DOCSLIB.ORG

De Profundis: Into the Depths of Oscar Wilde´S Thoughts

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
De Profundis: Into the Depths of Oscar Wilde´S Thoughts MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature De Profundis: Into the Depths of Oscar Wilde´s thoughts Bachelor thesis Brno 2019 Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. Jana Feigerlová Declaration I hereby declare that I wrote this bachelor thesis on my own, using only the sources listed in the bibliography. ……...…………..………. Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. for her guidance, advice, and kind encouragement that she provided throughout my work on this thesis. Furthermore, I would also like to thank my family and boyfriend for their endless patience and support. Table of Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 6 2 Historical background ............................................................................................... 7 2.1 Life with Lord Alfred Douglas .......................................................................... 8 2.2 Imprisonment ..................................................................................................... 9 3 The origin of De Profundis ..................................................................................... 14 3.1 Publishing process ............................................................................................ 15 3.2 Comparison of different versions ..................................................................... 17 3.3 Naming process ................................................................................................ 19 3.4 Critics´ perception ............................................................................................ 20 4 Into the Depths of Wilde´s broken heart ................................................................. 21 4.1 Letter to Bosie .................................................................................................. 21 5 De Profundis ........................................................................................................... 28 5.1 The aestheticism of sorrow .............................................................................. 29 5.2 Wilde´s perception of Christ through De Profundis ........................................ 31 5.3 The Path to Individual Self-Realization ........................................................... 35 6 Life after the Imprisonment .................................................................................... 40 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 42 Works cited ..................................................................................................................... 44 Figures ............................................................................................................................ 46 I wrote when I did not know life; now that I do know the meaning of life, I have no more to write. Life cannot be written, life can only be lived, I have lived. Oscar Wilde 1 Introduction The thesis De Profundis: Into the depths of Oscar Wilde´s thoughts focuses on the changes in Wilde´s persona, captured in one of his last literary works De Profundis. This thesis aims to portray and discuss Wilde´s thoughts. Whether they were the painful contemplations of his feelings towards Lord Alfred Douglas, the shift from the aesthetic appeal of art and beauty to the aesthetics of sorrow, or the spiritual awakening, Wilde chose to cover these thoughts in the form of a letter during his imprisonment. For the purposes of this thesis, De Profundis will be regarded as a two-part letter. The first part observing the letter for Bosie, frequently omitted in many prints, and the second part concerning Wilde´s persona and his thought processes, related to the themes he found important during his imprisonment. Even though the letter provides the public with an extraordinary introspective insight into Wilde´s life, the acknowledgement and recognition are not, in comparison to his other works, that widespread, especially in Czech awareness. Even if there is some acknowledgement of this letter, most of the time it contains some reoccurring misrepresentation of the work as well as problems of misinterpretations. Therefore, another purpose this thesis would like to achieve is to bring it more attention as well as awareness of it to a broader public. Multiple versions of the epistle have been published in the twentieth century; thus, it is essential to establish the exact print analysed in this thesis. The selected version of De Profundis will be the version edited by Rupert Hart-Davis, found in The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (2003). This version of the epistle firstly published in 1962 in The Letters of Oscar Wilde, was unlike the others, the first version containing all the parts of the letter without any errors or omissions. 