【正确答案】正确答案：His epoch is a period of substantial and growing social tensions. In an ugly age, Wilde believed that art should not imitate life but art. The belief naturally arose when Wilde was out of harmony with the society around him. In his eyes, to make art useful was tantamount to making it serve the bourgeoisie whom he despised profoundly. He rejected an art of "moral uplift," practiced by a vast array of Victorian writers, which amounted, in the final analysis, to a legitimizing of existing institutions and conditions. Besides, his lifestyle and his wit also exerted an influence on his advocating "Art for art" s sake".