"The Importance of Being Earnest" was written by the famous Irish author Oscar Wilde. The play represents Wilde´s late Victorian view of the aristocracy‚ marriage‚ wit and social life during the early 1900’s. His characters are typical Victorian snobs who are arrogant‚ overly proper‚ formal and concerned with money. The women are portrayed as sheltered‚ uneducated‚ and some as dominating figures over the men in their lives. There is no sense of identity for Cecily and Gwendolen‚ the only woman within
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THE TRAGIC MODE IN OSCAR WILDE’S FAIRY TALES DÉBORAH SCHEIDT‚ Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa ABSTRACT: In this paper we examine the articulation of the tragic mode in Oscar Wilde‟s collection of fairy tales The Happy Prince and Other Stories‚ especially in “The Young King”‚ “The Selfish Giant” and “The Birthday of the Infanta.” By “tragic mode” we mean‚ in this context‚ the vestiges left by Greek tragedy and its development‚ the Elizabethan tragedy‚ in a piece of nineteenth century fiction
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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray define monsters as disturbing criminals that initiate sinful acts. When labeling someone as a monster‚ they are automatically categorizing them based off of their appearance. Although‚ humans fear to further investigate what a monster really is. Literary works have been able to incorporate fictional characters to reflect the human’s worst side. If Dorian Gray and the Creature are truly monsters‚ then why is society negatively
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Matthew Arnold‚ John Ruskin‚ Walter Pater‚ and Oscar Wilde were 19th century writers who all had one belief in common: that the criticism of works of art is at least as important as the works of art themselves. In 1865‚ Matthew Arnold stated that the function of criticism is “to see the object as in itself it really is.” In 1891‚ Oscar Wilde expressed that his view of the role of criticism was “to see the object as in itself it really is not.” This essay seeks to determine how and why one definition
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the man who was seated at the table‚ more than in his whole life he had ever loathed anything... He rushed at him and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear‚ crushing the man’s head down on the table and stabbing again and again (Wilde
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Picture of Dorian Gray‚ Oscar Wilde weaves his contradictions and inner struggles within his characters‚ noting self-opposition and redefining his own individual aesthetic devotion. Wilde was known to be an influencing presence in the aesthetic movement during the Victorian period‚ and throughout the novel he depicts the truth of his beliefs in portions beneath his characters. Dorian Gray becomes an outlet for Wilde’s own vicarious pursuit of aestheticism‚ and is seen as who Wilde could potentially be
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Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Henry James’ The Turn Of the Screw are key examples of the way in which gothic texts use and adapt the conventions of the genre. These changes occur due to the author’s own personal context and values. The inexorable link between text‚ context and values is expressed through the way in which both authors choose to manipulate‚ redefine and introduce new conventions to the gothic. Oscar Wilde’s first and only novel‚ The Picture of Dorian Gray‚ was written
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In “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde‚ one of the most distinct and significant motifs is that of the color white. The color white is often associated with light‚ goodness‚ innocence‚ and purity. The meaning of this color evolves as the novel progresses‚ changing in relation to Dorian’s character. The deteriorating portrait is a reminder of this loss of innocence and purity‚ and it shows the detrimental effects of sin. The sins Dorian commit disfigure the beauty of the portrait. Although
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Summary Review The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel written by Oscar Wilde. He was a man who was convicted of being a homosexual in the late 19th Century. The story is about a young man who gets a portrait done by a painter who‚ on a low key is having a sexual relation with. Dorian is a man who ends up selling his soul to be forever young. In some odd way the portrait that was painted of him ends up being the one who takes on his age. Whenever something happens his painting is what changes
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Oscar Wilde’s conversion to Catholicism was a slow—if not incomplete—change of heart. Indeed‚ it seemed to be the “form‚ rather than the content” (Ellman 34) that began the author’s dalliance with the religion‚ as he seemed instinctively drawn to the maryr-happy‚ scarlet-toned atmosphere of piety due to its artistic implications. It was Catholicism’s deviancy from the normative values of Victorian Anglicanism‚ not the specificities of its dogma‚ which attracted Wilde‚ as its contrast with religious
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