“Sin is the only real colour-element left in modern life”: Modernism’s Threat to Morality in Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

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“Sin is the only real colour-element left in modern life”: Modernism’s Threat to Morality in Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

Name: Samantha Swain
Major: English
Hometown: St. Peters, MO
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis

Abstract

“Sin is the only real colour-element left in modern life”: Modernism’s Threat to Morality in Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde demonstrates the importance of modernism in art, while also dramatizing society’s moral reservations about modernity’s revolutionary and destructive potential. The story follows the moral journey of Dorian, a vain man who remains youthful and attractive while a portrait of him bears the consequences of his actions. As he strays from conventional behavior and breaks social rules, he furthers the grotesque transformation of the painting. Dorian’s actions are portrayed as immoral, but also as closely tied to his embrace of modernist principles. By rejecting social and aesthetic tradition, Dorian creates new forms of art and life.

This paper uses principles of aesthetics to illustrate the value in the change and transformation of tradition, using artworks as examples of Dorian’s modernist aesthetic. Wilde suggests that art must contain mystery in order to be considered beautiful, meaning fascination lies in its unpredictability. The corruption of Dorian’s painting demonstrates how the mystery of the new possesses him and gradually makes him new. Once he dedicates his life to pleasure and art, he pushes his guilt onto the painting, altering the portrait. But despite his rejection of moral norms, the changes in the painting express his inability to free himself from the guilt society’s moral conventions create. Mystery is enticing, but at the same time, its unfamiliarity also provokes fear, and the painting’s “ugliness” expresses society’s unwillingness to embrace the new.

Poster file