Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) - Life, Works

Journeys Italy, Greece, London, USA, Switzerland.

Works lecturer in aesthetic (in USA), book-reviewer of "Pall Mall Gazette" and editor of the magazine "The Woman's world".

Marriage he married Constance Lloyd and they had 2 children, but wasn't an happy relationship. They divorced because in 1886 Wilde was accused of homosexuality by the father of his love 141e46b r, who was lord Alfred Douglas. Wilde was sentenced to 2 years of hard labour.

Features and Themes

He was an eclectic personality. His output covered nearly all the literary forms, from verse to narrative, from essay to drama.

He was the embodiment of Aestheticism he constantly challenged the conventions of his time "Art for Art's sake". The principle followed by the aesthetes: superiority of art in contrast with life, their supreme aim was the cult of beauty.

The artist is receptive to beauty and must constantly perfect his sensations and his impressions.

Dandyism he made elegance and refinement his supreme aim in life. He showed his eccentric personality in his way of dressing and behaving, though this caused him to be often ridiculed in the pages of some humorous magazines. This was the opposite of the bohemien who didn't want to join the masses (as Stevenson).

Aristocracy as a playwright W. focused his attention on English aristocracy in his "Society Dramas".

Social criticism, irony, witticism (ability used by Wilde), Lively dialogues, paradoxes are essential elements of his style.

Personality he was an apostle of Aestheticism, the pursuit and enjoyment of beauty was the chief purpose of life. He was a wildean dandy: an aristocrat whose elegance is an symbol of superiority of his spirit. He paid attention to dressing and he hated sports.

Prison he spent the last years of his life in prison, in reading gaol: psychologically destructive. Prison destroyed his ability to write: "the ballad of reading gaol" (1898) that was a poem on the prison.

Religion he embraced Roman Catholicism before dying.

Influences John Ruskin and Walter Pater. The 2 writer used the adjective "Aesthetic" for different purposes.

Ruskin: ascribed positive connotations to the term, he exalted the Middle Ages, for their gothic style, and criticized the Renaissance (with this age began the decadence). He exalted the beautiful that was to be reunited with good. He spoke of faith and wanted discipline and moderation.

Pater he said that the Middle Ages are only anticipation of the Renaissance. He exalted the beautiful that was connected with evil. He spoke of mysticism and wanted abandonment.

At 1^st Wilde embraced Ruskin's theories and maintained that the aim of art was to improve society; but then he changed his ideas and privileged Pater's ideas.

Double is so dear to the Romanticism and to Gothic novel as well as Wilde.

The final stabbing of the picture and the inversion of the "roles" can be read as the triumph of art over life or the impossibility of a life pursuing sensual and intellectual delight with no acceptance of moral responsibility.

The supernatural picture central element of the novel, the portrait is also Dorian's double.

Mistaken identities and misunderstandings in "The importance of being Earnest" (lack of communication)

Satire on Victorian hypocrisy.

He was a forerunner of the absurd theatre.

Farcical elements are used to deal with serious problems.

Lack of real values and emptiness of the Victorian society.

Love (in "The importance of being Earnest") is instinctive, irrational and inexplicable.

Comic effects is used by the characters who used different registers.

Human evil he dealt with the sense of evil in human nature. From 1886 to 1889 he wrote the "Fairy Tales" stories with the themes of innocence, evil, suffering. He was resisting the homosexual urge and wanted to remain in a childlike world of innocence. "Dorian Gray" regards human nature as grey (mixture of good and evil).

Works

To his works were attributed 3 colours corresponding with particular phases of Wilde's personality:

White in the 1^st part of his production in which Wilde hide his homosexuality.

Grey in "Picture of Dorian Gray" in which there were the presence of both good and evil.

Black in Salomé in which Wilde showed his homosexuality.

