A Wilde Analysis Oscar Wilde is the epitome of contradiction. He is a brilliant, award-winning poet and a profound influence on literary history. Though successful, he was unable to evade the opinions of others. His highly publicized affair with Lord Alfred Douglas and outrageous persona caused the public to blacklist him; he refused to conform to societal norms and suffered because of it. People often limited interaction with him for fear of ruining their reputation. Oscar Wilde lived a life concentrated around writing and literacy and faced contention for his outlandish personality and morals: this led to Wilde using his personal life as inspiration for his works.
To begin with, Oscar Wilde had a childhood composed of literacy and
…show more content…
Oscar Wilde went from being a beloved figure in his community to an abhorred one. Wilde possessed a vivacious, outlandish, and witty personality that made him popular among the public. During this time, he married Constance Lloyd and fathered two children. Although he was popular among the public, Wilde occasionally endured satirical rants from the press. His positive public relations quickly ceased after Wilde's publicized affair with Lord Alfred Douglas. When Douglas's father accused Wilde of being homosexual, Wilde attempted to sue him for libel. The judge ruled against Wilde, and he served two years of hard labor because of his "sodomite" ways. Lloyd took their two children and abandoned Wilde; she did not want her or her children suffering because of the verdict. After Wilde's affair became known, the public turned against him. He faced ridicule for his hellish, perverse ways and decided to relocate after serving his sentence to escape persecution. His whirlwind lifestyle and limited social life resulted in Wilde using his personal life as inspiration for his works …show more content…
The poem begins with the narrator walking down the street and stopping outside of a harlot house. He can hear the music playing upstairs and see the shadows of the people dancing. All of the party patrons behave like humans, but they lack emotions. Basically, the “automaton” are fundamentally human, but they lack the multifaceted qualities that associated with humans. These people would come close to acting “alive,” but they never truly reached that point. The speaker’s love gets caught up in the moment and ends up wandering into the harlot's house (“The Harlot’s House”). This poem represents the way society views lust. Society thinks of lust as something that is separate from love and views it in the same way they view sin. Therefore, society views lust as unfulfilling (Hay). This poem contains an abundance of strong imagery. Describing the people as “wire-pulled automatons” (“The Harlot’s House 13”) provides a vivid picture about the stiff, lifeless ways these people interacted with each other. This poem alludes to the song ‘Treues Libes Herz.’ This is a German song. It translates to a “true loving heart” (Hay). The repetition of the word she in the poem (“The Harlot’s House 28”) conveys the speaker's shock at his love’s actions. He never expected her to behave this
We know that Oscar is married and has children but these letters he has written to different men strike him as gay to some. During this time period, many disagreed with this act, especially Lord Alfred Douglas of Queensberry, one of Wilde’s partners father. Some may say this lead to the theme of hate for the fact that Lord Alfred Douglas of Queensberry despised Wilde for sending these letters to his son and having these feelings towards him (Polashuk, 2007).
Wilde may have been tired of his own marriage, leaving his wife disappointed. If the only reason Wilde married Constance was to say get him off the radar, then obviously it would leave the couple disappointed. In order to have a happy marriage, there needs to be a love connection and since Wilde was not attracted to the opposite sex, there were problems. On the other hand, Wilde wrote other pieces like poems and stories that contradicted his homosexuality. In 1895, Wilde was involved in a case with the Marquess of Queensberry.
All in all, from this vivid analysis of the role of marriage in “A Doll’s House” and “The House of Bernarda Alba”, one can see that marriage did not have much value and was completely devoid of emotion. In these two tragedies the idea of marriage is influenced by the cruel society and its orthodox views and beliefs in general that mould a “model” citizen. Ultimately, in both of these works of literature, marriage is a key theme that forms a substantial amount of the plot of the story and marriage is also an element that repressed individuals in the dramas who finally took extreme measures to free themselves from the unrelenting grasp of societies vortex.
Additionally, Wilde’s intense relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas is the inspiration for this poem. Elements like the speaker’s attitude provide evidence to to this claim. The speaker’s attitude is pondering and observant. He is observing the situation and analyzing what is happening. This is how Wilde felt in his relationship with Douglas. Participating in an affair, especially one with a man, was uncharted territory for him. He had to learn through trial and error. Unfortunately, his relationship also faced more stress due to a great deal of scrutiny the couple was under. Their relationship was not viewed as genuine. Society thought that their relationship was not genuine because it was a relationship between two men. Lust was considered
This poem dramatizes the conflict between love and lust, particularly as this conflict relates to what the speaker seems to say about last night. In the poem “Last Night” by Sharon Olds, the narrator uses symbolism and sexual innuendo to reflect on her lust for her partner from the night before. The narrator refers to her night by stating, “Love? It was more like dragonflies in the sun, 100 degrees at noon.” (2, 3) She describes it as being not as great as she imagined it to be and not being love, but lust. Olds uses lust, sex and symbolism as the themes in the story about “Last night”.
