세기말의 불안: 오스카 와일드의 『도리안 그레이의 초상』
Anxiety of Fin-de-siecle: Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
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At the end of the 19th century there was an apocalyptic atmosphere of anxiety and degeneration in the aftermath of the enthusiasm and prosperity that accompanied the imperialism and industrialization of that era. It was sometimes represented as a beast lurking inside an individual, a demonic magic picture, or a dark ugly area located inside a metropolitan city. Oscar Wilde, the representative of decadent aestheticism of fin-de-siecle, shows the poor people and dark slums of London as well as the aristocratic dandies and the rich decorative houses in his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde, a disciple of beauty and sensuous pleasure, has persistently represented his ideals of aestheticism, individualism, hedonism, art for art’s sake, and decadence in his critical essays such as “The Critic as Artist,” “Pen, Pencil and Poison,” and “The Soul of Man under Socialism.” In his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, he also depicts his theory of art, however, he keeps an ironic distance from his work and brings in an ironic and skeptical tone forgoing the assertive and confident tone which is noticeable in his critical essays. Wilde’s spokesman Sir Henry Wotton praises the aesthetic and hedonistic life, and his disciple Dorian Gray pursues the decadent aesthete’s life seeking pleasure of the senses. However, Wilde reveals corruption and monstrosity hidden behind beautiful appearances, using the magic picture motif and showing the gothic atmosphere of all types of corrupted degenerates. The dualistic plot of the aesthetic and the gothic makes this novel appear to be a story of aestheticism and its subversion. The Picture of Dorian Gray is an important text in that it shows the relationship between the aestheticism and anxiety of fin-de-siecle. Wilde reconsiders his aesthetic ideas in his own work and tries to examine not only their enchantment, but also their limits and traps at the end of the century. This paper aims to interpret The Picture of Dorian Gray as a self-reflexive novel of the fin-de-siecle aesthetic writer.
Abstract
At the end of the 19th century there was an apocalyptic atmosphere of anxiety and degeneration in the aftermath of the enthusiasm and prosperity that accompanied the imperialism and industrialization of that era. It was sometimes represented as a beast lurking inside an individual, a demonic magic picture, or a dark ugly area located inside a metropolitan city. Oscar Wilde, the representative of decadent aestheticism of fin-de-siecle, shows the poor people and dark slums of London as well as the aristocratic dandies and the rich decorative houses in his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde, a disciple of beauty and sensuous pleasure, has persistently represented his ideals of aestheticism, individualism, hedonism, art for art’s sake, and decadence in his critical essays such as “The Critic as Artist,” “Pen, Pencil and Poison,” and “The Soul of Man under Socialism.” In his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, he also depicts his theory of art, however, he keeps an ironic distance from his work and brings in an ironic and skeptical tone forgoing the assertive and confident tone which is noticeable in his critical essays. Wilde’s spokesman Sir Henry Wotton praises the aesthetic and hedonistic life, and his disciple Dorian Gray pursues the decadent aesthete’s life seeking pleasure of the senses. However, Wilde reveals corruption and monstrosity hidden behind beautiful appearances, using the magic picture motif and showing the gothic atmosphere of all types of corrupted degenerates. The dualistic plot of the aesthetic and the gothic makes this novel appear to be a story of aestheticism and its subversion. The Picture of Dorian Gray is an important text in that it shows the relationship between the aestheticism and anxiety of fin-de-siecle. Wilde reconsiders his aesthetic ideas in his own work and tries to examine not only their enchantment, but also their limits and traps at the end of the century. This paper aims to interpret The Picture of Dorian Gray as a self-reflexive novel of the fin-de-siecle aesthetic writer.
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