Beauty In Shadow, Pursuit In Mist

Known for intriguing and whimsical style, Oscar Wilde remains to be one of the most famous English writers in the nineteenth century. He is remembered for being a devoted supporter of the aesthetic movement. Researchers have studied Wilde’s works from different perspectives, but there is no doubt that we remember him for his theory and his influence on aestheticism and decadence. As one of the most eminent aesthetes in his time, Wilde wrote a large variety of plays, critical essays, fairy tales and stories. Nobody will deny that Wilde is an outstanding aesthete, and he is also a quite unique one. His works have been greatly influenced by aestheticism and decadence, they are beautiful and wonderful, and almost all of them show some decadent features.Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, The Canterville Ghost, The model millionaire, The Portrait of Mr. W. H., and The Sphinx without a Secret, these five short stories collected in the Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories are among his most witty literary creations. Based on the aestheticism and decadence theory, this thesis aims at examining the aestheticism and decadent features reflected in these five short stories.This dissertation is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is introduction which gives an overall introduction to his works, the five short stories, aestheticism and decadence as well as the critical studies on them in the past and their limitations. The second chapter analyses Wilde’s aestheticism reflected in the stories. In his aestheticism, there are three important aspects:the sensual beauty, the independence of beauty and the pursuit for beauty, this chapter mainly uses the three aspects to study the stories. The third chapter analyses Wilde’s decadent features reflected in the stories. The epicurean tendency, the depiction of ugliness as beauty, and the description of death are three most prominent features of decadence, this chapter mainly analyzes the three features embedded in the stories.Chapter four analyses the causes of Wilde’s aestheticism and decadent features in his works. This chapter gives a detailed analysis of the philosophical roots, the social roots and the influences of his personal life and love experiences as well as aestheticism and decadence in Oscar Wilde’s literary thoughts. The last chapter is the conclusion which presents a comprehensive summary of the whole dissertation and restates the main aestheticism and decadent features reflected in the five short stories, and summarizes the contradictoriness and limitations of Wilde, aestheticism and decadence.