1、1 （ 20_ _届） 本科毕业 设计 英语 道林格雷的画像的伦理学批评 2 1. Introduction 1.1 A brief introduction of Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde, the representative of Aestheticism in England, has been the focus in academic circles for a long time. As Peter Raby observes “ If Wilde formulated any one model of the artist, it was based on
2、 Keats, who embodied most of the necessary qualifications: poetic genius, physical beauty, public persecution, and an early death.(Raby5)There are so many things that worth mentioning in his life. He is a great writer. Few writers have succeeded in so many forms of creations. Many stories are still
3、well known even today, such as the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, he scenario of Strausss Salome and the tragic Ballad of Reading Karl. But these are just a few instances. Besides his distinguished works, his lifestyle is also a great attraction no matter in his days or in the modern times. About
4、 his life, we can see many controversies. He proclaims his ideal of beauty not only in his works but also in his way of dressing, his pattern of behaviors and even the choice of words. For instance, he favors all kinds of splendid accessories, such as Lily, the feather of peacoke. He mocked all the
5、hypocrisy with his unique witty epigram. His eloquence was widely admired yet he was also notorious for being a homosexual and therefore sent into prison for two years. Because of his sexual orientation, he was desolated by the mainstream and rarely got the chance to see his own children. In western
6、 countries, Wildes reputation and influence have been changed. In the early years, he was considered notorious for his recklessly strange ways of dressing and wild, unrestrained patterns of behaviors, as well as being proud to be a homosexual. However, Wildes importance and influence on literature w
7、as gradually enhanced as the time went. In the early years of twentieth century, he was admired in England and America by a few critics, such as Max Beerbohm, who wrote in 1900 that Wildes death was “lamentable loss for literature”.(Beckson,222) And professor Zhou xiaoyi from Beijing University has
8、commented him like this: Wilde is a modern figure who made a break with the traditional thinking in the sense that he was an apostle of pure beauty, of autonomous literature form, and of modernist will to style and sensibility. (Zhou xiaoyi,95)As for his argument “art for arts sake” meanwhile was wi
9、dely accepted by many critics, though some were not so approval of him academically. Still, we can see that Wilde has won many readers by his 3 thoughts and literature works despite of his moral pitfalls. As is well known to us, Wilde is an aesthete. It can be said that he is the most articulate and
10、 popular Spokesman in the late nineteenth century advocating the doctrine of aesthetics, which insists that art should be primarily concerned with the ideal “Art for arts sake”, not involved with ethic. 1.2 The introduction of The Picture of Dorian Gray The whole story of this novel is simple. Doria
11、n Gray finds his own exceeding beauty after he sees his picture the artist Basil Hallward paints for him. There he gets acquainted with Lord Henry and deeply convinced by his life philosophy .He comes to realize that life is short and suffers from the fact that he cant keep his beauty and youth. In
12、front of his picture, he makes an oath to exchange his soul with it for his beauty. Later, He falls in love with the actress Sibyl Vane but abandons her for her disappointing performance of acting. When he hears the news of Sibyl Vanes death, he feels sorry and guilty at first but under Lord Henrys
13、instruction he calms down right away. Later, he surprisingly finds his picture have a cruel expression in its face after he shows no mercy for Sibyls suicide. After that, Dorian Gray begins his way of degrading while still remains young and beautiful. His wish comes true. Under the influence of Lord
14、 Henry, he does a lot of evil things. Everyone he meets with ends up misery. The poor artist Basil Hallward comes to see him and tries to pull him back from his immoral lifestyle. Having presenting all the evil deeds he has done to Basil, he murders the poor artist and burns his body. The picture ge
15、ts more and more ferocious but at the same time, he keeps his young and beautiful appearance. Later he escapes the revenge from James Vane because James Vane is killed in an accident. Nevertheless, the more corrupted he becomes, the more disturbed he is. He cant live with the picture that records hi
16、s crimes, so he stabs the picture but it only ends up killing himself. The body lying on the ground is old, withered and ferocious while the picture stays bright and young. 2.Wildes ethics and Wildes aesthetics 2.1 Wildes views of ethics 4 What is ethics? According to the Longman dictionary, ethics
