The Picture of Dorian Gray Preface

Focus: What is Wilde's view of "art" in the preface?
Read Aloud the preface to the novel.

1)Why is this a manifesto about the purpose of Art, the role of the artist, and the value of beauty?
The manifesto about the purpose of Art is the debate about people agreeing whether the piece of art is beautiful or not. The role of the artist is to created debate with his art, when there is critics about his art work and people see it in different ways he has done his job. The value of beauty is just a piece of work to be judged by the spectator, its on how you see it.

2)How does he define both artist and critic?
The artist is the creator of beautiful things. And the critic is who can translate into another manner or new material his impression of beautiful things.

3)What do you think he meant by saying "a book can be moral or immoral?"
"A book can be moral or immoral," It really depends on how the spectator feels about the book. To some one the book might be moral but to another one it might be immoral.

Interpret: "Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril." Is this a warning of some kind?
Every artwork has its own meaning, the spectator should really go further on than the image shown by the artists, but they had look deep into the artwork to understand the message of the art piece.

Interpret: "It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors."
It's the artwork that reflects the spectator and not the life.

Explain whimsical last line: "All art is quite useless."
Art is useless because it serves no other purpose than beauty.