Oscar Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin . Oscar Wilde is best known for the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and the play The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as for his infamous arrest and imprisonment for being gay. Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin , Ireland . His father, William Wilde, was an acclaimed doctor who had been knighted for his work as medical advisor for the Irish censuses. To treat the cities poor his father founded St. Mark’s Ophthalmic Hospital , to help the poor who couldn’t afford treatment.
Jane Francesca Elgee, was Oscars mother and also was a poet who deeply influenced Oscars works. In grade school he fell in love with Greek and Roman studies. Upon graduating in 1871, Wilde attended Trinity College in Dublin . Upon his graduation in 1874, Wilde received the Berkeley Gold Medal as Trinity’s best student in Greek. Wilde then attended Oxford , upon graduating from Oxford , Wilde moved to London , where he published his first collection, Poems, in 1881. Wilde was an up-and-coming writer. The next year, in 1882, Wilde traveled from London to New York City to embark on an American lecture tour.
Wilde returned home and immediately commenced another lecture circuit of England and Ireland that lasted until the middle of 1884. Through his lectures, as well as his early poetry, Wilde established himself as a leading face of the aesthetic movement. On May 29, 1884, Wilde married a wealthy Englishwoman named Constance Lloyd. They had two sons: Cyril, born in 1885, and Vyan, born in 1886. A year after his wedding, Wilde was hired to run Lady’s World, a once-popular English magazine that had recently fallen out of fashion, Wilde revitalized the magazine by expanding its coverage.
Wilde entered a seven-year period of furious creativity, during which he produced nearly all of his great literary works. In 1888 Wilde published The Happy Prince and Other Tales, a collection of children’s stories. In 1891, he published Intentions, an, and that same year, he published The Picture of Dorian Gray. Though the novel is now revered as a great and classic work, at the time critics were outraged by the book’s apparent lack of morality. Wilde’s first play, Lady Windermere’s Fan, opened in February 1892 to widespread popularity and critical acclaim, encouraging Wilde to adopt playwriting.
His most notable plays were A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), his most famous play. Around the same time that he was enjoying his greatest literary success, Wilde commenced an affair with a young man named Lord Alfred Douglas. On February 18, 1895, Douglas ‘s father, the Marquis of Queensberry, left Wilde a note on his doorstep. Although Wilde’s homosexuality was something of an open secret, he was so outraged by Queensberry’s note that he sued him for libel. The decision ruined his life.
When the trial began in March, Queensberry and his lawyers presented evidence of Wilde’s homosexuality—homoerotic passages from his literary works, as well as his love letters to Douglas that quickly resulted in the dismissal of Wilde’s libel case and his arrest on charges of “gross indecency. ” Wilde was convicted on May 25, 1895 and sentenced to two years in prison. Wilde emerged from prison in 1897, physically depleted, emotionally exhausted and flat broke, he went into exile in France , When a recurrent ear infection became serious several years later, meningitis set in, and Oscar Wilde died on November 30, 1900 at the age of 46.
Aestheticism: the philosophy that art should only be appreciated for its beauty is a major component to Oscar Wilde’s works. “Art for art’s sake” means that art should not have any moral or educational values; which was a widely acceptable Victorian view. “It embraced living life modeled after art” (paradox). To the public Wilde was considered a leading figure in Aesthetic philosophy. However in Wilde’s own works he directly contradicts normal atheistic ideals. Wilde incorporates his aesthetic views to analyze the Victorian society. Widle wanted to show the constraints of the Victorian society that he was living in.
Wilde embellished his work to form a new morality found through his art. Wilde was able connect the concept that art needs no morals, with Victorian society. Aestheticism became a crucial tool in which Wilde both criticism and promoted it to show the immorality of Victorian society. Aestheticism allowed Oscar to better exemplify what he saw as right and wrong in society. In the three works: Importance of being Earnest, an Ideal husband, and the picture of Dorian Gray to criticize Victorian society through the use aestheticism The picture of Dorian Gray is Wilde’s evaluation of Aesthetics principles in a real life scenario.
The novel revolves around of one man’s Aesthetic lifestyle. “One of the Aesthetic movement’s basic tenets is that only art, not life, can be perfect” (paradox). The traditional Victorians believe in art as a teacher of morals. However Wilde conveys through Dorian Gray the essence that “life should seek to imitate art as opposed to the other way around” (paradox). Dorian Gray exemplifies a difference between common atheistic views. Lord Henry Wotton deceives Dorian into leading an aesthetic lifestyle. Wotton often cast his hedonic ideas and thoughts onto Dorian.
“Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing…. A new Hedonism-that is what our century wants. You might be its visible symbol” (The Picture of Dorian Gray). Dorian transcends hedonism and becomes the symbol for Lord Wotton. Having his painting taken young embodies his soul into the painting. Grays only goal is to create sensory experience, because he wants it to be as real as it can. Dorian is the embodiment and living conception of the philosophy. Dorian develops a relationship with sin by following Wotton’s.
