Apart from the foreign researches, there are also some domestic researches. In “The Aestheticism in The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Ge Yina makes the research about “Art for Art's Sake” and explores its profound connotation. The journal mainly analyzes the aesthetic trend in Oscar Wilde's work. In “On the Contradiction with in Aestheticism from an Analysis of the Relationship of the Characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray”, Dai Wenting firstly makes deep exploration and interpretation of the aestheticism in the background of 19th century. Then through the analysis of the relationship among three main characters, Dai Wenting holds the point that they are the symbol of different classes and level. Through the entanglement relationships, Oscar Wilde showed his own unconscious anxiety for this contradiction, Basil Hallward: “Art for Art's Sake”, Theorist Lord Henry: “Art for Art’s Life”, Practitioner Dorian Gray: “Art for Art’s Life”.
After the brief introduction about what the earlier studies are, the essay is mainly devoted to the research of aestheticism and the relations between art and ethic. Aestheticism originated from art and literature in the late 19th century England, arising during the late Victorian, roughly from 1868 to 1901. According to the academic field, the mark of the end of the Aestheticism movement was Oscar Wilde had been arrested. The Oxford professor Walter Pater took the view that art should be independent from all the philosophy and can only be judged by the standard of art, proposing “Art for Art's Sake”, claiming that there is no connection between art and morality. The artists and writers of Aesthetic style tended to profess that the Arts should provide refined sensuous pleasure, rather than convey moral or sentimental messages and believed that Art did not have any didactic purpose; it need only be beautiful. The Aesthete developed a cult of beauty, which he considered the basic factor of art. Life should copy Art (Liang).
There are two parts in the essay. The first part contains the background introduction of Oscar Wilde and his ethics and aesthetic thought. From the part of interpretation of Oscar Wilde's life, we can figure out his aesthetic cognition: “No artist has ethical sympathies (Wilde 6).” In the second part, the analysis about aestheticism and ethics of Dorian Gray will be listed out and then explaining the relations between Oscar Wilde and Dorian Gray, Art and Ethic in detail. From the death of Sibyl, Basil and Dorian Gray himself, we can point out that Dorian Gray found his beautiful appearance and increasingly awakening expansion of desire, and then he made religious prayer to transfer art of body with physiology of the image. It did not come from life experience through logic sense, but beyond life and reality. The performance beyond reality and morality is the Oscar Wilde’s pursuit of “Art is beyond reality” and “Art transcends Ethic”.
1 Oscar Wilde: “No artist has ethical sympathies”
1.1 The Ethics of Oscar Wilde
Brilliant Oscar Wilde has a controversial legendary life. He was born in Dublin in a prominent family. When he was young, Oscar Wilde has already shown the great talent. In 1874, he has enrolled in the Magdalen College in Oxford for study. The young Oscar Wilde has noteworthy conduct and independent character, always with special dress and quick-witted talk; therefore, he has minor fame in the society. During the university, he traveled to Italy and Greece to get contact with the brilliant ancient Greek and Roman culture making him from Sorrow Worship to the Aesthetics Worship. 来~自^751论+文.网www.751com.cn/
He was prized with the college scholarship for publishing the Ravenna poetry in 1878. Later, he met many writers and poets, especially accepted the aesthetic thoughts of Walter Pater and Rosskeen. “Oscar Wilde obedience to the moral conscience of Rosskeen, on the other hand, he was also infected with the Walter Pater‘s aesthetics passion (Gomel 82),” establishing the hostility and rebellion to the Victorian Philistine Philosophy and Moral Standards. He began to vigorously promote the aestheticism and even carried the aesthetic principles into their daily life. He often had shocking behaviors, even wearing a scarlet red velvet coat in women's high-heel, holding sunflower or lily in hands, casually walking in the street and making people surprised. At that time, Oscar Wilde was famous in London.