Aestheticism in The Picture of Dorian Gray

Aestheticism in The Picture of Dorian Gray
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The aestheticism is a philosophy which supports and promotes beauty and aesthetics more than social or political values or themes in literature and other forms of art. The philosophy of aestheticism emerged after the Victorian and Edwardian literature time and was greatly viewed as opposing the core values of Victorian and Edwardian literature. The novel ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ greatly advocates for aestheticism both in art and in lifestyle. The novel was greatly criticized as it advocated for aestheticism instead of morality and social values propagated by Victorian and Edwardian literature.
Firstly, Lord Henry is an embodiment of a new hedonism as advocated by the philosophy of aestheticism. A new hedonism which is only focused on self-realisation and selfishness of only thinking about oneself and one’s identity only. Lord Henry greatly believes that the purpose of life is self-development which comes from a never ending pursuit of pleasure. According to him, there is no good or bad experience in the pursuit of pleasure, but there only exists beautiful experiences. Also, Lord Henry goes ahead to aesthete the suicide of Sibyl Vane after Dorian Gray rejects her. He convinces Dorian to see the beauty in the act of a woman committing suicide because of him...