Christa Giles

nevertheless turned to them in order to popularize his
ideas. The hatred of the bourgeoisie, the public, the sense
that the artist is appealing to an elite, characterizes much of
the work of the period, and although Wilde appealed to the
masses, his dandyism and the dandyism of many of his
characters meant that his inner being remained untouched;
he appeared inviolable. The dandy is essentially an
outsider, and, as such, is not subject to stiff social
regulations but only to his own law. The ˝culte de soi-
même,˝ where the self is transformed into a work of art, is
not mere self-indulgence or narcissism, but indeed a
religion where the values of form and beauty and, by
extension, artificiality, are worshipped in the face of
barbarism. The dandy’s weapons are his intellect and his
person–his external being. Wilde’s dandy is considered to
be of supreme value, not merely because of his originality,
but because he is the embodiment of individualism. Thus:
A man is called affected . . . if he dresses as he
likes to dress. But in doing so he is acting in a
perfectly natural manner. Affectation, in such
matters, consists in dressing according to the
views of one’s neighbor. 103
The dandy, in effect, even while existing in society, is
nevertheless a nonconformist. In Lady Windermere’s Fan,
when Lord Augustus agrees with Graham, the latter replies,
41