Oscar WildeTo live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is allOscar Wilde in a photo by Napoleon Sarony.

Born in Dublin in 1854.

A disciple() of Walter Pater, the theorist of aestheticism.

A fashionable dandy.1. LifeOscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas in the 1890s

He was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London and one of the greatest celebrities of his days.

He suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned after been convicted of gross indecency for homosexual acts.

He died in Paris in 1900.Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas in the 1890s

Poetry:Poems, 1891The Ballad of Reading Gaol, 1898

Fairy tales:The Happy Prince and other Tales, 1888The House of Pomegranates, 1891

Novel:The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

Plays:Lady Windermeres Fan, 1892A Woman of no Importance, 1893Salom, 1893An Ideal Husband1895The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895

2. Works

The Picture of Dorian Gray1890 The Happy Prince and Other Tales1888 The happy prince The nightingale and the rose The selfish Giant The devoted friend The remarkable rocket A House of Pomegranates1891 The birthday of theinfanta The fisherman and his soul The star-child

The Soul of Man Under Socialism1891 De Profundis1897 ESSAYS AND LECTURE The Canterville Ghost , 1892, 1893, 18931895 1895

3. Wildes aestheticismAestheticism was a losely defined movement in literature and art, characterised by the attitude of making art for arts sake. It took place in the late Victoirian period from around 1868 to 1901, and is generally considered to have ended with the trial of Oscar Wilde.

Generally speaking, it represents the same tendencies that Symbolism stood for in France, and may be considered the British branch of the same movement. It belongs to the anti-Victorian reaction and had post-Romantic roots, and as such anticipates Modernism.

In Victorian England, popular belief held that art could be used as a tool for social education and moral enlightenment (Charles Dickenss works).

The Aestheticism Movement sought to free art from this social purpose and find the meaning of art in itself.

Oscar Wilde believes that art possesses an intrinsic value that it is beautiful and therefore valuable, and thus needs serve no other purpose. His attitude was revolutionary at his time.A contemporary edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Oscar Wilde adopted the aesthetical ideal: he affirmed my life is like a work of art.

The artist = the creator of beautiful things.

Art used only to celebrate beauty and the sensorial pleasures.

A contemporary edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Art for art's sakeIt is the usual English version of a French slogan, from the early 19th century, and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only true art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function. Such works are sometimes described as autotelic(, complete in itself, a concept that has been expanded to embrace inner-directed" or "self-motivated" human beings.Art should be independent of all claptrap should stand alone [...] and appeal to the artistic sense of eye or ear, without confounding this with emotions entirely foreign to it, as devotion, pity, love, patriotism and the like.

1.2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Aestheticism and philosophyWhile at Magdalen College, Wilde became particularly well known for his role in the aesthetic and decadent movements(. He began wearing his hair long and openly scorning so-called "manly" sports, and began decorating his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, sunflowers, blue china and other objets d'art.As the leading aesthete in Britain, Wilde became one of the most prominent personalities of his day. Though he was sometimes ridiculed for them, his paradoxes and witty sayings were quoted on all sides.

His Tomb

4. comedy of mannersMelodramaDandy vs. Ideal CharactersStock Characters: Virtuous Wife, Man with a Secret Past and Other WomanHappy Endings Undying love is celebratedMaking fun of the behaviour of people during that eraIronic endings using popular formula

4. An Ideal Husband

Sir Robert ChilternLady ChilternLord Goring Mrs. CheveleyMable Chilter (Roberts sister)

Victorian AgeStressed conservative valuesFamily devotion and dutyFocus on appearance more than substanceEngland at the peak of its industrial and imperial powerEnglish Ladies and GentlemenWilde made fun of these values because he saw people as fake and untrue to their true selvesNaughty Nineties

An ideal husbanda model spouse in both private and public life that she can worship: he must remain unimpeachable in all his decisions.

An Ideal Husbandan 1895 comedic stage play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honor. The action is set in London, in "the present", and takes place over the course of three days. "Sooner or later," Wilde notes, "we shall all have to pay for what we do." But he adds that, "No one should be entirely judged by their past."

An Ideal Husband opens during a dinner party at the home of Sir Robert Chiltern in Londons fashionable Grosvenor Square. Sir Robert, a prestigious member of the House of Commons, and his wife, Lady Chiltern, are hosting a gathering that includes his friend Lord Goring, a dandified bachelor and close friend to the Chilterns, his sister Mabel Chiltern, and other genteel guests. During the party, Mrs. Cheveley, an enemy of Lady Chilterns from their school days, attempts to blackmail Sir Robert into supporting a fraudulent scheme to build a canal in Argentina.

Apparently, Mrs. Cheveley's dead mentor and lover, Baron Arnheim, convinced the young Sir Robert many years ago to sell him a Cabinet secret, a secret that suggested he buy stocks in the Suez Canal three days before the British government announced its purchase. Sir Robert made his fortune with that unlawful money, and Mrs. Cheveley has the letter to prove his crime. Fearing both the ruin of career and marriage, Sir Robert submits to her demands.

When Mrs. Cheveley pointedly informs Lady Chiltern of Sir Roberts change of heart regarding the canal scheme, the morally inflexible Lady, unaware of both her husbands past and the blackmail plot, insists that Sir Robert renege on his promise. For Lady Chiltern, their marriage is predicated on her having an ideal husbandthat is, a model spouse in both private and public life that she can worship: thus Sir Robert must remain unimpeachable in all his decisions.

Sir Robert complies with the ladys wishes and apparently seals his doom. Also toward the end of Act I, Mabel and Lord Goring come upon a diamond brooch that Lord Goring gave someone many years ago. Goring takes the brooch and asks that Mabel inform him if anyone comes to retrieve it.

In the second act, which also takes place at Sir Robert s house, Lord Goring urges Sir Robert to fight Mrs. Cheveley and admit his guilt to his wife. He also reveals that he and Mrs. Cheveley were formerly engaged. After finishing his conversation with Sir Robert, Goring engages in flirtatious banter with Mabel. He also takes Lady Chiltern aside and indirectly urges her to be less morally inflexible and more forgiving.

Once Goring leaves, Mrs. Cheveley appears, unexpected, in search of a brooch she lost the previous evening. Incensed at Sir Roberts reneging on his promise, she ultimately exposes Sir Robert to his wife once they are both in the room. Unable to accept a Sir Robert now unmasked, Lady Chiltern then denounces her husband and refuses to forgive him.

The third act, set in Lord Gorings home, Goring receives a pink letter from Lady Chiltern asking for his help, a letter that might be read as a compromising love note. Just as Goring receives this note, however, his father, Lord Caversham, drops in and demands to know when his son will marry. A visit from Sir Robert, who seeks further counsel from Goring, follows. Meanwhile, Mrs. Cheveley arrives unexpectedly and, misrecognized by the butler as the woman Goring awaits, is ushered into Lord Goring's drawing room. While she waits, she finds Lady Chiltern's letter. Ultimately, Sir Robert discovers Mrs. Cheveley in the drawing room and, convinced of an affair between these two former loves, angrily storms out of the house.

QuotesOne's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged. Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious. One should never give a woman anything that she can't wear in the evening.

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants and the other is getting it. Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious; both are disappointed. The world has been made by fools that wise men should live in it.

Men become old, but they never become good.

When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again it is because he adored his first wife.

L/O/G/O

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