6 2 Historical background Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 into a noble and honoured family in Dublin. Their name was appreciated not only in the artistic world but also in the public eye, which Wilde later on considered as disgraced by his imprisonment. His father was a well- known eye and ear surgeon, while his mother was an enthusiastic nationalistic writer. At ten years old, Wilde was sent together with his older brother to the boarding school - Portora Royal School. He was there for seven years and for the first time, experienced the pleasure of knowledge, through the exploration of classics and poetry writing. He was exceptionally talented in discussions regarding anything from God to politics. Therefore, it was no surprise he was accepted upon receiving a scholarship to Trinity College, seven years later. After another winning scholarship, Wilde got admitted to Magdalen College in Oxford and started his studies and life out of Ireland. At both schools he was regarded as one of the great classicists and with the indulgence in the movement of aestheticism, introduced to his teachers John Ruskin and Walter Pater, he became one of the most well-known aestheticists. After the end of his studies, he moved to London to pursue his career as a writer of poems, criticism and plays. In 1884 he got married to Constance Lloyd and together they had two sons. Furthermore, many of his literary works such as The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest or An Ideal Husband made him famous. Nevertheless, the additional recognition he received by the broader public was mostly given to his private life. During the most successful years of his career, he began the infamous affair with a young man, named Lord Alfred Douglas or Bosie as his friends and family nicknamed him. This affair and his future inclination towards sexual encounters with other men led him in strict Victorian England to prosecution and later on, even two-year imprisonment for committing crimes of gross indecency. He described the conditions of the fateful imprisonment in one of his last works – De Profundis in the form of a letter addressed to Douglas. Upon the return from the imprisonment, his health was irrefutably damaged. Therefore, even his writing processes were more or less left aside. The rest of his life was spent in exile, without his wife or children, who moved to Switzerland. Because of the physical and emotional drain, he underwent in prison, his health and mind suffered immensely and were the reason for his death in Paris on 30 November 1900. (Belford, 2003) (Hyde, 1976) (Pearce, 2004) 7 2.1 Life with Lord Alfred Douglas The fatal relationship of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas began in late June 1891. Wilde was then first introduced to his future lover, who was at that time completely engrossed in the copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray. The fondness and admiration towards each other began immediately. As Pearce (2004) comments on Wilde´s mind being mostly inclined towards everything beautiful, he has portrayed Douglas as “a vision of a statuesque Greek god, a reincarnation of ancient perfection” (p. 282). Around the same time next year, Wilde was enamoured of Douglas up to the point of writing a letter to his close friend Robert Ross, describing Douglas as “a narcissus – so white and gold […] Bosie is so tired: he lies like a hyacinth on the sofa, and I worship him.” (Hart-Davis, 1962, p. 314).1 Although the relationship he had with Lord Douglas was incredibly intense, the commitment to sexual fidelity was nowhere to be found. In fact, Douglas himself and his experiences with living a promiscuous life encouraged Wilde to form casual relationships with prostituting young men as well (Pearce, 2004, p. 284). Eventually, the “delightfully suggestive and stimulating” encounters with the younger, some of them not even sixteen-year-old men replaced sexual desires they shared with each other (Belford, 216). Wilde´s “feasting with the panthers” (Wilde, 2003, p. 1042), as he retrospectively referred to that period in De Profundis, became his way of entertainment and excitement. Not only, in the way “to indulge in illicit sexual practices” but also to “rub elbows with extortionists who drop their aitches”. In other words, it was Wilde´s form of excitement because of the challenge the blackmailing it offered to him (Senelick, 2003, p. 169). Thus, his one-night stands and passionate relationships, established not only with Douglas, started. In one of the, supposedly2 held conversations with Frank Harris, Wilde mentions his opinion on the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Modernist Aesthetic in the Case of Lord Alfred Douglas and Marie Carmichael Stopes
    33 The Poetry That Dare Not Speak Its Name: Modernist Aesthetic in the Case of Lord Alfred Douglas and Marie Carmichael Stopes Christina Hauck Kansas State University An improbable friendship sprang up in 1938 when one “Mrs Carmi- chael,” representing herself as a young mother, wrote Lord Alfred Douglas to show him a sonnet and ask his advice about publishing it. Little realizing that he was entering into correspondence with the notorious birth control advocate, Marie Carmichael Stopes, the staunchly Catholic Douglas wrote back kindly, calling Mrs. Carmichael a “pleasant poet” and lamenting his own difficulties publishing (Hall 282). If Douglas didn’t understand quite whom he was writing to, Stopes herself, rabidly homophobic and anti-Catholic, must have: Douglas’s claim to fame lay less in his poetry, whose quality critics debated fiercely when they bothered to read it at all, but in his having been a central actor in the events leading up to Oscar Wilde’s trial and imprisonment.1 By the time the correspondence had be- gun, Douglas had long converted to Catholicism and was admitting only to limited homosexual activities over a limited period, with Wilde or any- one else; Stopes apparently believed him.2 After several months, Stopes revealed her “true” identity. Douglas, understandably, was nervous. In a letter to George Bernard Shaw, he writes: I am fated to make friends with my enemies. For the last three months I have been corresponding with a lady who wrote about my poetry and poetry in general. She expressed great admira- tion for me as a poet.
