Paper Topic:

Close reading for Nineteenth Century English 3rd year course

While Oscar Wilde claims that all art is quite useless ' at the end of his prologue to The Picture of Dorian Gray , he means exactly the opposite : even though he defines art as useless , this uselessness is rooted in something much more important to Wilde . Indeed , though he ends the prologue with this statement , he begins it with something that initially seems different , stating The artist is the creator of beautiful things ' showing that Wilde challenges traditional conceptions of art . Throughout this prologue , he demonstrates that while all art is useless , this

uselessness is an extremely important part of his life . Wilde defines art in a variety of ways : he says that it includes thought , language , vice and virtue , and that while art does not reflect true life , it does provide a perspective on the spectators , or individual , in life . In fact , the understanding of art is the highest form of beauty to the author . He states that Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated . For these there is hope ' indicating that there is something high and important about the consumption of art . Certainly , it is more important than fact - Wilde does not think highly of autobiography , an example of art that is less based on creativity and more focused on the accurate , factual recreation of a person 's life . Indeed , even though art is defined as useless throughout Wilde 's prologue , he also depicts the beauty of it and its effectiveness in reflecting important aspects...

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