The Importance of Being Dorian Gray. Aesthetics and the Gothic in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Its Relevance to Late Capitalist Societies

Abstract

This essay examines Oscar Wilde‟s The Picture of Dorian Gray in the context of Gothic fiction, aesthetics and the novel‟s significance to late capitalistic societies. It examines the Gothic elements of the story, the characters‟ preoccupation with aesthetics, the contrast therein, and the book‟s significance as social commentary to late capitalist culture, where beauty and youth are obsessively craved and sought after. The essay aims to show that the manner aesthetics are utilized by Wilde in the book and how they are brilliantly amplified by its Gothic settings, reflecting an element of beauty worship set against an increasingly dark reality that still speaks to late capitalist societies in powerful ways.