    [Show full text]
  • A PICTURE of DORIAN GRAY Based on the Novella by Oscar Wilde • Adapted & Directed by Michael Michetti SEPTEMBER 23–NOVEMBER 16, 2018 TABLE of CONTENTS
    THE S. MARK TAPER FOUNDATION PRESENTS A NOISE WITHIN’S REPERTORY THEATRE SEASON AUDIENCE GUIDE A PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY Based on the novella by Oscar Wilde • Adapted & Directed by Michael Michetti SEPTEMBER 23–NOVEMBER 16, 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS Character Map . 3 Synopsis . 4 About the Author: Oscar Wilde . 5 Timeline of Oscar Wilde’s Life . 6 Oscar Wilde’s World: The Victorian Era . 7 Aestheticism . 8 Oscar Wilde and Aestheticism . 9 Reception of The Picture of Dorian Gray . 10 Themes . 11 Adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray . 13 Notes from Michael Michetti About His Adaptation and A Noise Within’s Production . 14 Additional Resources . 15 3 A NOISE WITHIN 2018/19 REPERTORY SEASON | Fall 2018 Study Guide A Picture of Dorian Gray CHARACTER MAP Dorian Gray A young, beautiful, and reckless heir to a sizeable fortune . Basil Hallward paints a portrait of him that begins to change to reflect the state of his morality . Lord Henry Basil Hallward Sibyl Vane Alan Campbell Wotton (Harry) A painter who has become An actress who falls in A scientist and former A philosopher who infatuated with Dorian Gray . love with Dorian Gray . friend of Dorian Gray . develops a close He paints a portrait of Dorian relationship with Dorian to memorialize Dorian’s through his friendship youth and beauty . He is with Basil Hallward . friends with Lord Henry . Lady Henry James Vane Mrs. Vane Lord Henry Wotton’s wife . Sibyl Vane’s protective An actress . The mother brother, a sailor . of Sibyl and James Vane . Lord George Fermor Lord Henry’s Uncle .
    [Show full text]
  • The Life of Oscar Wilde
    Dixon 1 The late 19 th century was an exceptional time for literature in both Europe and the Americas. Arguably, some of the greatest minds in the history of Western literature actively published during this period. Twain, Melville, Dickens, Verne, Wilde and many others were widely circulated among both literary factions and laypersons. Through their fiction, their collective reach was enormous. For most of these writers, their fictive works have eclipsed their personal lives. Until recently, historians have focused only on these writers’ contributions to literature, rather than their intriguing personal histories as a whole. With the emergence of new types of historical inquiry, the study of literary figures has begun a paradigm shift toward examining the impact of their entire lives, rather than simply their works. In following that trend, this study will shine a unique light on not only the works, but also the life of one of the 19 th century’s most controversial authors: Oscar Wilde. Wilde saw himself as a brilliant Aesthetic artist, proclaiming during his 1882 American book tour, “I have nothing to declare but my genius.” 1 Early in his career the Victorian public viewed Wilde as an eccentric Aesthete whose plays delighted but often left the public feeling somewhat left out. Later, as Wilde’s now infamous trial approached, the public formed new ideas about homosexuality and began to develop tropes out of the mannerisms and dress of the Aesthetic movement to which Wilde belonged. The ways in which Oscar Wilde envisioned himself ran counter to the expectations of Victorian England; the mantle of homosexuality was thrust upon Wilde based on the narrow ideas of the society in which he lived – the public was simply ill- 1 Wilde, Oscar.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Rejection of Oscar Wilde's the Picture of Dorian Gray by W. H. Smith
    humanities Article On the Rejection of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray by W. H. Smith Satoru Fukamachi Faculty of Humanities, Doho University, Nagoya 453-8540, Japan; [email protected] Received: 1 September 2020; Accepted: 26 October 2020; Published: 29 October 2020 Abstract: Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is widely said to have been rejected by W. H. Smith, but there is no doubt that this did not happen. The letter sent to Wilde by the publisher strongly indicates that W. H. Smith contemplated removing the July issue of Lippincott’s Magazine, but does not go so far as to say that the bookstore did. This letter is the only evidence, however, that this is not absolute. The refusal to sell is mere speculation. The fact that none of Wilde’s contemporaries mentioned the incident of The Picture of Dorian Gray that supposedly happened, while the boycott of George Moore’s Esther Waters, which was much less topical than this one, was widely reported and discussed, provides further evidence that Wilde’s work was not rejected. Given that the censorship of literary works by private enterprises was still topical in the 1890s, it is unbelievable that the rejection of Wilde’s novel would not have been covered by any newspaper. It makes no sense, except to think that such a thing did not exist at all. It is also clear that this was not the case in the 1895 Wilde trial. Wilde’s lawyer argued that the piece was not a social evil because it was sold uninterruptedly, and the other side, which would have liked to take advantage of it in any way, never once touched on the boycott.
