The Picture of Dorian Gray Preface

            In the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde gives short sayings about the purpose of art. He makes it clear that artists do not make art for a moral purpose. He writes “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written” (Wilde vii). Wilde’s comment about aesthetic philosophy is that art is a judgment of aesthetics and what defines beauty, not what is moral and immoral.  Aesthetic philosophy focuses on the nature of art and beauty, and not the moral purpose. Wilde follows the philosophy because he just wants art to be accepted as beautiful and nothing more.

            Wilde’s tone toward the audience is playful and he also clearly states all of his viewpoints. The preface is made up of short sentences that are concise thoughts. Wilde wants his audience to understand exactly what he believes in. He does not lead his writing up to interpretation. He also maintains a playful tone because the last line in the preface is “All art is quite useless”(Wilde viii). Wilde clearly does not believe that art is useless because if he really did, he would not spend as much time thinking about art. The playfulness of the preface gives the audience a glimpse of how the rest of the book will be written.