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II INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE OF YOUNG RESEARCHERS 

375 

 Qafqaz University                         

          18-19 April 2014, Baku, Azerbaijan 

the Aesthetic Movement in Victorian Period. Art is quite pleasurable. As painter says: “I have put too much of myself into 

it”. Only he can see the moral side of his art, it is the secret of his soul. “He is all my art to me now. What the invention of 

oil-painting was to the Venetians, the face of Antonius was to late Greek sculpture, and the face of Dorian Gray will be 

some day to me. He is much more to me than a model or a sitter”. 

Dorian Gray has a harmful secret which finally ruins him and he is not able to survive in society.  His handsome face 

covers all of his disgusting actions but his portrait starts to take all of the burden. Attracted by his own beauty, Dorian Gray 

makes a wish not to grow old. “If the picture could change, and I could be always what I am now”. Dorian Gray starts to act 

without any limitations. Instead of his body’s getting old and ugly his portrait becomes old, ugly and shocking, day by day. 

Dorian thinks that he is able to hide his evil spirit from people and does not feel any remorse or guilt. His temptations have 

arduous consequences which causes several people’s death. Dorian Gray is a warning character and with this character 

Wilde encapsulates the detrimental effects of the aesthetic philosophy. Wilde’s strong support of an aesthetic lifestyle is 

aligned in his depiction of Lord Henry in Dorian Gray. The ultra-cynical Lord Henry tempts Dorian to worship his own 

youth and potential for pleasure: Wilde, through Lord Henry, regrets the stuffy quality of his contemporary Victorian 

society and how the supposed morality necessitates self-denial and refusal of life’s most beautiful aspects. 

  The face Dorian introduces to the society is pure and attractive as he hides the unpleasant, sinful, evil and dreadful. 

The emergence of narcissism in Dorian reveals the inevitable opposition between aestheticism and morality which is 

integral to Wilde’s novel. Dorian is polite gentleman. He is good at respective social interactions. On the other hand he does 

not conform to moral principles. He demonstrates the immorality of self-absorption, as Dorian’s portrait becomes more 

disfigured with each detrimental and unwittingly acts. This egocentric character, hedonistic temptations appear to be an 

inevitable consequence of aestheticism. Dorian pursuits a life of eternal youth, as he goes down the depths of narcissism, he 

maintains his external beauty, and his portrait disfigures instead. As in the myth of Narcissus, such egotism has its harsh 

consequences. He wants to get rid of the pressure of his fear. He kills the portrait and this brings his own end. Dorian’s 

death is by his own hand. The story begins with innocence and beauty, moves through temptation in a garden, and ends with 

murder and death. So the adoption of unrestrained aestheticism results in a lack of regret, self-absorption, and intellectual 

regression.  

REFERENCES 

1.  Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray. The United Stated of America, Costa Books Press 

2.  http://www.bu.edu/writingprogram/journal/past-issues/issue-1/duggan/