ACTIVITIES ON OSCAR WILDE’S THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

PREFACE

Comprehension

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.    <!--[endif]-->In the Preface, Oscar Wilde explicates his aesthetic doctrine, breaking with his predecessors’ Victorian assumption on art and morality.  

According to the writer’s thought, expressed in the Preface in an epigrammatic style:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->a)   <!--[endif]-->the artist is “the creator of beautiful things”: artist’s superiority and power of beauty

<!--[if !supportLists]-->b)   <!--[endif]-->the critic is a translator of languages: idea of a work of art as a language 

<!--[if !supportLists]-->c)    <!--[endif]-->art is the useless activity to know beauty throughout the understanding of symbols

<!--[if !supportLists]-->d)   <!--[endif]-->morality and art are neither related in the process of creation, nor in the reading activity

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.    <!--[endif]-->According to Walter Pater art has the power to reveal the essence of moments in life in order to produce pleasure. The statement is linked to the Romantic idea of poetry, since it grounds in the possibility of a moment to exist in the mind. However, such an opinion reveals a new idea of art.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.    <!--[endif]-->This concept of art contrast with that of the mid-Victorian years because it is detached from morality and entertainment: it exists for its own sake.