DISPLAY OF BEAUTY AND MORALITY IN THE WORK O. WILDE "PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY"

"The Portrait of Dorian Gray" combines features of different genres. This is a secular story, and a realistic everyday novel, and a novel depicting the life of high society and the life of the London aristocratic bohemia. This is also a philosophical and allegorical novel-myth, in which personified ideas act next to people: Time, Beauty (or simply Beauty), Fate (or Fatum), Genius, Science, whose names Wilde, according to the medieval tradition, deduces with a capital letter (Time, Beаuty, Fаte, Gеnius, Sciеnce).

Wilde was not creating a realistic novel, although many of the scenes are quite believable. “This is a purely decorative novel! "Portrait of Dorian Gray" - gold brocade! - The author himself argued. Wilde did not set out to create multifaceted characters; each of his heroes is the embodiment of one idea: Dorian is the desire for eternal youth, Lord Henry is the cult of hedonism, the philosophy of pleasure, Basil is devotion to art. The main attention of the writer is paid not to action, not to characteristics, but to the subtle play of the mind, led by Lord Henry, in whose bold paradoxes the cherished thoughts of the author are embodied.

“Thеrе is no such thing аs а mоrаl оr аn immоrаl bоk. Bоks аrе wеll written, оr bаdly writntе "- let us once again recall one of the most provocative aphorisms in the preface. Another maxim echoes him: “The artist is not a moralist. Such an artist's inclination gives rise to an unforgivable mannerism of style. " However, the artist Basil Hallward, as it is easy to see, has "ethical sympathies" and even some inclination towards moralizing. “I feel that I have given away my whole soul to someone who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer's day,” Basil says. But Hallward's art is outside the sphere of manifestation of these qualities, and his moralizing does not affect the artist's friends in any way, except that it tires them a little. Here Wilde, the novelist, does not in the least contradict Wilde, the legislator of aestheticism.

For Wilde, art lay outside of morality and "utility" in the sense that by its depth, by its perfection, it creates the highest ethical model that imposes a serious duty on everyone who serves or at least worships it. The bankruptcy of Dorian Gray was the downfall of the individualist, and for Wilde it was also a price to pay for apostasy from the aesthetic ideal, which appears as a union of beauty and truth. One is dead without the other — Wilde’s novel spoke of just that, although early critics of Dorian Gray saw it as a panegyric to immoralism.”

The portrait of Dorian Gray, as soon as he acquired a magical property, became the embodiment of the conscience of this young man. He becomes a spectator of his own life, watching with great interest the decay of his soul. Sometimes he still thinks about her death, but the utmost selfishness, depravity and stupidity of feelings make unrealizable his hopes and attempts to return the former purity of his soul. Conscience remains the only hindrance, reminding of itself from time to time and poisoning even his passion with melancholy. Unable to look into this “mirror” any longer and resist the revealing power of the portrait, he decides to eliminate this obstacle, but, killing his conscience, he kills himself.

References:

1. Абрамович, Н.Я. Религия красоты и страдания: О. Уайльд иФ. Достоевский / Н. Я. Абрамович. – Санкт-Петербург, 2009. – 86 с.
2. Айхенвальд, Ю. Этюды о западных писателях / Ю. Айхенвальд.– Москва : Науч. слово, 1910. – [4], 247 с., [7] л. портр. – Текст : электронный. – URL: https://dlib.rsl.ru/viewer/01003764700#?page=88(дата обращения: 02.03.2021).
3. Акимова, О. В. Этика и эстетика Оскара Уайльда = Ethics and aesthetics of Oscar Wilde : учебное пособие / О. В. Акимова ; под ред. Нины Яковлевны Дьяконовой ; Российский гос. пед. ун-т им. А. И. Герцена. – Санкт-Петербург : Алетейя, 2008. – 190, [1] с. : ил. – Текст : электронный. – URL: https://www.docme.su/doc/1088198/akimova-o.--e-tika-i-e-stetika-oskara-uajl._da- (дата обращения 15.03.2021).