“Art is the most intense mode of individualism the world has known.” The aesthetic movement was concerned with the nature of art and the simple beauty that encompasses it. Wilde introduces his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, with a reflection on the artist, on art, and on the value of both. In Oscar Wilde's novel, Wilde describes his part of the aesthetic movement and bases the events of the novel on his own experiences. The Aesthetic movement was an artistic and literary movement centered on the saying "art for art's sake" and arguing that art did not have to be utilitarian or practical. The movement wanted art to exist only for the sake of its beauty and not need to serve any political or educational purpose. The artworks created by the movement's artists did not tell stories or sermons; their art was visual, delightful, alluding to sensual desires; their poetry was pure. Supporters of the movement say that the experience of art is the most intense experience available in life and that nothing should be allowed to limit it. The intensity of aesthetic experience is the dominant goal in human life. If there are things about art that are morally unwanted, they don't really matter in contrast to this very important experience that art can give. When the esthete Oscar Wilde first introduced himself with his loving association with art, he was seen by many as almost “unhealthy” and dangerous, “Wilde himself was accused of corrupting a young man (Lord Alfred Douglas), and his writings (including The Picture of Dorian Gray) helped demonstrate his dangerous ideas” (Boilard). Some of his writings were frowned upon because they focused on topics of sensual love, lust, and cruelty. It was said that Wilde did not... middle of paper ...... placed in the novel's preface and through Lord Henry's intellectual conversations with Dorian, "Wilde's strange preface, which reads like an aesthetic version of the ' Blake's Proverbs of Hell, warns that 'there is no moral book or immoral book'” (BRC). Wilde understood and showed in the life of Dorian Gray the need for a more controlled and careful attitude towards aestheticism, without which morality would inevitably be indefinable. The aestheticism expressed by Dorian translates into egocentrism and intellectual deterioration “If in the pursuit of one's own desires and the beautiful things in life, the condition of others or one's own mind is put at risk. the pleasure gained must sometimes be surrendered for a greater good” (Pearce) As Wilde points out, it is only through a more controlled attitude that aestheticism and morality can finally align.