Oscar Wilde Research Paper

Literature is dynamic. Ironically, the beauty of it is that some of it will never change. One author who certainly left his mark on literature forever is Oscar Wilde. Each and every one of his writing styles makes him one of the very best at what he did. Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland on October 16, 1854 as the second out of three children. Living until the year 1900, Wilde accomplished a lot in 46 years. Whether he was writing plays, poems, or novels, Wilde, time after time continued to do things that had never been done before. Wilde found a majority of his success in England as a playwright. One of his most important plays was The Importance of Being Earnest, written in 1895 and another of his most important works is a novel, The Picture

He often incorporates moral dilemmas into his work. They usually follow a similar pattern as well. This pattern is composed of two sides: the betrayer/sinner and the victim. It is evident that Wilde supports the morally correct in society. This links to his Christian beliefs. The victims in his stories are commonly the ones that win in the proposed problem. Very little mercy is displayed for the sinner in these situations. Perhaps Wilde was influenced by other British writers at the time. After all, these dilemmas were common among Wilde’s colleagues. This is because they were trying to restore life and real life situations to live theatre in an attempt to bring popularity back to these shows and works. This was Wilde’s way of displaying poetic justice in his works (Henderson 496-497). This idea is also shown in The Importance of Being Earnest when Wilde frequently points out hypocrisy among the characters (Worth

It is not uncommon that he has a lot of life in his works. Perhaps this is because it naturally makes it easier to read. However, he received some criticism because contemporary writings were about tragedy. This caused many people to view Wilde’s works as less brilliant than other authors from his time. Writers such as John Keats and Matthew Arnold were two of the many men who wrote of tragedies during the time of Wilde. This served as a push of determination for him. He did not mind being different, for it allowed him to stand out from the many other people battling for fame. However, his works had more personality than those of many other people then. This is made evident by the plethora of conversation in his writings. Wilde liked to add a sprinkle of reminiscence to his works as well (Henderson