Dual Narrative Progression In The Picture Of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde is a writer full of contradictions.His only novel,The Picture of Dorian Gray provokes various debates since its publication.The novel seemingly retells an old morality tale of the Faustian pact,while the preface upholds the aestheticism slogan "art for art’s sake".To resolve the divergence between what the preface claims the amorality of art and the seemingly moral storyline,this paper employs the method of dual narrative progression to dig out the different thematic meanings conveyed in the different trajectories of significance.First of all,Wilde creates a multifaceted protagonist image,conveying different aestheticism principles.In the overt plot,scientific materialism exonerates Dorian from the accusation of immorality,which aptly fits into the aestheticism scheme of ethics and aesthetics being mutually exclusive to each other.In the covert progression,by showing Dorian’s degradation from the Ideal Form due to lack of self-control and his later regaining of conscience,Wilde demonstrates the inevitable invasion of ethics into the sphere of aesthetics.Secondly,the plurality of the textual meanings can be explained from three aspects:characterization,scepticism and implied author.The unreliability of Lord Henry and the inconsistency of Basil Hallward respectively weakens each man’s influence on Dorian,allowing a space for the other party to play a role.The multiplicity of the textual meanings fundamentally reflects Wilde’s scepticism of reason and authenticity.Besides,different implied authors hold different aesthetic stances.Finally,Oscar Wilde criticises Victorian society and proposes an aestheticism vision to replace the existing moral order.He sets out New Hedonism characterized by individualism and carpe diem to resist the mainstream utilitarian ideas.However,Dorian who leads an aesthetic way of life eventually sinks into the depth of vice.The novel demonstrates the significance of aesthetic salvation and the danger of destruction.Aesthetic salvation only offers temporary relief and is essentially escapism.Therefore,through the method of dual narrative progression,this thesis suggests that the divergence between the amorality of art set forth in the preface and the seemingly moral storyline is resolved in that Wilde expresses different aestheticism views in the dual progression.Meanwhile,Wilde’s aestheticism dictates that art should be separated from morality but in aesthetic practice,they are inevitably intertwined.