Analysis Of The Picture Of Dorian Gray By Oscar Wilde

“Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.”
-Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
The following research delves into the life and literature of Irish-born author and playwright, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde.
Overview
Oscar Wilde started his writing career in the late 1870s when he explored different forms of writing. His poetry gained popularity in the 1890s and he became an important literary figure of late Victorian England. Oscar Wilde is the genius behind the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and the play The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde is most commonly remembered for his literary contribution to the late 19th century,
The teaching of John Ruskin, an Oxford professor, intrigued Wilde. Ruskin stressed that art should reflect moral values of a society, while this caught Wilde’s attention, it was not what he knew to be true. Wilde believed that art and beauty should we appreciated for its own sake.Walter Pater was another professor that stirred something up Wilde’s mind. Pater’s urged his students to live a life of passion and sensual pleasure. So after graduation from Oxford, Wilde moved to London and devoted his time to pursue pleasure and construct his public persona. Oscar Wilde dived head first into aesthetics, he assumed a new extravagant style, wore his hair long, and decorated his room with flowers. He set out to test the limits of what society would tolerate. He devoted his focus to art and beauty. The ideas being aestheticism remained an influence in Oscar Wilde’s life and literature for the rest of his
Within a seven-year period, Wilde produced nearly all of his greatest works. First, he published The Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888, a collection of children's stories. In 1891 he published The Picture of Dorian Gray, his first and only novel. The novel combined elements of the supernatural and Gothic fiction to give perspective on the themes of the negative consequences of influence, the supremacy of youth and beauty, and most importantly sin and punishment. Those themes are at the center of many of Oscar Wilde’s biggest pieces. Wilde often wrote about ethics and the superficial nature of society as seen in his plays, Salomé and Lady Windermere's Fan. Intended as comedies, his plays are layered do disguise serious topics, truly showing Oscar Wilde’s brilliance. Oscar Wilde created an image of himself as a frivolous genius, playing off his masterpieces as successes resulting in minimal