    [Show full text]
  • Planetary Patterns of Thought in De Profundis
    INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF DECADENCE STUDIES Volume 2, Issue 2 Winter 2019 Elliptical Thinking: Planetary Patterns of Thought in De Profundis Amelia Hall ISSN: 2515-0073 Date of Acceptance: 1 December 2019 Date of Publication: 21 December 2019 Citation: Amelia Hall, ‘Elliptical Thinking: Planetary Patterns of Thought in De Profundis’, Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, 2.2 (2019), 247–59. DOI: 10.25602/GOLD.v.v2i2.1349.g1468 volupte.gold.ac.uk This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Elliptical Thinking: Planetary Patterns of Thought in De Profundis Amelia Hall Cornell University In an 1881 letter asking a friend to meet his mother, Oscar Wilde writes: ‘all brilliant people should cross each other’s cycles, like some of the nicest planets’.1 In comparing the people in his social circle to celestial bodies in orbit, Wilde sets forth an idea that will soon become literalized in images within and surrounding his works. An illustration in Salomé (1894) renders Wilde the actual ‘(wo)man in the moon’, through placing his distinguishing physiognomy – slightly drooping eyes and thick full lips – on a white circle [fig. 1], while many cartoons satirizing Wilde’s American lecture tour put his head at the centre of a plant that seems to be more sun than flower. An 1881 Punch cartoon by Edward Sambourne, ‘O.W.’, features Wilde’s head as the only visible centre of a sunflower, with crisp triangular petals extending outward so rigidly that they appear to emanate from his body [fig. 2]. Another cartoon appearing in Judge magazine, entitled ‘A Thing of Beauty Not a Joy Forever’, features a sunflower-adorned Wilde standing with his head and torso in the centre of an enormous shape of ambiguous identification [fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Love, Law and Oscar Wilde by Jerry James
    Love, Law and Oscar Wilde by Jerry James At thy martyrdom the greedy and cruel Crowd to which thou speakest will assemble; All will come to see thee on thy cross, And not one will take pity on thee. — James Rennell Rodd, Inscription to Oscar Wilde in Songs in the South, 1880 Oscar Wilde When The Importance of Being Ernest There is no indication Wilde did not opened on Valentine’s Day, 1895, Oscar deeply care for Constance Lloyd when they Wilde was at the pinnacle of his success. He were wed on May 29, 1884. Indeed, had his had two plays running in London, and aptly intentions been mercenary, he would have for the day, he was in love. Inconveniently, married a much wealthier woman. But to the beloved was not his wife of ten years, what would be their ultimate regret, Wilde but Lord Alfred Douglas. That love would did not yet know himself. Before he did, be the reason why, a little over three months they would have two sons. later, Wilde would find himself bankrupt In 1886, Wilde, 32, began an affair with and imprisoned. Robbie Ross, 17. There has been much He had been a celebrity for fifteen years, speculation about Wilde’s claim that this “…the natural pet of the aristocracy whose was his first same-sex experience. (He selfish prejudices he defended and whose didn’t call it homosexual, because the term leisure he amused,“ as his friend Frank wasn’t coined until 1892.) But all agree it Harris put it. To these, leading a double life changed his life.
