examples] They do not understand that one cannot mix up art and reality without being punished. A man of taste will enjoy looking at art without trying to make connections with reality or trying to either make reality similar to art or art similar to reality. Art must remain completely distinct from reality. If not, art loses its beauty. [ ] Dorian falls in love with his own portrait and starts to blend art and life. [...]

[...] Moreover art is self sufficient. Wilde has largely developed this idea of art for its own sake in his work and also in his life. His vision of art does not involve life at all. In fact art does not need life to exist; it does not need anything but itself, and is beautiful and useless. Art is completely distinct from reality. Life is too useful. Art must be created without any purpose except giving pleasure; it must be useless to remain beautiful. [...]

[...] The picture will lead Basil to his death. He has painted a wonderful portrait which is almost more beautiful than the real Dorian because it has the charm of eternal beauty. This picture is the element which starts the universal downfall [ ] Lord Henry loves drama in life and constantly watches life as a work of art He makes a theatre out of life. He enjoys manipulating people, Dorian in particular. He is delighted when Dorian repeats his sentences, ideas. [...]