"The Picture of Dorian Gray" (Preface)

by Oscar Wilde

Editor's Note:. This Preface by Oscar Wilde is in the public domain and may be freely reproduced.

The discussion questions, bibliographic references, and hyperlinks have been added by Julie Van Camp. (Copyright Julie C. Van Camp 1997) They too may be freely reproduced, so long as this complete citation is included with any such reproductions.

About the Author: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish poet and dramatist. Ostracized and eventually imprisoned for his homosexuality, he is buried in Paris in the Pere LaChaise cemetery, which also hosts Frederick Chopin, Marcel Proust, and Jim Morrison.

Paragraph numbering below has been added to facilitate class discussion. It was not included in the original publication.

[DISCUSSION QUESTIONS] [BIBLIOGRAPHY]

#1. The artist is the creator of beautiful things.

#2. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.

#3. The critic is he who can translate into another manner or a new material his impression of beautiful things. The highest, as the lowest, form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.

#4. Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.

#5. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.

#6. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

#7. The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban* not seeing his own face in a glass.

#8. The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.

#9. No artist desires to prove anything. Even things that are true cannot be proved.

#10. No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.

#11. No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.

#12. Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art.

#13. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.

#14. From the point of view of form, the type of all the arts is the art of the musician. From the point of view of feeling, the actor's craft is the type.

#15. All art is at once surface and symbol.

#16. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

#17. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.

#18. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

#19. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.

#20. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.

#21. We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.

*Caliban was the grotesque, brutish slave in Shakespeare's play, The Tempest.


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
  1. What standards are appropriate for evaluating a work of art, according to Wilde? What standards are not appropriate?
  2. What is the relevance of the artist's intention to Wilde? Is there other knowledge, external to our knowledge of the work itself, which is relevant to evaluating and appreciating a work, according to Wilde?
  3. Do we need to know biographical data about the artist to appreciate a work of art, according to Wilde? Does our knowledge of biographical information about Wilde's homosexuality lead us to appreciate his writing differently than we would otherwise? Could we fully appreciate his work without that background knowledge?
  4. What does the critic bring to a work being evaluated?
  5. What does the reader bring to a work being studied and appreciated?
  6. What is the role of morality in art? Is it an appropriate subject matter of a work of fiction? Is morality an appropriate standard in evaluating a work of art?
  7. Wilde says that we "go beneath the surface" of a work of art at our "peril." What does he seem to mean by that? What things are "beneath the surface" in a work of art?
  8. When Wilde says that "art is quite useless," what does he mean? Is he rejecting utility as a standard for evaluation of art? What else might he be rejecting as appropriate in our appreciation of art?

WRITING BY OSCAR WILDE

The Complete Shorter Fiction & Poems in Prose

Oscar Wilde (Works and Links)


This page was put on-line and is maintained by Julie Van Camp, Professor of Philosophy, California State University, Long Beach.

Your comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome: jvancamp@csulb.edu

Last updated: November 22, 2006