The poem uses many literary devices to enhance the meaning the words provide. The poem starts at the beginning of the story as the moon comes to visit the forge. The moon is said to be wearing “her skirt of white, fragrant flowers” (Lorca 2) as its bright light penetrates the scene. The poem states “the young boy watches her, watches. / The young boy is watching her” (3-4). The repetition of the phrase emphasizes the young boy’s infatuation with the moon. The scene is set with intensity by the phrase “electrified air” (5) and a tense feeling is brought into the poem. As “the moon moves her arms” (6), she is given traits of being alive and having her own human qualities. Personification of the moon into a woman exemplifies the desire that the child would have for the woman, and creates a more appealing form for the moon to appear as. The child cries, “flee, moon, moon, moon” (9) with urgency, showing his concern for her. He warns her “they would make with your heart / white necklaces and rings” (11-12). This refers back to the metaphor that the moon is made of hard tin, but still personifies her by giving her a heart. The moon is additionally personified when she says “ young boy, leave me to dance”(13). She has now taken the form of a sensual and erotic gypsy dancer furthering the desire of the young boy. This brings Spanish culture to the poem because gypsies are known to travel throughout Spain. The mo...
Oscar Wilde is perhaps one of the most pretentious people to which I have ever been exposed. Like a lot of pretentious authors, he even uses a fake pen name. His book, The Picture of Dorian Gray, does not only contain homosexual undertones, but it also provides some pretty ostentatious quotes. My favorite in the novel so far is “all art is quite useless” (Wilde, 1890). This, coming from an artist, is an embodiment of pretension. Not only does this criticize his craft, but also anyone who has ever created
“Litany” is a poem inspired by a quote from Jaques Crickillon, this free verse poem describes the feeling of a man to a girl with the use of nouns. This poem has two different tones during its development, a serious tone and a mockery tone, that change from stanza to stanza, for example the first stanza using a metaphor compare the nature with the beauty of the woman, Crickillon express “you are the dew on the morning grass/ and the burning wheel of the sun.”(7-8). Also, the speaker in this poem change the traditional love poem of portray a woman or lover by focused on what the woman is not in the second stanza, in this lines the author is making fun. Nevertheless, the readers shock when the speaker admits that he is he is not like her, in the sixth stanza, the shooting star and paper blowing represent that how unpredictable the men is .
Both the concepts love and sex are interconnected and inseparable in the dynamic relationship they have. Without love, sex seems lustful and shameful an act that can bring just harm to the minds, hearts and souls. The poetess, though apparently has dealt sex softly, yet has criticized and mocked the loveless sex with the use of frequent similes and rhetorically rhythmic patterns. The setting of the poem is the sexual activity by fornicators and its representation by the speaker, i.e. the poetess. The fornicators are depicted as beautiful dancers and ice skaters as both of the functions are individually exercised and individually appreciated.
He mainly discusses how everyone sticks to their corrupt ways and is incredibly vain through the use of detail and imagery of his character Dorian Gray. Oscar Wilde succeeded in showing the reader the many flaws in Victorian society. One topic he tackles would be the idea that once a person crosses
Around the time Oscar was enjoying his success from his book, Wilde was having an affair with a man named Alfred Douglas. Alfred’s father, the Marquis of Queensberry, got word about his son's affair with Oscar. He went over to Oscar's home and left a note saying "Oscar Wilde: Posing Somdomite", misspelling of sodomite. Oscar was upset by the note and tried to sue him for libel. That was the worst idea he could have done.
Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 and led a normal childhood. After high school, Wilde attended Oxford College and received a B.A. in 1878. During this time, he wrote Vera and The Importance of Being Earnest. In addition, "for two years Wilde had dressed in outlandish outfits, courted famous people and built his public image" (Stayley 317). Doing so earned Wilde a job with Rich...
The novel when first published started to be known for a breathtaking amount of depressing criticism. Detractors condemn its homosexual undertones and apparent embrace of hedonistic values. The preface has written by the author in response to the unkind critics of the first edition, blaming them for failing to grasp Wilde's belief that art should be appreciated on purely aesthetic terms, without consideration of morality.
Oscar Wilde was born in October 16, 1854, in the mid era of the Victorian period—which was when Queen Victoria ruled. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901.While she ruined Britain, the nation rise than never before, and no one thought that she was capable of doing that. “The Victorian era was both good and bad due to the rise and fall of the empires and many pointless wars were fought. During that time, culture and technology improved greatly” (Anne Shepherd, “Overview of the Victorian Era”). During this time period of English, England was facing countless major changes, in the way people lived and thought during this era. Today, Victorian society is mostly known as practicing strict religious or moral behavior, authoritarian, preoccupied with the way they look and being respectable. They were extremely harsh in discipline and order at all times. Determination became a usual Victorian quality, and was part of Victorian lifestyle such as religion, literature and human behavior. However, Victorian has its perks, for example they were biased, contradictory, pretense, they cared a lot of about what economic or social rank a person is, and people were not allowed to express their sexuality. Oscar Wilde was seen as an icon of the Victorian age. In his plays and writings, he uses wit, intelligence and humor. Because of his sexuality he suffered substantially the humiliation and embarrassment of imprisonment. He was married and had an affair with a man, which back then was an act of vulgarity and grossness. But, that was not what Oscar Wilde was only known for; he is remembered for criticizing the social life of the Victorian era, his wit and his amazing skills of writing. Oscar Wilde poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” typifies the Vi...
Wilde felt that poetry was superior to the graphic arts for what reasons? Evaluate his claims.