Analysis of the Extract Life as the Greatest of the Arts, pg 395, Making Waves 1

The extract is taken from the eleventh chapter of Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The extract introduces the ideal of the Aesthetic movement, that is life as the greatest of the arts.
The function of the first sequence is to present the life of an aesthete. The aesthete is the main character of the novel, the young and handsome Dorian Gray.
Dorian Gray has many parties at his beautiful house and only a selected group of people is invited to his parties. Everything in his house is smart and polished and nothing is left to the case. Dorian Gray is always assited during the preparation by Lord Wotton, another aesthete. Mr Gray likes to be surrounded by young people: this recalls the main character's desire of eternal youth. He is admired by young people, who consider him an example to follow, the ideal of man (the word "dream" underlines that it is something unfeasiable). He is compared to T. Gautier, a French writer who believed in "art for art's sake".
The second sequence explains the ideal of the "art for art's sake". He is smart and charming and he wants people notice it and young boys try to be like him, dressing like him and behaviouring like him. But they are only a copy.
Even if he likes to be considered an example of elegance, he wants to be something more. He wants to create a new model of life, where the cult of the senses has the central position.
In the following sequence the narrator presents the idea about the senses that the Victorian have: they try to hide their feelings and consider their instincts as something negative, that make feel them life animals. Dorian Gray thinks that it is the real issue of society, that is afraid of beauty and for this reason is living in a cage, in a degraded condition.
In the last sequence Dorian's project about life is underlined and the birth of a future Edonism is foreseen. This thought is also Lord Wotton's one, who is considered by Dorian as a prophet and a guide. Personal experience is at the basis of the future model of life, united with intelligence but not subdue to it. The ecstatic moment, the moment the person lives during the experience, is the most important and the consequences must not be considered. The cult of senses must be practiced with attention: it has not to become immoral behaviour or ascetism. It is necessary to understand the importance of life and the importance of every moment.