    [Show full text]
  • An Ideal Husband Department of Theatre, Florida International University
    Florida International University FIU Digital Commons Department of Theatre Production Programs Department of Theatre Fall 9-26-2014 An Ideal Husband Department of Theatre, Florida International University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/theatre_programs Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Department of Theatre, Florida International University, "An Ideal Husband" (2014). Department of Theatre Production Programs. 77. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/theatre_programs/77 This work is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Theatre at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Department of Theatre Production Programs by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Theatre u • lllul llFAR lllrt1 IUIU 1111 RH theatre.fiu.edu TO ALL OUR PATRONS An Ideal Husband Students, faculty, staff and community WELCOME TO THE 2014-2015 SEASON! By Oscar Wilde On behalf of the Department of Theatre at Florida International Cast (In order of appearance) University allow me to thank you for attending this performance. We truly appreciate your interest and continuing support. Viscount Goring- Allyn Anthony (BFA Performance) 2014 - 2015 is ,roised to be a crackerjack of a season! First up is Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband", and for those familiar with Sir Robert Chiltern - Danny Leonard (BFA Performance) Phillip M. Church his hilarious comedy , "The Importance of Being Earnest" there Lady Chiltern - Pia Isabell Vicioso-Vila (BA) Chairperson is an interesting surprise in store. In a move to disengage from Mrs. Cheveley - Chachi Colon (BFA Performance) the world of melodrama, Wilde developed "a new play about Vicomte De Nanjac - Lovanni Gomez (BFA Performance) modem life" in which he contrasted the worlds of social opinion Lady Markby - Madeleine Escarne (BFA Performance) against the dark interior of the human condition.
    [Show full text]
  • Oscar Wilde and His Literary Circle Collection: Wildeiana MS.Wildeiana
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt867nf36t No online items Finding Aid for the Oscar Wilde and his Literary Circle Collection: Wildeiana MS.Wildeiana Finding aid created by Rebecca Fenning Marschall William Andrews Clark Memorial Library © 2017 2520 Cimarron Street Los Angeles 90018 [email protected] URL: http://www.clarklibrary.ucla.edu/ Finding Aid for the Oscar Wilde MS.Wildeiana 1 and his Literary Circle Collection: Wildeiana MS.Wildeia... Contributing Institution: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Title: Oscar Wilde and his Literary Circle Collection: Wildeiana Creator: William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Identifier/Call Number: MS.Wildeiana Physical Description: 19 Linear Feet27 boxes Date (inclusive): 1858-1998 Abstract: This finding aid describes a wide-ranging collection of material relating to Oscar Wilde and to his literary and artistic circle in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Great Britain. Clark Library. Language of Material: English . Provenance William Andrews Clark, Jr. acquired the nucleus of the Clark Library's Oscar Wilde collection from Dulau and Company, London, in 1929. Most of the Dulau material had been in the possession of Robert B. Ross (Oscar Wilde's literary executor), Christopher S. Millard (a.k.a. Stuart Mason, the Wilde bibliographer), and Vyvyan B. Holland (Wilde's only surviving son). Since 1929, the Clark Library has steadily purchased important new material and in the year 2000, the collection was estimated to contain over 65,000 items. It appears that large segments of the Wildeiana collection were likely originally part of the collection assembled by Wilde bibliographer Christopher Millard. The actual date the Clark acquired these materials is unknown and any documentation about the source of these items has been lost.
    [Show full text]
  • CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Man Is
    CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Man is born to be a social being who cannot live alone and need someone else to help them as well as they need partner to live their life. Marriage is one of the men’s efforts not to live alone. Man and woman who decide to make a commitment in a marriage bounding have a responsibility not only towards their selves but also their partner because they no longer two independent people but they become one who complete and dependent to each other. “Marriage is a bound of loyal vow between husband and wife in which there is a responsibility from the two” (Kertamuda, 2009: 13). Marriage has a good impact towards men’s health; it can make them live longer (Gottman, 2001: 5). It can be said so because there is someone who takes care of them and Campbell (in Duvall, 1984: 4) adds that marriage makes them to live positively. Long last marriage and harmonic family are all spouses dream and no one wants their marriage ends in divorce, but it is not easy to bring it into reality because husband and wife have the difference characteristics, point of view in viewing something, past experience, emotion level, and background which can arise some marital conflicts that will lead to the unhealthy marriage and the worst is it can be ended in divorce if it happens in a long time without any means to fix it up. That is why the spouses need value of marriage to avoid the marital problems because its functions are as the binding of marriage and strengthener when their marriage is weakening by the problems.
