The Picture of Dorian GrayWhat would happen if every time a person invested emotion in art, they perished? This is the idea that Oscar Wilde presented in his 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Picture of Dorian Gray focuses largely on the idea that art should only exist for beauty and admiration. The audience should not invest emotion in art, because the novel proves that it can only end badly. Art should simply exist for the purpose of being art. The aesthetic movement has endured in the modern world and spread across many cultures. The aesthetic movement flourished thanks to the painting of Dorian Gray. The painting of Dorian Gray was heavily influenced by the Aesthetic movement of the mid-1800s. The Aesthetic movement implied that art should only exist for the idea of ​​beauty and that the viewer of art should not look on the meaning of art. Oscar Wilde believed in this theory and he used ideas from the Aesthetic Movement in many of his works, including The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Picture of Dorian Gray was an incredibly controversial novel, especially with its added aesthetic ideas. David A. Upchurch highlights the impact the novel had on Victorian society in his article "The Picture of Dorian Gray: Overview". Upchurch states: The novel was immediately controversial because of the ethics of the aesthetic doctrines it seemed to embrace. Since then, critics have approached the book from various positions: as an autobiography of Wilde's life, as a gothic melodrama, and as an aesthetic novel. The idea that The Picture of Dorian Gray is a strongly aesthetic novel is very true because the central theme of the novel is that art should exist only for the sake of being art. Alan Crawford examines... . middle of article......sh Literature in Transition, 1880-1920. 36.4 (1993): 429-450. Rep. at the Literary Resource Center. Detroit: Gale, 429-450. Literary Resource Center. Gale of wind. NORTHWEST COLLEGIATE ACADEMY. April 25, 2011. “Steampunk brings Victorian flair to the 21st century. » All things considered. (February 6, 2008): Literary Resource Center. Gale of wind. NORTHWEST COLLEGIATE ACADEMY. July 1, 2009. Upchurch, David A. “The Picture of Dorian Gray: Overview.” Reference guide to English literature. Ed. DL Kirkpatrick. 2nd ed. Chicago: St. James Press, 1991. Literary Resource Center. Gale of wind. NORTHWEST COLLEGIATE ACADEMY. April 28, 2011. Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York, NY: Barnes and Noble Classics, 1890.