“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.”

This quote from the preface of The Picture of Dorain Grey perfectly encompases what the rest of the novel comes to be. Having read this once before I find it interesting that this was placed so early on in the novel. The preface is something that I usually don’t read when I read on my own, so I did not recognize this quote on my first reading. I find it interesting how Oscar Wilde writes the preface, very quick short sentences and an overall harsh critique of art. It is an interesting move for sure and something that left me thinking about art and the interpretation of it throughout the novel. Wilde ends it by saying “All art is quite useless” and he does touch on most aspects of art including books. It would be interesting to hear further about what he thought of art and why he wrote the preface this way.

How do interpretations of art vary from person to person? Does a picture have the same meaning to every person, or groups of people? How can a piece of art be defined as good or bad? Is there a scale to gauge artistic ability? If art is all truly interpretive, then does Wilde’s claim, that art is useless, has its own basis of truth?