17、refers to the moral rules or principles of behavior for deciding what is right and wrong, while Wildes view of ethics is mainly about aesthetic ethics. At first, we should turn to two typical definitions of two outstanding philosophers. Aristole defined ethics as the study of the conditions for huma
18、n happiness, while Kants portrayed it as the study of human irrevocable duties. In Greek tradition, ethics was related to the good life and inquiry was directed towards discovering the nature of happiness. The two definitions of ethics had caused great inspiration in the mind of Oscar Wilde. Based o
19、n these two theories and the society at that time, Wilde defined his ethical views first in happiness, not in duty, and it includes two parts: Happiness and detachment of life. Influenced by the Greek moral philosophers, As Lord Henry says in The Picture of Dorian Gray, ”to be good is to be in harmo
20、ny with ones self”(p88)Speaking of puritan morality in relation to late Victorian society, Wilde once said“ Puritan morality has made us self centered and hypocritical for so long, that sincerity and reverence for what is natural in our impulses have been fairly brought out of us, with the result th
21、at there can be neither truth nor individuality in our society”(Hussey,25) As for detached attitude towards life, Wilde hold the opinion as represented by the character Lord Henry. Lord Henry is very typical guy who can be a detached observer of life. He talks but never does. He hates his marriage a
22、nd knows well where the problems lie but takes no measure to solve it. He convinces Dorian Gray of his life philosophy but he himself never takes it into action. Here is a scene in the book that Lord Henry asks Dorian Gray to give up philanthropy and thinks that humanity takes itself too seriously.
23、“The aim of life is self-development. To realize ones nature perfectly-that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to ones self.”(p23) From his novel the picture of Dorian Gray, we may draw a co
24、nclusion that Wildes ethic is mainly about happiness and detachment of life, which is totally consistent with his views of aesthetics. 2.2Wildes aesthetics Firstly, lets define aesthetics. According to Zhu Guangqian, a well known scholar of aesthetics, aesthetics is the study of beauty and its basic
25、 question is the relation between form and content, 5 ration and sense(Zhu Guangqian ,641).Since its beginning, aesthetics has been stressing on the literary theories and on its role in literary practice. Wildes aesthetics of Aestheticism and his view on beauty had been expressed profoundly in his c
26、ritical essays and lectures. Basically his aesthetics are about three aspects. First of all, art should express nothing except itself. As one of the most influential advocators for Aesthetic Movement, Wildes strongly hold the opinion “Art for arts sake” .It shows that beauty of the art should be sep
27、arated from the motive for social and moral functions. As he put in the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray that “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.” ”The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality
28、 of art consist in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.” ”No artist has ethical sympathies”. ”An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.”(p7) The second aspect is his belief that life imitates art far more than art imitates life. As we will not discuss it deeply in th
29、is thesis, we will just skip it. The last but not least of it is that aesthetics is more important than ethics.In the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray ,he wrote, “No artist has ethical sympathies.An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.No artist is ever morbid(P1)
30、 Of course, we can not deny that Wildes separation of art and ethics, his critique of conventional morality contributed a lot to the history of aestheticism. But when we take a good look at his views of ethic and aestheticism as well as take his work the picture of Dorian Gray into account, we might
31、 as well ask a question: Does and can pure aestheticism exsit? And is Wildes really not concerned with ethic just like he proposed or he just concealed his moral view under the cover of aethetic? We will concentrate on his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and find the real answer. 3 Wildes ethical c
32、oncern through the main character 3.1 Basil Hallward: the defender of ethics Once Oscar Wilde said: “Basil Hallward is what I think I am; Lord Henry is what the world thinks of me, while Dorian Gray is what I would like to be.”( Laure Dimaure,397)We can see that the artist is actually what he really
33、 wants to be, a worshiper for beauty, a defender for 6 ethics. When we probe deep into personality of Basil Hallward, we can see Oscar Wilde cares about ethics just like he does aesthetic. There is no doubt that Basil Hallward is very kind and tolerant. He creates beauty and appreciates beauty and t
