The art of aphorisms in „The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde

Abstract

The article under consideration is devoted to the study of the nature of aphorisms in an artistic text. Variants of definitions of the term „aphorism” in modern science, its functions, and semantic features in the text are fully provided. The objective and all the tasks for solving are realized during the process of investigation. The principles of using aphorisms in English literature are described on the example of O. Wilde’s novel „The Picture of Dorian Gray”. The classification and interpretation of aphorisms that are actively used in the text of the English writer in the original language are provided. The analysis of aphorisms showed that the most common themes of the writer are love, marriage, life, art, human existence, religion. However, along with general philosophical themes, there are a number of themes that are unique to O. Wilde. For example, topics of beauty, aesthetics, success, etc. The analysis of structural features of aphorisms has shown that in the work there are aphorisms consisting of one sentence, and aphorisms consisting of two and more sentences. It is proved that the stability of the aphorism implies its regular reproduction in the language in the same form, with the preservation of all components and the order of their sequence. A sign of intertextuality is that aphorisms, as a rule, are successfully intertwined in the outline of other texts and often contain references to other texts. The presence of a specific author means that the authorship of the aphorism is well known and recorded in material sources.