Dorian is incapable of loving Sybil Vane because he can only see her stage art. “ He had dreamed of her as a great stage artist, had given his love to her because he thought her great, the she had disappointed him” (Dorian Gray). Dorian’s profession of his loves renders Sybil unable to act. Since he is only in love with her acting, he no longer loves her because she does not act. This eventually leads to her death. Dorian single handily destructs both a great art and a life. Wilde uses his preface to deal out his criticism of aestheticism. Dorian receives a yellow book from Lord Henry.
The yellow book seems contradictory to “Dorian Gray’s” preface, “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all” (The picture of Dorian Gray). This yellow book has had its hand in Dorian’s fall from grace into being consumed by aestheticism. The preface set pace to the books aesthetic involvement. The book consumes Dorian, however this does not make the book evil, because the book is amoral: in between both arguments. Deeper within the book, Oscar continues to set up a common theme of art’s amoralities.
The painting survives, while Dorian basically kills himself. The balance of things is thus restored. The portrait returns to its original state of beauty, despite Dorian’s attempts to destroy it. The painting becomes “a splendid portrait of [Dorian] as they had last seen him, in all the wonder of his exquisite youth and beauty,” in spite of Dorian’s attack on it (Dorian Gray). And Dorian becomes the picture of his picture, “withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage” (Dorian Gray). The message conveys that art can exist without morals, but human life simply cannot.
Wilde symbolically kills gray, the embodiment of aestheticism, because he attempts to live as art. Human’s morality is susceptible to corruption and art has no moral meaning tied to it at all. “Just as Dorian is so easily corrupted by a man and a book, so too does Wilde suggest all men live on the brink” (paradox). Wilde proves the life cannot imitate art, and visa versa, it just leads to destruction. Humans are built to live with morals and to him this is a blaring flaw to his philosophy. Wilde commonly work to find middle ground in the play An Ideal Husband.
Oscar incorporates heavy imagery, which is uncommon because it’s a play. “In the stage notes, Wilde lavishly introduces each scene and describes the characters in terms of works of art,” (paradox). Widle exemplifies this when Mabel Chiltern becomes, “really like a Tanagra statuette,” and points out that “Vandyke would have liked to have painted” Sir Robert Chiltern’s head (Ideal Husband). To begin with the play is structured with aesthetic values. Imagery comes back to play an import role in the play. Specifically Wilde notes the French tapestry representing the triumph of love.
In the ideal husband Wilde uncharacteristically focuses on marriage during the Victorian period. Widle uses the ideal husband to back his preconceptions of morality, rather than supporting the philosophy of asceticism. Wilde examines different views on what the ideal husband is. Lady Chiltern considers Sir Robert the ideal husband. “His spotless record facilitates her political activities with the Woman’s Liberal Association, discussing “Factory Acts, Female Inspectors, the Eight Hours’ Bill, the Parliamentary Franchise” (Ideal Husband).
Beyond giving her a way to act as a woman in society, for her the concept of an ideal husband goes hand in hand with her own moral ideals” (Paradox). Chiltern strong moral attitudes is exemplified when she tell Mrs. Cheviel “a person who has once been guilty of a dishonest and dishonorable action may be guilty of it a second time, and should be shunned … without exception” (Ideal Husband). However when the past comes forth, she begins to reconsider her idea of the ideal husband. She understands that putting her moral issues on her husband is not necessary for him to be ideal.
Lord Goring convinces her “A man’s life is of more value than a woman’s. It has larger issues, wider scope, and greater ambitions. A woman’s life revolves in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man’s life progresses. … A woman who can keep a man’s love and love him in return has done all the world wants of women, or should want of them” (Ideal Husband). This advice is directly pointed to at the Chiltern’s . Rodney Shewn points out in his essay, “The Comedy of Manners: The Dandy’s Progress,” “Goring’s advice takes account of character and situation as he knows them.
Though offered as a statement of fact … it is a shrewd assessment of the balance of the Chilterns’ marriage and of their personal capacities. It is also a candid summary of the values by which Lady Chiltern has chosen to live, and by which she must hold if she is to contribute to their joint future. As such, it is one more example of … ‘the truths of other people’” (Shewn). What Wilde is getting at is, for every relationship there is a different ideal. One couples ideal might not be another couples ideal. Wilde begins the play with an aesthetic pretext to lead to a new concept for ideal relationship.
