Aestheticism And Morality In Marius The Epicurean

As a pioneer of English aestheticism,Walter Pater has his own ideas of aestheticism.However,his ideas have caused a lot of misunderstanding and even sparked some severe criticism leveling at his separation of art from morality.Pater's Marius the Epicurean is written to elucidate and defend his own ideas.A detailed analysis of the novel is necessary for having a proper understanding of Pater's aestheticism and his real attitude to morality.The extraordinary life of Marius in the novel has embodied Pater's aestheticism and its moral implications lively.The thesis proceeds with three aspects.The first is Pater's idea of "art for art's sake" and its moral implications,which is embodied in Marius attitude to life---treating life in the spirit of art to identify the ends and means of life,which ultimately maintains the completeness of humanity.The second is Pater's relativism and its moral significance,which is mainly manifested by Marius'skepticism about the unchangeable static standards and the absolute universal principles.For Marius,there's no absolute standard for moral judgment,which should be conducted with comprehensive consideration of specific conditions.His relative spirit enables him to make moral judgment more flexibly under various conditions.The third is Pater's subjectivism and its moral meaning,which is delivered by Marius' emphasis on subjective impressions and sensuous experience.For Marius,his own "direct sensation" is the most reliable criterion of truth in the world of relativity.With abundant sensuous experience of the world,Marius has successfully developed his natural susceptibility and faculties of observation,which ultimately improves his sensibility to morality.In addition,it is the emphasis on subjective sensations and sensuous experience that makes Marius become a sympathetic person who shows his strong sympathy for vulnerable creatures and others' sufferings.Through the detailed analysis,it could be concluded that Pater's aestheticism is not divorced from morality.As the novel has displayed,although Marius treats life with the spirit of art,of aestheticism,he is never unclear about his own moral obligations.His love of beauty does not conflict with moral principles;instead,it has contributed to his moral development in a sense.