scholarly journals Wilde’s Language Style in The Picture of Dorian Gray

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Fang Yang
Keyword(s):  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Writing Style ◽  
Rhetorical Devices ◽  
Language Style ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde, a famous Irish Aestheitc Writer, is well-known for the humourous language in his works. As the “lord of language”, he deliberately utilizes English as a tool to show the beauty of the language itself. His only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray commendably reveals Wilde’s talent in language organizing. This paper outlines Wilde’s employing witty rhetorical devices, the harmonious diction, brilliant paradoxes, jocular dialogues and witty epigrams to help readers perceive that succinctness, vividness, impressiveness and meaningfulness form the most important features of the writing style of the novel.

scholarly journals Specificity of the use of aphorisms in the novel "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-59
Author(s):  
S. O. Shekhavtsova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
The Novel ◽  
General Significance ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Pragmatic Attitude

The article deals with the study of the concept of «aphorism», the identification of essential features of the concept of aphorism and the definition of the specifics of the use of aphorisms in the novel «The Portrait of Dorian Gray» by Oscar Wilde. An analysis of the studies of leading national and foreign linguists who studied the specifics of aphorisms showed that the essential features of aphorism: briefness, depth of thought, informative brevity, a high degree of generalization (general significance), completeness of thought, truthfulness (truthfulness), imagery (expressiveness, expressiveness) originality, didacticity, authorship, accuracy, sharpness of form, paradox, wit, novelty, communicative clarity. It has been proven that the English-language aphorism is characterized by a wide range of pragmatic attitudes: statement, summarizing, pairing, reasoning, reservations or threat, exposure or reproach, complaints, self-justification, self-deprecation, justification, reassurance, motivation, advice, cognition ect. Pragmatic attitudes in English-language aphorisms are realized with the help of a wide range of linguo-stylistic means. Based on our research, we have determined the specifics of the use of aphorisms in the novel «The Portrait of Dorian Gray» by Oscar Wilde. We found that English-language aphorisms contain a pragmatic attitude of humiliation and self-deprecation, which are used very limitedly in the novel «The Picture of Dorian Gray» by Oscar Wilde. Aphorisms with a pragmatic attitude of justification and self-justification are used much more widely. According to our research, we have proved that the most common are aphorisms containing a pragmatic attitude of criticism.

scholarly journals Aesthetic Moral Metaphor in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Its Influence on Modern Chinese Aesthetic Literature

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Fang Yang
Keyword(s):  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Morality ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
The Social ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
The Devil

In “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde displays his artistic pursuit on art, life and society. Although he advocates “art for art’s sake”, yet his works could not be isloated from the social morality. In the novel, as Dorian sells his soul to the devil for his eternal beauty in appearance, the portait burdens the change of his ugliness. In some respect, the portait is a moral metaphor of Dorian himself. Basil Hallward, the painter of the protait, can be regarded as an artist metaphor to Wilde himself. Lord Henry Wotton, a famous dandy in the novel, manifests Wilde’s aestheic belief in lifestyle. So by analyzing the three main characters, this paper probes into the aesthetic moral metaphors involved in the novel, and talks about its influence on the modern Chinese aesthetic literature.

Wilde’s New Republic

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marylu Hill
Keyword(s):  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
Specific Focus ◽  
Classical Training ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
New Republic ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Philosophical Questions

As a result of his classical training in the Honours School of Literæ Humaniores at Oxford, Oscar Wilde drew frequently on the works of Plato for inspiration, especially the Republic. The idea of a New Republic and its philosophy resonated profoundly with Wilde—so much so that the philosophical questions raised in Plato’s Republic become the central problems of The Picture of Dorian Gray. This chapter maps the parallels between the Republic and Dorian Gray, with specific focus on several of Plato’s most striking images from the Republic. In particular, the depiction of Lord Henry suggests not only the philosophical soul gone corrupt, but also the ‘drone’ who seduces the oligarchic young man into a life of ‘unprincipled freedom’, according to Plato’s definition of democracy. By invoking the Socratic lens, Wilde critiques Lord Henry’s anti-philosophy of the ‘New Hedonism’ and contrasts it with the Socratic eros.

scholarly journals Art, the Artist and Ethics in Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Zrinka Frleta
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Work Of Art ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
Art And Ethics

This paper examines ideological and philosophical premises of aestheticism, presented in Wilde's critical essays (The Critic as Artist and The Decay of Lying), and epigrams in the preface to the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which both offer a philosophical context to the novel. Aestheticism emphasized that art can not be subordinated to moral, social, religious and didactic goals, because its ultimate goal is art itself, l'art pour l'art (art for art's sake). „Art never expresses anything but itself.“ „All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals.“ „Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.“ „Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.“ (Wilde, 1891). The relations between art and reality (concealment of reality) and art and ethics (an ethical function of art) have been explored through the interaction of the characters of Basil Hallward and Sibyl Vane with Dorian Gray. The paper also examines the role of the artist, his morality in the process of creating and experiencing the work, and the influence of the work of art on the artist himself/herself.

‘[C]allee me Oscar’: The Picture of Dorian Gray, Aestheticism, and Opium

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-87
Author(s):  
Ya-feng Wu
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
East End ◽  
House Beautiful ◽  
To Receive

Oscar Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), one of the flagship novels of Aestheticism, contains an intricate opium narrative that has yet to receive adequate critical attention. The novel consists of two nested units: the House Beautiful that subsumes a Gothic nursery where Dorian's portrait is placed, and London the Metropolis that harbours Blue Gate Fields in the East End. The former might be read as a miniature of the latter. This double mechanism hinges on a Chinese box in which opium is stored. The structure, which evolves from the classic opium narrative established by Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1821), enables Wilde to stage a critique on the connection between Aestheticism and the imperial trade of opium. Besides, Wilde's aesthete trio in the novel, Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian Gray, and Adrian Singleton, are cast as opium smokers in order to disrupt the imperialist mindset showcased in the cartoons appearing on trade cards and in magazines that satirise Wilde's promotion of Aestheticism. This essay contends that Wilde's opium narrative exposes the hypocrisy of Empire by demonstrating that the coloniser and the colonised are anamorphic reflections of each other.

scholarly journals Linguistic constructions of appraisal in the novel The Picture Of Dorian Gray and its Brazilian translation and adaptations: an exploratory analysis

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 259-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adail Sebastião Rodrigues-Júnior ◽  
Leila Barbara
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Exploratory Analysis ◽  
Original Novel ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Software Program ◽  
Picture Of Dorian Gray ◽  
Dorian Gray ◽  
Literary Characters ◽  
Verbal Processes

This paper aims to investigate how the linguistic elements of appraisal construe the evaluative representations of (gay) literary characters in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and in its Brazilian translation and adaptations. The centrality of the investigation is the narrator's voice, imprinted in the projecting verbal processes and the content of the message that constitute either the narrative point of view or the dialogues performed by the characters. To pursue this objective, we have adopted Martin's and White's (2005) appraisal model, employed to uncover linguistic resources that express attitudes towards events and people, with more or less intensity or graduation, and with different forms of commitment or engagement. The software program WordSmith Tools, more specifically the Aligner utility, served as the basis for selecting and organizing some extracts of the original novel comparatively with the same extracts of the translation and adaptations. The analyses have indicated that the narrator offered the vast majority of evaluative descriptions of femininity, which points to the importance of narrative point of view for the construing of the plot and for the establishment of ideological standpoints. The discussion has also shown several differences of evaluative linguistic choices in the translation and adaptations when compared to the original, demonstrating that the corpora do not fall within the boundaries of a strict linguistic correspondence, but rather within the limits of text recreation or rewriting.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document