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Oscar Wilde

To live is the rarest thing in theworld. Most people exist, that is all

Oscar Wilde in a photo by Napoleon Sarony.

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Born in Dublin in 1854 .

He became a disciple of WalterPater , the theorist of aestheticism.

He became a fashionable dandy .

1. Life

Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas in the 1890s

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1. Life

Oscar Wilde

He was one of the most successfulplaywrights of late VictorianLondon and one of the greatestcelebrities of his days.

He suffered a dramatic downfalland was imprisoned after beenconvicted of gross indecency for

homosexual acts .

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

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I have nothing to declare except mygenius .

Experience is simply the name wegive our mistakes .

A man can be happy with anywoman as long as he does not loveher.

Oscar Wilde, 1889

Oscar Wilde

1. Life

Some famous quotations of Wildes:

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One should always be in love.That is the reason why oneshould never marry.

Art is the most intense form ofindividualism that the world hasknown.

Oscar Wilde

1. Life

Some famous quotations of Wildes:

Oscar Wilde, 1889

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Poetry : Poems , 1891The Ballad of Readin g Gaol , 1898

Fairy tales : The Happ y Prin ce and o ther Tales , 1888The House of Pom egranates , 1891

Novel : The Picture of Dorian Gray , 1891

Plays : Lady Windermeres Fan, 1892A Woman of no Imp ortance , 1893 The Im portanc e of Being Earnest , 1895Salom , 1893

2. Works

Oscar Wilde

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Oscar Wilde adopted the aesthetical

ideal ; he affirmed my life is like awo rk of art .

His aestheticism clashed with thedidacticism of Victorian novels.

The artist = the creator of beautifulthings .

3. Wildes aestheticism

Oscar Wilde

A contemporary edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray .

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3. Wildes aestheticism

Oscar Wilde

Art used only to celebrate beauty and the sensorial pleasures .

Virtue and vice employed by theartist as raw material in his art: Noart ist has ethical sy m pathies. Anethical sym pathy in an art ist is anunpardonable mannerism o f s tyle . (The Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray )

A contemporary edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray .

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1890 first appeared in amagazine.

1891 revised andextended.

It reflects Oscar Wildes

personality.

It was considered immoralby the Victorian public.

4. The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

A scene from Oliver Parkers Dorian Gray (2009).

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Set in London at the end of

the 19th century.

The painter Basil Hallwardmakes a portrait of a

handsome young man,Dorian Gray.

5. Dorian Gray : plot

Oscar Wilde

Poster for film Wilde , directed by BrianGilbert (UK, 1997).

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Dorians desires of eternal

youth are satisfied.

Experience and vices appear on the portrait.

5. Dorian Gray : plot

Oscar Wilde

Poster for film Wilde , directed by BrianGilbert (UK, 1997).

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Dorian lives only for

pleasures .

The painter discoversDorians secret and he is

killed by the young man.

5. Dorian Gray : plot

Oscar Wilde

Ben Barnes in Oliver Parkers Dorian Gray (2009).

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Later Dorian wants to get free

from the portrait; he stabs it

but in so doing he kills

himself .

At the very moment of death

the portrait returns to its

original purity and Dorian turnsinto a withered , wrinkled

and loathsome man.

5. Dorian Gray : plot

Oscar Wilde

Ben Barnes in Oliver Parkers Dorian Gray (2009).

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A temptation is placed beforeDorian: a potential ageless beauty .

Lord Henrys cynical attitude is in

keeping with the devils role in DrFaust.

Lord Henry acts as the Devilsadvocate .

The picture stands for the darkside of Dorians personality.

6. Dorian Gray : a modern version of Dr. Faust

Oscar Wilde

Mephistopheles appearing before Faust in the1865 edition of Faust by Johann Wolfgang

Goethe.

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Every excess must be punished and reality cannot beescaped.

When Dorian destroys the picture, he cannot avoid thepunishment for all his sins death .

The horrible, corrupting picture could be seen as a symbol ofthe immorality and bad conscience of the Victorian middleclass.

The picture, restored to its original beauty, illustrates Wildes theories of art: art survives people , art is eternal.

7. Dorian Gray : the moral of the novel

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Wildes most enduringly popular play.

8. The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde

Sir John Gielgud, E. Evans and M. Leighton in TheImportance of Being Earnest , UK, 1952.

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Jack has invented an alter ego , a younger brother

called Ernest who lives in the City.

Humour comes from the characters falseidentities .

Witty dialogues and satire of Victorianhypocrisy .

Oscar Wilde

9. The Importance of Being

Earnest : plot

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Set in England during the late Victorian era.

The protagonists: two young aristocratic men,Ernest Worthing , and Algernon Moncrieff .

Ernest, actually called Jack , was adopted at anearly age by a Mr Thomas Cardew .

Oscar Wilde

10. The Importance of Being

Earnest : characters

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They belong toaristocratic society .

They are typical Victoriansnobs .

They are arrogant ,formal and concernedwith money .

10. The Importance of Being

Earnest : characters

Oscar Wilde

A 2002 performance of The Importance of Being Earnest , directed byFrank B. Moorman.

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10. The Importance of Being

Earnest : characters

Oscar Wilde

They are interested onlyin a materialistic world .

Lady Bracknell embodies the stereotype of the Victorian Englisharistocrat woman.

A 2002 performance of The Importance of Being Earnest , directed byFrank B. Moorman.

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A new sort of the Restoration comedy of Manners .

The problems of Wildes age are reflected in witty remarks .

11. The Importance of Being Earnest : Wildes new comedy of manners

Alana Brophy and Luke Barats in The Importanceof Being Earnest, April 2005

This comedy was amirror of the fashionableand corrupted world ofthe Victorian

fashionable audiences .

Oscar Wilde

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Marriage is one of the mainconcerns of the characters inthe play.

Wilde makes fun of theinstitution of marriage.

Marriage is seen as ahypocritical and absurd practice, a tool for achievingsocial stature.

12. The Importance of Being Earnest :

the nature of marriage

Oscar Wilde

Ida Vernon, William Faversham, Viola Allen, E. Y. Backus,Henry Miller in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

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The play central plot the man who is both and isn'tErnest/earnest presents a moral paradox .

Earnest , misspelling for Ernest , means earnest, honest.

None of the characters are really truthful .

Characters are used to criticize Victorian prudery .

What Wilde wants us to see as truly moral is really the opposite ofearnestness : irreverence .

13. The Importance of Being Earnest :irony and Victorian morality

Oscar Wilde

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