道林格雷的画像论文LiteratureReview2.docVIP

Literature Review: Of the Value of Art and Morality in The Picture of Dorian Gray The paper will summarize the reflection of the value of art and morality of Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray. There is no doubt that this book caused much controversy and was condemned immoral by many critics for its degenerate plot after its publication. At that time-the Victorian time, this work obviously was incompatible with the time. The people just looked it from a superficial sight. So this work didn’t get much good reflection. But now, more and more critics began to review this book in an objective way. But criticism on this book was focused on its characteristic of aestheticism for a long time. In the A History of Criticism of English Fiction, it says that the name ‘Oscar Wilde’ nearly became the synonymy of aestheticism. Even in the A History of English Literature, it says that The Picture of Dorian Gray nearly is the unique aesthetic novel in the English literature history. We can see that many people concentrated on this point and ignored its other significances, such as the value of art and morality. Oscar Wilde is the representative of “art for art sake”. He also advocated that art is higher than morality. He once said that there is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That’s all. But it didn’t get rid of morality. In this work, we can find that Oscar Wilde was not trying to abandon the conscience, and what he advocated is instinctive morality with a higher form. In my part, both art and morality are the essential parts of Wilde’s works. We couldn’t only focus on his aestheticism, but on his traditional moral values. References 刘茂生：《王尔德创作的伦理思想研究》，华中师范大学出版社，2008年，第68页。 常耀信：《英国文学通史》（第二卷），南开大学出版社，2011年，第669页。 殷企平，高奋：《英国小说批评史》，上海外语教育出版社，2001年，第117页《王尔德全集》（第一卷），荣如德，巴金等译，中国文学出版社，2008年，第3页。 涉外船舶与海洋工程英语 张丹