This thesis discusses Oscar Wilde’s aestheticism, exemplified in his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his essays, lectures and fairy tales A House of Pomegranates. It starts off with an introduction in which a historic context of the aesthetic movement and Wilde’s life is provided. Further on, there is an analysis of the aesthetic movement and its significance in Oscar Wilde’s work, as well as a detailed description of the characteristics of the movement such as the new ideal of beauty, the movement’s circles, the Art for Art’s Sake movement and the movement’s comparison to Victorian norms. Then the thesis exemplifies the idea of beauty, art and the artist in Wilde’s essays and lectures. The following chapter explores the aesthetic principles in The Picture of Dorian Gray, focusing on the philosophy of beauty, decadence and the figure of the dandy, the conflict between Aestheticism and morality, ethical and aesthetic ideas embodied in the figure of the doppelgänger as well as in Wilde’s language style and imagery. After that analysis, the thesis focuses on the analysis of aesthetic experiments in Wilde’s fairy tales A House of Pomegranates, with a special highlight on the beautiful and the material in the Star-Child. The last chapter explores the role of art as a formative force in the fields of Aestheticism, culture and society, which is followed by a conclusion on the matter.