Oscar Wilde’s influence upon Joyce’s idea of art is evident, as is his even more direct influence on Stephen Dedalus. This essay examines Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man to see how closely it reflects Wilde’s aesthetics, aesthetics mainly explained in Wild’s writings such as “The Decay of Lying” and “The Critic as Artist.”Wilde opines that life imitates art, not the other way around; interestingly, Stephen mimics Dantes of The Count of Monte Cristo, thus illustrating the influence of art upon life. For Wilde, art is purer and more perfect than life. Art is also the realm of pure invention and lying, the world of the “green rose” Stephen retreats into during the Christmas dinner scene. Wilde asserts that human beings can shield themselves from the sordid perils of actual existence through art only; Stephen often escapes from the competitive, harsh realities of life into a static, non-threatening world by detaching himself from them. This is closely connected with “spectatorism,” which Henry supports and practices in The Picture of Dorian Gray, a philosophy that allows Stephen to turn reality to art by transforming vulgar human life into aesthetically distanced drama. Stephen is criticized as antisocial and egotistic by his friends, for he rejects their requests for political action. From a Wildean point of view, however, Stephen would be a genuine artist, for action of every kind, for Wilde, belongs to the sphere of ethics, not of art. Wilde even supports the egotistic attitude for an artist. In this context it is understandable that Stephen decides to leave his society, which is “the basis of morals,” as Wilde explains it. Thus, Stephen’s “I will not serve” announces his break from the fetters of society and indicates the artist’s and art’s autonomy. Undoubtedly, Stephen is a type of Aesthete, but Joyce is not the same as his persona. Joyce is persistently realistic; he uses the technique of “scrupulous meanness” in Dubliners and “personal experiences” and encyclopediac knowledge in other works, and these are exactly what Wilde is against. Also, “washerwoman” and the real people from “Blue-Book” appear in Joyce’s art, a practice Wilde criticizes severely. Ultimately, Joyce succeeds in making interesting fictions out of “dull facts,” invalidating Wilde’s as well as Stephen’s judgment.