On The Artistic Characteristics Of The Portraits

Oscar Wilde was the representative writer of English Aestheticism in 19th century .His literary thought of "art for art's sake","the emphasis of the beauty of form","art exists only for self-beauty" and "beauty has no value of utilitarian and has nothing to do with moral ", shared by some people in that time .As a representative writer and leader of Aestheticism , Wilde practiced his theory in anywhere and at anytime. He not only paid much attention on his exotic clothes ,but also he preferred to use beautiful words in literary:the brilliant rhetoric ,the words full of lyrics of music ,and magic fantasy , all this added charm to his works. Although his works ,together with his private life ,were attacked , people in his contemporary had to admit that Wilde was a genius full of talent ,especially his witty language impressed everyone who read it .His biggest achievement in literary is his first novel The Portrait of Dorain Gray ,which was first published in the American Journal Lippincott's Monthly Magzine in July 1890;the next year an expended version came out in London as a book .It's a meaningful story combined with fantasy and reality. This paper is trying to discuss the art feature of The Portrait of Dorain Gray, mainly bases on the method of close reading ,and as well using the theory of New Narrative and some rhetoics theory.Above all ,as a writer who were good at imitating and making up his own story with stolen ideas ,Wilde use various writing methods in this novel's narrative form as Fairy Tale,Folklore Stories,Romantic Legend,Suspense Detective Story etc, which greatly increase the art of the novel and formed Wilde's unique art style .Wilde also added his favorite myth patterns as the Garden of Eden—temptation ,and Adonis—Narcissus myths in his creative writing ,which supply a mythic substructure to the plot that vastly enriches the narrative and represents one of the fundamental reasons for the success of the book.。Secondly , In the describing of characters images and setting , Wilde outpoured his adoration and infatuation on the Greek Culture ,and also claimed his art theory about art and life .This novel also takes on dramatic narrative feature ,which decided by Wilde's unique character as a nature dramatist . The brilliant achievement of Wilde is his language, so in this novel ,Wilde spared no effort to show his dramatic exaggerate language ,and freely used paradox ,in the meanwhile ,his language has the characteristics as witty,elegant which helps to making Wilde's Aesthetic style .The influence from novels from various forms,various literature schools and other writers with their works makes Wilde's novel taking on unique art style .