A Study Of Oscar Wilde In The Context Of "Century End"

The end of19thcentury, science and technology progress brings capitalismflourish fast. At the same time, French break out big revolution, the Europe on the eveof the big changes in thought. For the British, with the development of industrial, andthe continuously expansion of overseas colonies, it makes Victorian England filledwith “the stink of money”. Material is the highest standard of living, money candominate everything, even though the arts. All the people with lofty ideals with aconscience is saddened, aestheticism of each individual although different attitude,but the overall tendency is from alienation in art.Some progressive literatus produce a kind of pessimism and despair feelings forthe revolution in the end of19thcentury. They use writing to answer new problemsand thinking about the future. Oscar Wilde is put forward a new way for the literature——the supreme aesthetic opinion namely “art for art’s sake”, advocate using purespiritual world against chaos of the outside world. And this kind of feelings at the endof the century is not a positive confrontation, both it is a way of hiding in the ivorytower, and it is a kind of self answer for art. This paper based on the Wilde’s tworepresentative works, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Salome to explore whichposterity of aestheticism on that Oscar Wilde insisted.