Abstract

The Picture of Dorian Gray is regarded as the masterpiece of aestheticism in nineteenth century. Its author, Oscar Wilde, is famous for his fervent advocacy of aestheticism as well as his talent in various genres of literature. At the very beginning, The Picture of Dorian Gray has been criticized severely for its immorality. But its value has been discovered after years. Many critics have analyzed the paradox in this novel and claimed that Wilde holds aesthetic outlook on art moral outlook on life. In this thesis, however, it is argued that Wilde holds pessimistically aesthetic outlook on both art and life. It will be analyzed mainly through the three main characters. And it would be applied in Freud’s theory on personality, which is not used too much in the study of this novel. 

This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter one, the introduction, introduces the significance and motivation of the study and gives the structure of the whole thesis. Chapter two is literature review, reviewing on the studies of The Picture of Dorian Gray both at home and abroad. Chapter three will briefly introduce Freud’s theory on personality. Chapter four turns to analyze the three main characters with Freud’s theory, and to further analyze Wilde’s mind. Chapter five is focusing on Oscar Wilde’s outlook on art and life reflecting on the three main characters. The last part is the conclusion. On the basis of the previous chapters, it can be concluded that Wilde is pessimistic about his aesthetic outlook on art and life.

Key words: main characters, personality, aestheticism, pessimistic

摘        要

《道连•格雷的画像》被称作是十九世纪唯美主义思想的代表作。作者奥斯卡•王尔德极富文才，擅长多种文学体裁，同时也是唯美主义思想的积极倡导者。《道连•格雷的画像》最初被评论界指责为不道德的书。其价值在几十年后才受到肯定。许多评论家致力于研究该小说所展现出的悖论思想，据此认为王尔德尽管艺术观是唯美的，但伦理观依旧是道德的。而本论文则试图阐释王尔德所持的是悲观的唯美主义艺术观与人生观。这一论点主要通过小说中三位主要角色进行研究。同时，本文将运用弗洛伊德的人格心理学作为研究方法，这在该小说的研究中运用还不太广泛。
本文包含六个部分。第一部分为绪论，简单介绍研究意义与动机，并展现全文的结构。第二部分是文献综述，简要介绍国内外对这部小说及王尔德的研究情况。第三部分将简单介绍弗洛伊德的人格理论。第四部分将运用该理论分析小说三位主要人物性格，进而分析王尔德的心理。第五部分具体阐释文中所展现的王尔德的艺术观与人生观。最后为结论，在总结全文分析的要点的基础上，得出结论：王尔德对唯美主义持悲观态度。

关键词：主要人物，人格，唯美主义，悲观