OSCAR WILDE BIOGRAPHICAL INFO

❖16th October 1854 : he was born in Dublin (Ireland) ;

❖until he was 9: he studied French and German languages at home;

❖from 1871 to 1874: he read classics at Trinity College, in Dublin;

❖from 1874 to 1878: he studied Greek at Magdalen College, in Oxford;

❖after his graduation : he lived in several places (London, Dublin, Paris);

❖29 May 1884: he married Costance Lloyd;

❖after 2 years: they had 2 sons (Cyril, Vyvyan);

❖25 May 1895: he was sentenced to hard labour in a prison;

❖20 May 1897: he spent his last 3 years in exile;

❖30 November 1900: he died in Paris ( France ); MAJOR WORKS

NOVEL:

- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891);

PLAYS:

- The Importance of Being Earnest (1895);

- An Ideal Husband (1895)

PROSES:

- The Canterville Ghost (1887);

- Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1891);

APHORISMS

“No great artist ever sees things as they really are, if he did he would cease to be an artist.”

MAJOR THEMES OF.. Blackmail (ricatto): he experienced himself when he had been blackmailed over some sensually-suggestive letters that he wrote.

Corruption: Wilde had been accused of corrupting young men, and in the book Dorian Gray is corrupted by his mouthpiece (portavoce).

Homoeroticism and criticism of women: in the book the main character read a homoerotic novel. Lord Henry said: “... no woman is a genius. women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.”

Excess and consequences: in the book the main character lost everything he owned when he got arrested.

Homoeroticism: the characters do a lot of naughty things before they felt in love with their respective females.

Gender’s role: we can see the different gender’s role because in the book men have more political influence and women take care of their houses.

Society and class: the book points out the difference between upper and lower classes. Wilde satirizes the arrogance of the aristocracy.

Women and femininity: even if there are a lot of puns against women in the play, they know their power over men and they use it.

Marriage: for Wilde marriage is important in order to become honest, to forgive, to commit and to give. In this play marriage seems to be generally a desirable institution.

Religion: Oscar Wilde was officially an Anglican for the vast majority of his life. He had a lifelong interest and respect for the Catholic religion, and converted to Catholicism on his deathbed. Political views

Wilde was a socialist, an anarchist, an aestethic and a gay man in Victorian England.

A way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies. He decided to write a philosophical piece concerning socialism. A situation of confusion and wild behavior in which the people in a country, group, organization, are not controlled by rules or laws. Oscar Wilde adopted the aesthetical ideal: “My life is like a work of art”

This term embraces art’s difference from real life. In other words, an object can be beautiful aesthetically, but artistically it is judged by its originality.