Love may be seen as the end game with whatever makes it work as a new philosophy. Wilde is directly exploring different moralities. His contradicting aesthetic views strengthen his writing. Wilde uses a paradox in The Importance of Being Earnest to spotlight the hypocrisies and paradoxes of the Victorian society. He achieves this with conveying non-aesthetic ideals. Wilde creates two characters obsessed with marrying Earnest, because of his name. Truly they both have no connection to real earnestness. “Cecily. That certainly seems a satisfactory explanation,
does it not? Gwendolyn. Yes, dear, if you can believe him. Cecily. I don’t. But that does not affect the wonderful beauty of his answer” (Importance of being Earnest). They both over look the truth because their whole focus is on the appearance. This is Wilde’s direct attempt to mock Victorian social norms: that they are more concerned with the materialistic appearance rather than the content of anything. Oscar interestingly validates Jacks true moral character, because it turns out Earnest was Jacks name the whole time.
Jack says, “It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth” (Importance of being Earnest). Jack is forgiven for lying to Gwendolyn and she is feeling that he is “sure to change” (Importance of being Earnest) his old ways. Wilde justifies Gwendolyn’s behavior, by stating that society’s obsession with appearance can only be broken by love. The message that love can make societies weak values tolerable, directly contradicts Aestheticism. Wilde is critiquing his own ideals and purpose. The Aesthetic philosophy backbone states appearance is everything.
This seems to be a crippling shot to Wilde’s scope or artistic merit. However this attack on his own philosophy enables him to further his artistic goals and stabilize his career. The two girls only bring a minor conflict to the plot, and Wilde wants us to see the greater evil of society with Lady Bracknell. Victorian hypocrisy is fully expressed through Lady Bracknell. Bracknell is the symbol of the obstacles and social barriers Wilde had to face every day. Victorian societies ideals are expressed with Bracknells moralistic and reactionary attitude. Braknell felt that she was better than everyone.
“To be born, or at any rate bred, in a handbag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution” (Importance for being Earnest). Bracknell demonstrates that her traditional values are a fault because they do not fit into place with the changing world. She puts down Jack for something he could not control and something that does not affect his personality. Victorian society’s fallacies are pointed out by this blunt logic. Lady Bracknell demonstrates that frequently through her
speech. “Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids. I consider it morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others” (Importance for being Earnest). These ideas at their very root can be harmful to the human soul. Wilde understands or wants us to know that these hypocrisies may be a weapon of sorts. Oscar begins to use Bracknell to change the plot. She is the main thing standing in the way of happiness for the two couples. He wants to concrete the ideal that Victorian values directly obstruct love and happiness in his opinion, a great wrong.
Instead of going with a more Aesthetic view and supporting Victorian values Wilde strengthens his work by contradicting his beliefs. Another thing Wilde creates is a strong theme of self- actualization. As much as the play is about Jack finding love, it is equally as much as him finding who he truly is, where he was born, who were his parents. As Parker pointed out: “The whole thing is comically addressed to the problem of recognizing and defining human identity; we are made to see wide significance in Jack’s polite request, “Lady Bracknell, I hate to seem inquisitive, but would you kindly inform me who I am?
” (Importance for being Earnest)…The concern with identity is repeatedly underlined in the text of the play, where statements that seem superficially only to poke fun at upper-class frivolity continually edge the mind toward a contemplation of the insubstantiality of identity” (Parker). Wilde continuously expresses this notion. Jack has various personas, one from the country (jack) and one for the city (earnest). His spilt persona tears him apart. His ward needs Jack, and Gwendolyn wants Earnest. Act 3 empowers Earnest to make a decision. He tells Bracknell “My own decision, however, is unalterable.
I decline to give my consent” (Importance for Being Earnest). This is a turning point where he begins to gain the upper hand over of Bracknell. In the closing moments of the play he finds out, who he really is. “Wilde sets up self actualization as a goal greater than the concerns of society” (paradox). Victorian culture demands one to have multiply personas to obtain true power. To Wilde finding ones true self is more empowering and righteous. He depicted this, as a new moral goal society should strive for. The importance of being earnest is empowered by Wilde’s ability to dissect aestheticism to strengthen his writing.
Every through Wilde was the face of the Aesthetic philosophy his work is surprise unaesthetic. It seems that all of his works directly attempts to expose the flaws of Aesthetic thinking. In the two plays and novel, Importance of being earnest, An Ideal Husband, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde is using a platform derived from contrasting atheistic values to exemplify his take on morality. Society needs to have morals that identify directly with, love, self-actualization and so forth. Wilde’s ability to work beyond aesthetic values comes through his writing as he takes the middle ground on must subjects.
Asceticism provided Widle with a place to cultivate ideas to expresses his unconventional messages to the Victorian scene. Aestheticism was merely a tool that Wilde exploits to strengthen his career. It is truly ironic that he believed so heartily in asceticism yet he contradicted his own beliefs to make him a better writer. “Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal” incorporates Wilde’s outlook on aestheticism. Works Cited “Aestheticism. ” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 Dec. 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2013. Brndik, Gregory. “Oscar Wilde Biography. ” Biography of Oscar Wilde. N. p. , n. d.
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