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Culture in the Elizabethan age
Features of Oscar Wilde writings
Features of Oscar Wilde writings
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Morality of the Upper Class in Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermeres Fan Lady Windermere's Fan is a witty commentary on the wiles of social properness in late 19th century England. Oscar Wilde was a flamboyant homosexual understandably critical of the norms of his day. Within the play, lie subtle and overt contradictions about the "properness" of the high born upper-class. During the Victorian period, strict rules governed mannerisms, protocol, etiquette, decency, etc. This decorum became too oppressive for Wilde's taste. The morality of the upper-class is supposedly the standard of the day, to which everyone is evaluated. However, in this play, the morality of the main characters pivots more on the situation instead of social status. Independent from inner intentions, all characters are only moral when its self-serving. Obvious examples are Lady Windermere and the Duchess. Lady Windermere tries to be superlative at the expense of being realistic. The Duchess pretends to be proper but is exposed by her contradictory statements. Less overt examples include Lord Windermere and Lord Darlington. (Secretly, I think Lord Darlington is Wilde himself.) Lord Windermere tries to uphold his family name through dubious relations with a scandalous woman. While Lord Darlington does not represent himself as a proper person, he becomes conveniently judgmental when he feels he has a chance with Lady Windermere. On the bottom of the social pyramid lies the characters who do not pretend to be proper: Lord Augustus Lorton, Mr. Cecil Graham and Mrs. Erlynne. All of these characters admit their transgressions (gossip, scandals, etc) and make no apology for themselves. On the top of the pyramid lie the epitome of properness: Lady Plymdale, Lady Stutfie... ... middle of paper ... ...itude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do." Wilde's recurring themes on the importance of "imagination, self-development, and individualism" are apparent in this play. The characters portray people who are very serious and common at the same time. How fanciful and carefree is life? Well, no one knows until they sincerely become completely unrestrained and untainted. Quite plainly the play reminds us to live for ourselves (as Lord Darlington would) and for the moment because otherwise one lives for something or someone else. After all, good and bad are relative terms, mere labels. They are not absolute terms, thus, everything is nothing until it is compared to something else. This is the heart of the aesthetic thinker.
During a short conversation between the Duchess of Berwick, Lady Windermere, and Lord Darlington, author Oscar Wilde exposes such entertaining arrogance that the members of upper class society contain. All the blunt, cynical insults toward the lower class and sarcastic language between the character enlightens the arrogances of the characters and the cruel structure of their society considering the gaps between lower class and high class, along with men and women.
The main settings of this play represent the dichotomy of honesty. The country representing Wilde's view and the city representing the victorian view. The country represents the true definiton because one of the characters goes there in search of true love, which is so...
...particular play acts as a vessel for this message of mocking self-indulgence and the tragedy of the lack of true love and suspicion of relationships that seems to define the present generation.
While it is widely understood now that Victorian society was one of excess and frivolity, it most certainly seemed legitimate to members of high society at the time. However, this was not the case with Oscar Wilde, who in his final play made mockery of his countrymen by satirizing the way in which they lived. This play, entitled The Importance of Being Earnest, follows the courtship of two young girls and exaggerates the absurd formalities of such a process in high society. The characters are shallow and delusional as a result of their upbringing, and collectively their words bring harsh criticism to the British upper class. These characters can be split into two clear categories. The majority, which is comprised of characters raised as orthodox aristocrats, is completely engrained with its ideals, primarily that of aesthetics over morals. These characters are in many ways like machines; so thorough is their connection with high society that they cannot function as individuals. In the other group, the minority, are those characters who would be referred to as “dandies” in Wilde’s time. They have retained their individuality, and use it seek their own slice of aristocratic influence. But by becoming so involved with high society they subject themselves to its triviality, and ultimately become as mechanical as their peers. In this way Wilde shows Victorian life to be corrupting rather than beneficial. Rather than a leading group in society, it’s obsession with luxury twists the upper class into meaningless robots. It is true that the aristocracy hold money and power, but there is an emptiness present that far outweighs the gains.
...erpreted as dark and significant to the period. The comedy Wilde achieves is at the expense of the characters who are seemingly intelligent adding to the ironic structure that much of the comedy is based on. Many of the comic elements of the play are shown through human reactions to Victorian repression and the effect it has on the men and women of the time. Love seems to be nonexistent within the finds of the fierce and brutal Aristocracy when so many of the qualities they value are not based on human qualities but that of the class’s social norms. Wildes Characters are at often times not subtle about their distaste in marriage and love, Algernon is no exception to this “In aried lie, three is company, two is none” showing that they all have distorted views on many of the social practices that make them morally sound, thus adding to the satire elements of the play.
Wilde’s play demonstrates how idealism influences individual’s potentiality to make fate-determining decisions. He does so through the character development of Robert and Gertrude Chiltern. The Chilterns’ idealistic attitudes regarding fiscal, social, and matrimonial issues play large roles in steering the plot to it’s exultant conclusion. For Robert, staying true to his ideals earned him a happy ending. For Gertrude, being gracious and flexible in her ideals led to her to a jubilant outcome. The two married characters bring balance as well as a genuineness to the nature of idealism. Whether an individual is persisting in their convictions or modifying their standards, idealism leads to characters determining their own destinies.
Throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde plays around with the standard expectations along with the absence of compassion of a Victorian society in the 1890’s, he demonstrates this through several genres of comedy such as Melodrama, Comedy of Manners, Farce, dark humour and Irony, as well as portraying the themes, death and illness, in this play in a brilliance of unusual amount of references.
