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Oscar Wilde a Brief Biography (1854-1900) the Student Oscar Wilde a brief biography (1854-1900) The Student ❖ literary parents ❖ Trinity College, Dublin ❖ Oxford ❖ Newdigate Prize for poetry ❖ influenced by polar opposites Pater & Ruskin photo by Napoleon Sarony (1882) The Talker ❖ 1878: establishes self in London ❖ an aesthete (after ideas of Keats, Swinburne, Pater) ❖ a dandy: flamboyant manner and dress ❖ dazzling conversationalist ❖ mocked in Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera Patience (character “Bunthorne” from Punch (25 June 1881) The Traveler ❖ 1882: America (full year) ❖ lecture tour in America ❖ “I have nothing to declare except my genius.” ❖ 1883: Paris (a few months) ❖ meets leading painters & writers ❖ spends his money ❖ London ❖ returns broke (1883) ❖ marries Constance Lloyd photo by Napoleon Sarony (1882) (1884) The Writer ❖ 1881: Poems ❖ 1888: The Happy Prince and Other Tales ❖ 1889: The Decay of Lying ❖ 1890: The Critic as Artist ❖ 1890, 1891: The Picture of Dorian Gray ❖ 1891: The Soul of Man Under Socialism ❖ 1891: Salomé (first produced in 1896) ❖ 1891: Lady Windermere’s Fan ❖ 1895: The Importance of Being Earnest photo by Alfred Ellis & Walerie (1892) The Pariah ❖ 1885: Labouchère Amendment & “acts of gross indecency” ❖ 1891: OW begins romance w/ poet Lord Alfred Douglas ❖ 1895: Marquess of Queensberry accuses OW of being “Somdomite.” OW sues for libel, loses ❖ 1895: OW prosecuted for indecent acts, is convicted & sentenced ❖ 1895: play productions cancelled ❖ 1895-97: writes De Profundis (1905) ❖ 1897-1900: final years in France Oscar Wilde & Alfred Lord Douglas (1893) Testing the Epigram: Sensations “‘The only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes’” (Penguin 42). “The Peacock Skirt” by Aubrey Beards (1892) for Salomé Testing the Epigram: Sensations ❖ Proclamation: “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul” (Penguin 23). ❖ Rejoinder: “His soul, certainly, was sick to death. Was it true that the senses could cure it? Innocent blood had been spilt. What could atone for that? Ah! for that there was no atonement; but though forgiveness was impossible, forgetfulness was possible still . (Penguin 176). “The Wagnerites” by Aubrey Beardsley (1894) Testing the Epigram: Goodness ❖ Proclamation: “‘It is better to be beautiful than to be good’” (Penguin 186). ❖ Rejoinder: “What sort of life would his be if, day and night, shadows of his crime were to peer at him from silent corners, to mock him from secret places, to whisper in his ear as he sat at his feast, to wake him with icy fingers as he lay asleep!” (Penguin 192). “The Peacock Skirt” by Aubrey Beards (1893) for Salomé Testing the Epigram: Love ❖ Proclamation: “‘Romance lives by repetition, and repetition converts an appetite into an art. Besides, each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it’” (Penguin 188). ❖ Rejoinder: “‘I wish I could love . But I seem to have lost the passion, and forgotten the desire. I am too much concentrated on myself’” (Penguin 195). “The Peacock Skirt” by Aubrey Beards (1892) for Salomé Testing the Epigram: Sin ❖ Proclamation: “‘The only horrible thing in the world is ennui, Dorian. That is the one sin for which there is no forgiveness’” (Penguin 194). ❖ Rejoinder: “‘Death is the only thing that ever terrifies me. I hate it . Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away’” (Penguin 202). “The Peacock Skirt” by Aubrey Beards (1892) for Salomé Testing the Epigram: Soul ❖ Proclamation: “‘Art [has] a soul, but . man [has] not’” (Penguin 205). ❖ Rejoinder: “‘The soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought, and sold, and bartered away. It can be poisoned, or made perfect. There is a soul in each of us’” (Penguin 205). “The Peacock Skirt” by Aubrey Beards (1892) for Salomé Testing the Epigram: Death ❖ Proclamation: “‘I should like to know some one who had committed a real murder’” (Penguin 196). ❖ Rejoinder: “‘If [Basil] is dead, I don’t want to think about him. Death is the only thing that terrifies me. I hate it . Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away’” (Penguin 202). “The Peacock Skirt” by Aubrey Beards (1892) for Salomé Testing the Epigram: Influence ❖ Proclamation: “‘to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions . He becomes an echo of some one else’s music’” (Penguin 20). ❖ Rejoinder: “‘He knew that he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption and given horror to his fancy; that he had been an evil influence to others, and had experienced a terrible joy in being so . .’” (Penguin 209). “The Peacock Skirt” by Aubrey Beards (1892) for Salomé Testing the Epigram: Art ❖ Proclamation: “‘You and I are what we are, and will be what we will be. As for being poisoned by a book, there is no such thing as that. Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile” (Penguin 208). ❖ Rejoinder: ❖ the portrait of Dorian ❖ the novel itself (lead-in to class debate) “The Peacock Skirt” by Aubrey Beards (1892) for Salomé.
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