Personalities Of Oscar Wilde Shown In The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde (1854– 1900), an Irish-born renowned playwright, critic, poet, essayist, was commonly regarded as the UK representative of Aestheticism Literature, and one of the advocates of―art for art's sake‖. Wilde's life was full of ups and downs, controversies topics and dramatic events. His life and his works are a fascinating legend to the world.Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which tells how a beautiful young guy named Dorian Gray sells his soul in seeking for eternal youth and unlimited pleasure, and eventually buries himself in sins, has been under dispute and controversy since its publication. In a sense, the novel may act as the most accurate portrayal of Oscar Wilde's contradictive characters. This paper attempts to analyze the image of three characters in this novel by combining Wilde's own life experiences and his aesthetic ideas with the historic background of the Victorian era, thus revealing the author's personality traits.This paper is composed of three chapters. The first chapter introduces the Victorian era in which are located Wilde's social background, his life experience, literary achievements and his aesthetic ideas; the second chapter introduces the main plot and three main characters of his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray; the third chapter, based on the former two chapters, conducts a comparative analysis of Wilde's personality. On this basis, the paper arrives at the conclusion that Henry stands for the recognition of the society on the author's own character: one composed of remarkable paradox, wit and self-indulgence; Howard represents the recognition of the author on his own character: admiring perfection but taking double orientation; and Dorian Gray incarnate the Oscar Wilde's ideal of character: eternal youthfulness and boundless pleasure.