The Importance of Being Earnest talks about the story of 2 young men  John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. When was an infant Jack was found in a handbag in a cloakroom at Victoria Station by Thomas Cardew who adopted him and gave to him the name of Worthing because that day he was going to a region in Sussex called Worthing. Then Jack when to London on the pretext of visiting a fictitious brother, Earnest. In London everybody knew him as Earnest and he also fell in love Gwendolen Fairfax, but her mother Lady Bracknell opposed their marriage. Algernon Moncrieff lived in London but he often went to the country on the pretext of visiting a fictitious invalid friend, Bunburry. An the country he was known with the name of Earnest and  he fell in love with Cecily Cardew. Both John and Algernon believed that the name Earnest gave to them respectability and a position in the society.

Themes: Marriage, orphans, childhood, foundling, condemnation of Victorian society, education.

Characters: are stereotypes and flat. With them Wilde wanted to satirize the Victorian age.

Setting: Algernon country side, Jack town.

Genres: Comedy of Manners and Theatre of the absurd.

Comedy of Manners wanted to mock the customs of the upper classes. It was characterized by the theme of marriage and money and was important the way of writing.

Theatre of the absurd Wilde was the forerunner of the theatre of the absurd for his particular way of writing (witticism, lack of communication, non-sense).

Language: he use different language registers, formal and informal.

The Picture of Dorian Gray talks about the story of Dorian Gray, a beautiful youth, who is the model for a portrait of Basil Hallward. In the studio of the painter Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton, a cynical man, that makes a bad influence to the boy. He, after talking with Lord Henry, realizes that the beauty will vanish and he expresses a wish: remain beautiful forever. This wish is granted and Dorian discovers that is the painting that ages for him, and he decides to hide this in a locked room. Then the protagonist falls in love with Sybil Vane, a Shakespearian actress. They become fiancé and Dorian wants to show to Basil Hallward and Lord Henry the skill in acting of his girlfriend but she acts very bad and Dorian breaks his relationship with her. This night she commits suicide. From this moment the boy abandons himself to the drug, alcohol and he corrupted his soul, but the signs of his corruption are only in the painting while Dorian Gray remained beautiful. When he is 38 years old, confesses this peculiarly situation to Hallward who criticizes Dorian because he is a corrupted person. So the protagonist kills him and obliges with a menace Alan Campbell to destroy the dead body. At the end, he sees his horrible image on the painting and he hits it with a knife, but in reality he kills himself and when is found, Dorian takes on the corrupted features that before has the portrait.

Themes:

Double (divided personality)

Youth vs. Adult Age

Beauty

Superficiality of things

Love and not corresponding love

Evil

Life vs. Death

Pursuit of sense

Death

Dandyism

Hedonism

The power of Art (which survived people and was immortal, as for Keats)

Myths:

Narcissus Dorian Gray is like narcissus (a person who falls in love with his image).

Faustus Dorian is a Faustian figure because he wants to obtain eternal youth, something that under normal circumstances no human being can obtain, like Faust who sells his soul to the devil in order to gain knowledge and power.

The original sin Basil Hallward, the painter, is like God the creator; he has just created the picture of Dorian in all his perfection. The tempter is Lord Henry, who wants to persuade Dorian, innocent like the first man Adam, to ignore all the conventional rules of society, just as the serpent wants Eve to disregard the commandments from God.

Narrator: in 3^rd person and Wilde doesn't interview in the narration.

Way of writing: full of witticism and the characters are dramatized.

Setting: London in the 1890s.

Book of Dorian: Huysmans's "A Rebours" that talks about the story of Des Esseintes who tries to life a life of pleasure in a decadent world. At 1^st was believed that this book that impressed Dorian was the "Yellow Book" that deeply influenced Wilde.

Socialism in Soul of Man under Socialism "W. envisaged a sort of utopian socialism based on equality and social levelling (individualism) . For the author in fact  only individualism set man free from any kind of enslavement, he also anticipated a modern theory that stated that " the true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is". W. also protested against the treatment of children in prison and against the cruelty of institution in The Ballad of Reading Gaol.