As Oscar Wilde acknowledges statements and their alternatives, he allows the readers to interpret the significance of sin and morality on their own, leaving more of the story to the readers’ imagination instead of planting his views and ideas in their minds. Through using the contrasts of paradoxes and ambiguity, Wilde is able to express ideas that possess a deeper meaning than that of the superficial words. When Lord Henry speaks to Dorian about the immorality of influence, he essentially confirms the existence of a moral order that Wilde rejected at the beginning of his novel (Benson 29; Wilde 20). This sets up an aspect of contradiction in the novel and serves to enable the reader to pick a side, either that of the author or that of the characters who interpret the same ideas much differently.
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By using self-contradictory statements, Wilde is able to encompass the tension of inaccuracy and veracity simultaneously, indirectly adding to the dichotomy of themes in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde also contradicts himself in many occasions. He uses ambiguity to allow the readers to decide which of the three subject positions involved in artistic creation: the artist, model, and audience or the writer, character, and reader respectively, are represented in the novel (Gomel 1). By comparing himself to the artist, hence his novel to art, Wilde implies that “all art is quite useless” and that the aestheticism of it is its own reward (Wilde 2). However, through analysis of the novel, it’s obvious that Wilde used his novel to prove a point rather than allowing it to speak for itself as a piece of art, therefore contradicting himself and turning his philosophy into a paradox. Wilde’s philosophy, however, is not the only paradox in the
By using self-contradictory statements, Wilde is able to encompass the tension of inaccuracy and veracity simultaneously, indirectly adding to the dichotomy of themes in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde also contradicts himself in many occasions. He uses ambiguity to allow the readers to decide which of the three subject positions involved in artistic creation: the artist, model, and audience or the writer, character, and reader respectively, are represented in the novel (Gomel 1). By comparing himself to the artist, hence his novel to art, Wilde implies that “all art is quite useless” and that the aestheticism of it is its own reward (Wilde 2). However, through analysis of the novel, it’s obvious that Wilde used his novel to prove a point rather than allowing it to speak for itself as a piece of art, therefore contradicting himself and turning his philosophy into a paradox. Wilde’s philosophy, however, is not the only paradox in the