    [Show full text]
  • Oscar Wilde Interviews and Recollections
    Oscar Wilde Interviews and Recollections Volume 1 Also by E. H. Mikhail The Social and Cultural Setting of the I 8gos John Galsworthy the Dramatist Comedy and Tragedy Sean O'Casey: A Bibliography of Criticism A Bibliography of Modern Irish Drama I8gg-I970 Dissertations on Anglo-Irish Drama The Sting and the Twinkle: Conversations with Sean O'Casey (co-editor with John 0' Riordan) J. M. Synge: A Bibliography of Criticism Contemporary British Drama I950-I976 J. M. Synge: Interviews and Recollections (editor) W. B. Yeats: Interviews and Recollections (two volumes) (editor) English Drama I goo-I 950 Lady Gregory: Interviews and Recollections (editor) Oscar Wilde: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism A Research Guide to Modern Irish Dramatists OSCAR WILDE Interviews and Recollections Volume I Edited by E. H. Mikhail Selection and editorial matter© E. H. Mikhail 1979 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1979 978-o-333-2.4040-3 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means without permission First published 1979 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Associated companies in Delhi Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos Melbourne New rork Singapore Tokyo British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Oscar Wilde, interviews and recollections Vol. 1 1. Wilde, Oscar I. Mikhail, Edward Halim 828'.8'og PR5823 ISBN 978-1-349-03925-8 ISBN 978-1-349-03923-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-03923-4 This book is sold subject to the standard conditions of the Net Book Agreement To Isabelle Contents Acknowledgements XI Biographical Table XV Introduction XIX INTERVIEWS AND RECOLLECTIONS Oscar Wilde at Trinity College Dublin Sir Edward Sullivan Memories of Trinity Days Horace Wilkins 2 Oscar Wilde at Magdalen College Oxford Sir David Hunter- Blair 3 Oscar Wilde: an Oxford Reminiscence W.
    [Show full text]
  • Oscar Wilde Refracted Rebecca Howell Clemson University, [email protected]
    Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 7-2008 Becoming Earnest: Oscar Wilde Refracted Rebecca Howell Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Howell, Rebecca, "Becoming Earnest: Oscar Wilde Refracted" (2008). All Theses. 397. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/397 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BECOMING EARNEST: OSCAR WILDE REFRACTED A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts English by Rebecca Alyce Howell August Accepted by: Dr. E. K. Sparks, Committee Chair Dr. Wayne Chapman Dr. Kimberly Manganelli ABSTRACT This paper explores four Wildean texts, their techniques, and their purposes, beginning with an introduction to Wilde’s life, contemporary culture, and his major educational and ideological influences—a familiarity that is necessary to understand his more subtle and subversive meanings. The second chapter deals with Wilde’s pre- incarceration texts, “The Decay of Lying” and The Picture of Dorian Gray . The essay serves almost as a guidebook for the writing of the novel and through similarities in theme and vocabulary, perfectly sets up a comparison with the post-incarceration works—De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol —which will be examined in the third chapter, along with various biographical elements which are necessary to any interpretation of De Profundis .
    [Show full text]
  • Wilde's Final Act Justine Ilissa Sha [email protected]
    Seton Hall University eRepository @ Seton Hall Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs) Spring 5-15-2016 Wilde's Final Act Justine Ilissa Sha [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Recommended Citation Sha, Justine Ilissa, "Wilde's Final Act" (2016). Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs). 2179. https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations/2179 Wilde’s Final Act Justine Ilissa Sha M. A. Seton Hall University, 2016 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts In The Department of English Seton Hall University May 2016 Sha 2 © Justine Sha, 02 May 2016 All Rights Reserved Sha 3 Justine I. Sha Sha 4 Wilde’s Final Act If Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, the lengthy confessional letter written from prison to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, were a work of drama, it would have been the comprehensive capstone on his oeuvre and have received a much more significant response than it has. No critic fails to mention Richard Ellmann’s infamous preface when he calls it, “a love letter… One of the greatest, and the longest, ever written” (Ellmann 4). However, although it may possess the generic conventions of a love letter, it likewise includes features of different genres. Critics, most significantly Josephine Guy and Ian Small, have dabbled with the idea that the letter is not simply just a letter, but rather something more. They go so far as to claim that even though the text hinges on indisputable autobiographical facts and events, due to the similarities between the letter and Wilde’s prior works of fiction, essays, drama, and his writing process, it is possible to assert that the letter is a pretext for a new work of fiction or an essay.
    [Show full text]