34、hats why he is so inspired by Dorian Gray. He got a new kind of inspiration and passion from him. For him, Dorian Gray means the perfect beauty to a point where he totally dominates his life. As much as he cares about art and beauty, he cares about ethics He knows Lord Henry well and tries his best
35、to protect Dorian Gray from his influence. It is his least wish that his perfect art-Dorian Gray is destroyed by his friend. Before Dorian meets Henry, he almost begs Henry not to see Dorian Gray and leave him alone. He would rather that Dorian Gray had been unaware of his own beauty because for him
36、, Dorian Gray is everything and he also believes that “We all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly”(p4),including Dorian grays good looks and personality. He is so worried about the bad influence that Lord Henry may bring to him. He is concerned with Dorian Grays future as well as
37、 art. When Dorian Gray becomes distant from him and hangs around with Lord Henry, he becomes tortured. What he cares about most not Dorian grays appearance because it doesnt change at all rather his exposition he actually admires more. “His personality has suggested to me an entirely new manner in a
38、rt, an entirely new mode of style”(p13).And when he hears of the rumors about Dorian Gray, he doesnt believe any of it. He prefers to believe in good part of human beings. The death of Sibyl Vane brings him to Dorian Gary as soon as possible, trying to persuade him to mourn her and comfort her famil
39、y. But his effort comes in vain. When he hears Dorian Gray call Sibyl Vanes death as killing herself, his reaction is “killed herself?! God Heavens! Is there no doubt about that?” Hallward cried, looking at him with an expression of horror.(p128)He suffers from the event “Basil buries his face in hi
40、s hands and mutters ”with a shudder ran through him”(p128).He realizes the changes of Dorian Gray, he feels regretable. Here he says “Dorian, this is horrible! Something has changed completely! You look exactly the same wonderful boy who, day by day used to come down to my studios for his picture. B
41、ut you were simple, natural and affectionate then. You were the most unspoiled creature in the world. Now, I dont know what has come over you. You talk as if you had no heart no pity in you”(p 127) But he does not give up his efforts to put Dorian Gray to the right road. Indeed, since Dorian Gray wa
42、lks away from his life, he has lost his passion in art and always suffers. Here 7 is what we can see from Lord Henrys word: “His painting had quite gone off. It seemed to me to have lost something. It had lost an ideal. When you and he ceased to be great friends, he ceased to be a great artist!”(p 2
43、52)He is really heart broken! However ,he is too weak and too dominated by Dorian Gray, he can only see Dorian Gray get more and more corrupted. At last, the poor artist is murdered by his own idol .He wants to persuade Dorian to be good for the last time before he goes to Paris. About the scandals,
44、 he says “Every gentleman is interested in his good name. You dont want people to talk of you as something vile and degraded But position and wealth are not everything. Mind you, I dont believe these rumors at all. ”(p177)He still trusts Dorian or just denies the wrong deeds Dorian may commit. When
45、he hears the profanatory words, “Hallward started back. “This is blasphemy, Dorian! he cried. you must not say things like that, They are horrible, and they dont mean anything.”(p181).He cant believe that Dorian Gray has betrayed God. For him, religious belief may mean ones only guide to a clear con
46、scious and it is the best way to promise a good ethic. But now, Dorian Gray has corrupted and he feels miserable. And then, Dorian conceals his secrets and confesses every wrong deeds he does. He, as the defender of the ethic is horrified. “Good God, Dorian, what a lesson! What an awful lesson!” “Pr
47、ay, Dorian, pray,” he murmured. “What is it that one was taught to say in ones boyhood lead us not to temptation. Forgive us our sins. Wash away our iniquities. Let us say that that together. The prayer of your pride has been answered. The prayer of your repentance will be answered also.(p186).Now t
48、he only way he thinks can save Dorian Gray is religion. When Dorian say it is too late, he doesnt give up. “It is never too late, Dorian. Let us kneel down and try if we cannot remember a prayer. Isnt there a verse somewhere, though your sins be as scarlet, yet I will make them as white as snow？ ”(p
49、187)However, his pledge only caused Dorians hatred and finally murdered him. We can see from the book, he doesnt struggle too much, and when he is dead he looks as if simply asleep.(p188).Maybe for him, death doesnt mean so much. When Dorian Gray is degraded and immoral, he has lost his passion and inspiration in art. Death is indeed a kind of relief. From the character of the artist, we can see more of his ethical view than of his worship for beauty. The artist adores Dorian Grays good look but he values his pure person
