NineteenthCentury Drama Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde belongs to

Nineteenth-Century Drama

Oscar Wilde • Oscar Wilde belongs to those bourgeois writers whose literary activity, contradictory in its nature, mirrors the bourgeois ideology. • Wilde was regarded as the laeader of the English aesthetic movement, but many of these works do not follow his decadent theory of ‘art for arts’s sake’, they sometimes even contradict it. • In fact, the best of them are closer to Romanticism and Realism than to decadent literature.

Life of Oscar Wilde • Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on October 16, 1854. • His father was a famous Irish surgeon. His mother was well known in Dublin as a graceful writer of verse and prose. • At school, and later at Oxford, Oscar displayed a considerable gift for art and the humanities. The young man received a number of classical prizes, and graduated first-class honours.

Studies • While at the university Wilde became one of the most prominent personalities of the day; he wore his hair long, decorated his rooms with peacock’s feathers, lilies, sunflowers, blue china and other beuatiful things. • His affected paradoxes and witty sayings were quoted on all sides. • Under the influence of his teacher, the writer John Ruskin, Wilde joined the young Aesthetic Movement, which came into being as a protest against bourgeois hypocrisy and bigotry, but later turned idealistic and reactionary. The future writer became a most sincere supporter of this movement.

• After graduating from Univeristy, Wilde turned his attention to writing, travelling and lecturing. • The Aesthetic Movement became popular, and Oscar Wilde earned the reputation of being the leader of the movement , and an apostle of beauty. • In 1882 he went to America to lecture on the Aesthetic Movement in England. His lecture tours were triumphantly successful.

• The next ten years saw the appearance of all his major works. The most popular of them are the: • Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888), • The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) • and his comedies Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), • A Woman of No Importance (1893), • An Ideal Husband (1895), • The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). • The wit and brilliance of these plays helped to keep them on stage, and they are still occasionally revived.

• Wilde also wrote poems, essays, reviews, political tracts, letters and occasional pieces on every subject he considered worthy of attention – history, drama, painting, etc. • Some of these pieces were serious, some satirical; the variety of themes reflected a personality that could never remain inactive. • At home and abroad Wilde attracted the attention of his audiences by the brilliance of his conversation, the scope of his knowledge and the sheer force of his personality.

• At the hight of his popularity and success tragedy struck. • He was accused of immorality and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. • When released from prison in 1897 he lived mainly on the Continent and later in Paris. • In 1898 he published his powerful poem, Ballad of Reading Gaol. • He died in Paris in 1900.

19 th century literature • The second half of the 19 th century in England was characterized by the development of two trends in literature. • The representatives of the first trend continued the traditions of their predecessors - "the brilliant school of novelists in England" • It was represented by such writers as George Eliot (the penname of Marian Evans); George Meredith, Samuel Butler, Thomas Hardy. These novelists gave a truthful picture of contemporary society.

• The writers of the other trend by way of protest against severe reality tried to lead the reader away from life into the world of dreams and fantasy, into the world of beauty. • At the end of the this theory found its expression in decadent literature and art. • Oscar Wilde was one of the representatives of this trend. He was regarded as the leader of the aesthetic movement, but many of his works do not follow his decadent theory of "art for art's sake. „ • In fact, the best of them are closer to Romanticism and Realism than to decadent literature.

• Oscar Wilde's works reflect the emotional protest of an artist against social conditions in England at the end of the 19 th century. • He came to the conclusion that art was only thing that really existed and was worth living for. He declared that life only mirrored art. • Beauty is the measure of all things, that's why his desire was to escape from all the horrors of reality into the realm of beauty. • Oscar Wilde wrote, "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well-written, or badlywritten. That is all. "

• Like most writers and poets, Oscar Wilde glorifies natural beauty, but at the same time he is an admirer of artificial colours. • In his works he compares blood to a ruby, the blue sky to a sapphire, man's beauty to that of silver, gold, ivory and precious stones. • Though O. Wilde proclaims theory of extreme individualism, he often contradicts himself. • In his works, in his tales in particular, he glorifies not only the beauty of nature and artificial beauty, but also the beauty of devoted love. • He admires unselfishness kindness and generosity ("The Happy Prince", "the Nightingale and the Rose"), he shows deep, sympathy for the poor (The Devoted Friend"), he despises selfishness and greed ("The Selfish Giant"). In his plays O. Wilde gives realistic pictures of contemporary society and exposes the vices of the world.