The Flowers In The Portrait Of A Way Of Gray Image Interpretation

As a chief representative of the aesthetic movement in the late19th century in England,Oscar Wilde produced a number of works with distinct characteristics of aestheticism which waswell-known for their witty dialogues, sharp expressions and thought-provoking discussions in theBritish literary world. The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only novel of Wilde’s, was not only a pieceof work with profound symbolic significance but also a masterpiece represented his aesthetictheory. Through words of the hero in the novel, Wilde expressed lots of representative view onliterature theory; however, limited by novel style, he had to describe the background, endow thefictitious character with some kind of characteristics and arrange his fate. Through studying thedescription of flower images in the novel, this thesis explores their function acted in backgrounddescription, character sketch, topic molding and so on in the method of close reading, to furtherthe representational interpretation of Wilde‘s aesthetic theory and deepen the understanding of itsconnotation.Besides the parts of introduction and conclusion, this thesis is divided into three chapters.Chapter one mainly gives an account of the function of the flower images that play in driving theplot to advance as the background elements. It is composed of three parts. The first part exploresthe necessity of the existence of flower images, while the second and third parts provides ananalysis on the typical gardens in the novel—Basil Hallward’s Garden and London City Gardenwhich present the natural and social spaces built by the author by combining with different flowerimages to highlight the hero’s feelings in the objective world. Such kind of creation was endowedwith unique symbolism, exactly reflecting Wilde’s literary views and principles of creating—art isbeyond life. The use of synaesthesia method has deepened the aesthetic experience of readers andreflects the writing style and habits of the aesthete.By the method of close reading, Chapter two concretely analyzes the function of flowerimages in character depiction. The hero in The Picture of Dorian Gray was as young and vigorousas flowers, his boyhood as pure and lovely as daisies and his youth as gorgeous as red and whiteroses. Wilde depicts the character in a form of creating beauty, trying to set up the classic beauty. Also, the inherent charm in Dorian Gray’s personality is just like the color and fragrance offlowers which make his life colorful and bring dangers of temptations and desires at the same time,directly resulting in his corruption and death. Being divided into3parts, the chapter symbolizesthree phrases of Dorian’s life respectively with images of the daisy, rose and poppy step by step,and describes his life path from purity to corruption and finally death, revealing the necessity offalling of Wilde’s ideal of aestheticism.The third chapter probes into the aesthetic connotation of the flower images in the novel,which is also sectioned into three parts. Part one mainly discusses the Wilde’s ideal of aestheticismby starting from the oppinion of "art is supreme" and the pursuit of form beauty. Part two makesan illustration on the contradiction between art and life in his aestheticism and explores theirconficts in the novel. Then the final part focuses on the theme of metaphor of beauty and revealsthe moral consciousness implied in Wilde’ aesthetic opinions.