In this passage from the play it is very clear that Wilde likes to give
By doing that he caused the audience to feel that the actors had authentic regret about their characters actions (Foster 19). Two adolescent women who incorrectly consider the men’s names to be Ernest, and who are passionate about the men for this very reason, think highly of both Jack and Algernon. In relating the story of mix-ups and mistaken identities, the ideals and manners of the Victorian society are satirized in a comedy where the characters "treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality"(Wilde, Oscar). Oscar Wilde’s amusing scenes often take their source in societal satire and unconventional (Baselga 15). All the way through his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes education, women, and morality.
It has been said that ‘Comedy, beginning in turmoil but ending in harmony, celebrates life.’ and this is the general idea with ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ Wilde proves that this comedy of manners does conform to this model. As Lady Bracknell tries to prolong the resolution and tries to prevent the marriage between Jack and Gwendolyn, she can be seen as a ‘gorgon’ because she refuses to let Gwendolyn marry Jack. Despite this, She may be seen as a heroine because she is a strong, commanding woman who isn’t passive like traditional Victorian women as she makes decisions which indicates that she has power within the play. Furthermore, Wilde has constructed her in such a way that she dominates the company wherever she is present and judges people according to their wealth even though she is from a non-aristocratic background. Therefore, Lady Bracknell may be viewed as a character that stays ‘bad’. Despite the obstacles surrounding Lady Bracknell, there are some aspects throughout the play which do conform to this model. For instance, Jack faces problems during the play which are then resolved through his actions and are consequently followed by happiness in the resolution when he finds out ‘the vital Importance of Being Earnest’ . Similarly, the same can be said for Algernon who lies to please the women that he desires to achieve happiness in Act 3. Therefore, depending on each character and their actions beforehand, they either face happiness or distress which indicates that comedy does have some elements of movement from distress to happiness and from ‘bad’ to ‘good’.
Throughout the late nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde wrote plays such as Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest- his most famous play. Earnest is a comedic work that focuses on a pair of wealthy men. They have been leading double lives so that they can go off for periods of time and enjoy living without responsibility while still maintaining their aristocratic reputation. Because of Wilde’s invlovement in the aesthetic movement, it is not uncommon (or unfair) to believe that his work, Earnest included, is nothing more than fluff. That being said, it is also fair to argue that this particular play does have meaning in it. Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest as a commentary on the hypocrisy of the ideal Victorian character. Earnestness is sincerity- which most Victorians believed themselves to be- and so Wilde uses the word ironically. In his eyes, people who considered themselves sincere were actually smug, self-righteous, and pompous. He expresses these opinions clearly through the play’s over-the-top and frustrating characters.
Oscar Wilde’s treatment of high society and manners are explored in the play “The Importance of Being Earnest”. Here, members of the upper class display a great deal of pride and pretense, feeling that they are inherently entitled to their wealth and higher social position. An example is Lady Bracknell, who is preoccupied with maintaining the status quo that she quickly squashes any signs of rebellion. Characters from higher societies/classes are mainly concerned about their reputation and respectability. Thus, expectations of the upper class for both men and women include being upstanding, rich and come from a wealthy family. Wilde’s criticism on high society and manners are explored through the characteristics of Lady Bracknell; the dialogue between Gwendolen and Cecily; and the characteristics of Jack in the country.
Oscar Wilde was born in October 16, 1854, in the mid era of the Victorian period—which was when Queen Victoria ruled. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.While she ruined Britain, the nation rise than never before, and no one thought that she was capable of doing that. “The Victorian era was both good and bad due to the rise and fall of the empires and many pointless wars were fought. During that time, culture and technology improved greatly” (Anne Shepherd, “Overview of the Victorian Era”). During this time period of English, England was facing countless major changes, in the way people lived and thought during this era. Today, Victorian society is mostly known as practicing strict religious or moral behavior, authoritarian, preoccupied with the way they look and being respectable. They were extremely harsh in discipline and order at all times. Determination became a usual Victorian quality, and was part of Victorian lifestyle such as religion, literature and human behavior. However, Victorian has its perks, for example they were biased, contradictory, pretense, they cared a lot of about what economic or social rank a person is, and people were not allowed to express their sexuality. Oscar Wilde was seen as an icon of the Victorian age. In his plays and writings, he uses wit, intelligence and humor. Because of his sexuality he suffered substantially the humiliation and embarrassment of imprisonment. He was married and had an affair with a man, which back then was an act of vulgarity and grossness. But, that was not what Oscar Wilde was only known for; he is remembered for criticizing the social life of the Victorian era, his wit and his amazing skills of writing. Oscar Wilde poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” typifies the Vi...
In the play, Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde ridicules and identifies the negative aspects of Victorian society through comedic dialogue. He uses characters with ridiculous personalities to demonstrate his idea of Victorian life. By making absurd scenes with foolish characters, it is his way of mocking the Victorian lifestyle passive aggressively.
Wilde’s didactic satire delves deep into the problems of society, highlighting to the audience all the flaws of human beings and their social obligations while keeping it light-hearted and enjoyable for audiences. The author’s mockery and satire of society, as seen in his play, is most likely stemmed from his lack of acceptance and frustration at the society he believes to be ‘proper’. Readers today laugh at the situations portrayed because they are satirical and humourous, but they also question the motives behind the character “Earnest” because they see that “earnest”, meaning seriousness or sincerity, is the one thing the characters most certainly do not portray. However, towards the end of the play, when all has come out, Jack states that “I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest” (Wilde 2000, p.358), which may in fact be the most blatantly satirical line of the play, and a great summation of the lies the play relied on. This explores Wilde’s use of double entendre as Jack lives a double life, alongside the use of an elaborate p...