In the Victorian era citizens valued respect and honor amongst themselves and focused the society towards propriety. Often, the very principles that this era built itself upon were contradicted and flawed, yet few chose to challenge the broken culture. Oscar Wilde, the scintillating and daring author, playwright, and poet of this strict time period, introduced his own way of writing that changed the world of literature forever. He became a leader for the aesthetic movement in the prudish society, a the figure that continues to inspire the homosexual community, and introduced a dynamic way of writing to the modern world. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854, to William and Jane Wilde, at 21 Westland Row, Dublin, Ireland. Oscar’s father, William, was one of Ireland’s most respected surgeon and author, while his mother, Jane, was a poet and went by the nom de plume “Speranza”. Oscar was the second of their three children, but he also had three half-siblings from his father’s side. Oscar and his two siblings were raised in an artistic atmosphere, particularly due to his mother’s occupation and personality. Enjoying the cultured and privileged life at home, Oscar first attended Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, Ireland at the age of nine. At the age of thirteen, Oscar suffered through his sister’s death ,and dedicated one of his early poems to his dear sister. Oscar, sixteen years old, was enrolled at Trinity College in Dublin and became skilled in the Greek language. With a scholarship, Oscar matriculated at Oxford in 1874, where he studied alongside the Slade Professor of Fine Art, John Ruskin and Walter Pater. Fortunately, Ruskin and Pater were the two professors Oscar most wanted to meet while ... ... middle of paper ... ...e two professors Oscar most wanted to meet while he was at Oxford. His professors had a tremendous impact on the developing perspective he had in his writing and inspired Oscar to participate in the aesthetic movement “an artistic and literary movement of the late 19th century based on the motto was ‘art for art's sake’ and arguing that art was not to be utilitarian or practical”(dictionary.com).The clothes he wore were lavish, his manners were stylized, and he grew out his long, wavy hair. His dandyism showed his contribution to aestheticism as he rebelled against the moralistic ways of his time. Walter Pater’s teachings on arts helped mold the view Wilde had while continued to grow. Oscar was heavily influenced by Pater’s view on art and his belief in art for art’s sake. While he studied at Oxford, many people analyzed and critiqued his avant garde fas
Within The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde depicts two characters that follow the philosophy of Walter Pater. These two characters are Dorian Gray and Henry Wotton. They both embody Pater’s ideal of placing as much enjoyment in one’s short life as possible. While Dorian learns of Pater’s philosophy from Henry he soon exceeds his teacher and becomes invested within the philosophy of living life to the fullest. Dorian exceeds Henry in Pater’s philosophy through his active experimentation and desire for beauty, but Dorian fails to live up to all of Pater’s expectations due to his inability to separate morality for art.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Michael Patrick Gillespie, Editor. Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007.
Ruddick, Nicholas. "'The Peculiar Quality of My Genius': Degeneration, Decadence, and Dorian Gray in 1890-91." Oscar Wilde: The Man, His Writings, and His World. New York: AMS, 2003. 125-37. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 164. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Artemis Literary Sources. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray; For Love of the King. London: Routledge/Thoemmes Press, 1993.
Baselga, Mariano. “Oscar Wilde: The Satire of Social Habits.” In Rediscovering Oscar Wilde, England: Colin Smuthe, 1994: pp. 13-20.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Michael Patrick Gillespie, Editor. Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York, NY: Barnes and Noble Classics, 1890.
Woodcock, George. The Paradox of Oscar Wilde. London-New York: T.V. Boardman and Co., Ltd., 1950.
Wilde, Oscar, and Michael Patrick. Gillespie. The Picture of Dorian Gray: Authoritative Texts, Backgrounds, Reviews and Reactions, Criticism. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2007. Print.
Dorian Gray employed evil in his endeavor to become the aesthetic ideal, and in doing so created an ugliness in his soul that murdered him. Works Cited The "Aestheticism". Dictionary.com. Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 15 Mar. 2008.
Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 and led a normal childhood. After high school, Wilde attended Oxford College and received a B.A. in 1878. During this time, he wrote Vera and The Importance of Being Earnest. In addition, "for two years Wilde had dressed in outlandish outfits, courted famous people and built his public image" (Stayley 317). Doing so earned Wilde a job with Rich...
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...
Oscar Wilde did extremely well in school and excelled in oxford. He was especially exceptional in the classics courses. He was awarded multiple scholarships such as the Royal School Scholarship, the Foundation Scholarship, the Demyship scholarship, and even a Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek. After graduation, He moved in with his painter friend, Frank Miles in London and published his first collection of poetry in 1881. This collection received many mixed reviews from critics, and assisted in pushing his career in writing forward. In December 1881, Oscar sailed to New York to do many lectures on aesthetics all across the United States. His tour of lectured was only scheduled to last four months, but ended up lasting almost an entire year. He delivered over 140 lectures in 260 days. Wilde also arranged for his play, “Vera,” to be performed in New York the next year. When he returned home from America, he spent the next three months in Paris writing a blank-verse tragedy that they had recruited the actress Mary Anderson for, whom turned it down after he sent it to
To what extent is the importance of Earnest an attack on Victorian society or a vehicle to showcase Wildes literacy prowess? Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is a beautifully constructed depiction of nineteenth century Victorian life. The quirky and often irreverent situations presented were often witty and amusing but in many instances revealed a biting critique of traditional expectations and behaviour. Wilde arguably would have used the play to showcase his literary prowess and it is to what extent that Wilde used the play as a platform or used the play to expose hypocritical values that would be questioned by both contemporary and modern audiences. Wilde presents marriage as a state that is accepted for its superficiality.
Growing up in a wealthy family, thus being familiar with the patterns of upper class society and their rigid rules of acceptability, Wilde presents the common practice of conformity as disdainful. Wilde, who was not a devoutly religious man, holds a specific reverence for Jesus Christ, not because of religious reasons, but because he saw Christ as “... the supreme individualist…” (Astell). Wilde did not favor trends or the heavy influence of another individual. The independent writer often scorned mimicry, finding the lack of originality vile.