In the 1800’s, America was the subject of many romantic visions and musings. The British and East Coasters alike saw everything west of Appalachia as a wild wonderland: home to cowboys, adventure, and opportunity. Oscar Wilde, a renowned British author and satirist, voyaged across America to test the truth of these claims. Afterwards, he published his findings and opinions in a piece known as Impressions of America. In the piece, he makes it clear that America did not live up to his expectations, and would disappoint his readers as well.
Oscar Fingal O 'Flahertie Willis Wilde was born in 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. His father was a doctor and his mother was a revolutionary poet. Given his mother 's profession, Wilde was exposed to the arts at a very young age through conversations and interactions with his mother 's peers (PowerPoint). In addition, his mother often dressed him up as a child, developing a keen interest in aesthetics in Wilde. His interest in beauty and the arts led him to Trinity College, Dublin, where he won the Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek, and to Magdalen College, Oxford for his graduate study, where his poem "Ravenna" won him the Newdigate Prize in 1878 (poetry foundation).
In this case, Oscar Wilde stated the importance of being true and being honest. You cannot be what you aren’t and live that way your entire life. Wilde thinks people shouldn’t lie even though Victorian society had strict rules and manners. If someone lies, their relationship will be unsustainable. Oscar Wilde wanted to use this play to reflect Victorian society and wake everyone up.
{Follows Algernon round the room. }” (A.I, P.5). Wilde didn’t use verbal communication, he used Earnest’s body language, as stated next to the character’s line. He wrote the action instead of the line to tell his readers that Earnest has a secret that he would like to keep to himself rather than discussing it with Algernon. Situational Irony: In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde uses situational irony to confuse yet interest his readers by producing a
Edgar Allan Poe is an American literary legend who has altered the way of writing we know today. Poe is not only known for his words on paper, but he is also known for how he has dealt with the difficulties in his life; Poe lost several parental figures in his life, because of this the austere John Allan was his longest fatherly figure. Though all the difficulties in Edgar’s life, he always prevailed to create incredibly descriptive writing. One of the most encouraging and positive people in his life was his loving wife Virgina, she of course, as all things in Poe’s life did not have the average relationship with Poe, she was his cousin. Edgar Allan Poe was often described as being intelligent and talented yet cocky.
In the play the Montagues and the Capulets have an “ancient grudge… where civil blood makes civil hands unclean”, due to the vendetta the two lovers were driven to death because of their forbidden love (Shakespeare). Unlike Shakespeare, Wilde uses names to further the satirical nature of The Importance of Being Earnest. Throughout the play Wilde is perpetually using situational irony, exaggeration, deflation and epigrammatic phrases in order to ridicule societies social norms. Although the play is satirical it also gives a lot of insight on the importance of names. The play states that names are enough to judge character and even status in society.
It is an enthralling book that explores the life of a man that begins as a young, beautiful boy and ends up as a miserable, lonely, evil man. It is a book that teaches us lessons, a book that warns us about our own human nature. Oscar Wilde has included characters with major strengths and flaws, characters that can be related to, whether the reader wants to relate or not. It is a beautifully written book full of rich descriptions and tense action, one that is a great match for any open mind and strong
“Art for arts sake” was the motto and aestheticism was exemplified in both The Importance of Being Earnest and Oscar Wilde's own life. The usage of a dandy in the play is used to exemplify the love toward fashion during the time period, as well as to add comedic release through speaking in sarcasm and epigrams (Walker, 1). Wilde himself could be identified as a dandy in that he had an infatuation with interesting fashion and dressing well, as was he was often recognized as witty and quick on his feet in his conversations and his writing. Wilde was also known by many to be greatly interested in decoration and interior design, as displayed through his North American speech tour “A House Beautiful.” This exemplifies the Victorian eras high standards in appearance and visual
Wilde was tagged as an immoral author. On the preface of the book, Wilde talks about the role of art in society. “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all” (Wilde).
The Picture of Dorian Gray, one of Oscar Wilde’s masterpieces, portrays one of the most important values and principles for him: aestheticism. As a criticism to the life lived during the Victorian era in England, Wilde exposed a world of beauty a freedom in contradiction to the lack of tolerance a limitation of that era; of course inspired due to Wilde’s personal life. All the restrictions of the Victorian England lead him to a sort of anarchism against what he found to be incoherent rules, and he expressed all this to his art. His literature is a strong, political and social criticism. He gave a different point of view to controversial topics such as life, morality, values, art, sexuality, marriage, and many others, and epigrams, for what he is very well known, where the main source to the exposure of his interpretations of this topic.