Society in The Importance of Being Earnest, Salome, and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
In Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Salome, and The Picture of Dorian Gray we see certain themes and similarities that reflect
Wilde's ideas about society and aspects of it. Oscar Wilde chose to focus The Importance of Being Earnest, Salome, and The Picture of Dorian Gray
on satirizing the life of the aristocracy, marriage, the nature of evil, and the
problems of women by using underlying themes and implementing a
convoluting style in the stories.
The Importance of Being Earnest, a play by Oscar Wilde, allows a
reader to see the ridiculousness of the aristocracy; particularly the English
one. His characters are typical Victorian snobs; they are arrogant, overly
proper, formal, and concerned with money. Lady Bracknell especially
embodies the stereotype of the Victorian English aristocrat. An example of
this is seen when she forbids her daughter to marry to Ernest(Jack) , whom
she does not think is suitable because of his ambiguous background. A
woman who is foolish enough to stop her daughter from marrying her love
because she does not approve of his background is too superficial. Lady
Bracknell constantly behaves in such an incorrect manner throughout the
novel. She speaks of how good she is and how her family is this and that and
never seems to respect anyone who she does not think is of her stature or
worth. According to Bracknell "Never speak disrespectfully of society"
because "only people who can't get into it do that."(Pg 98, Act III) Wilde's
distaste of aristocracy can be seen directly in this play.
Even the characters who are supposed to be good natured are utterly
ridic...
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...ing but bring harm to a
situation. The Picture of Dorian Gray shows us how the love for the aesthetic
results in tragedy. In all three, Wilde's message that infatuation for the
superficial will do nothing but bring troubles. This is a very strong common
theme in all three works.
In The Importance of Being Earnest, Salome, and The Picture of
Dorian Gray, Wilde portrays several underlying themes. His disapproval of
the aristocracy, marriage, the nature of evil, and woman are apparent in all
three works. From his writing, one can draw valuable lessons on life and
learn about mistakes that should not be made. His work shows us how life
can be interrupted and even ended as a result of certain things. Oscar
Wilde's work is the product of a man who had several disagreements with the
society in which he lived in and chose to satirze it through his work.
Wilde, Oscar, and Joseph Bristow. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.
The gothic literature is only a prime example of how our work reflects us in life, or in this instance the case of Oscar Wilde. In this case, whether conscience of the decision, Wilde has placed himself into the novel as Dorian Gray, and replicated the same decisions as he took in life that led each to the same fate. The use of gothic also portrays the same idealistic rules presented, if not spoken in those who create work for the gothic. Although many artists and authors grow in different background and learn different styles, what is presented in their works will always show similar
I think this because as I was reading the book I could see that Lord
The Picture of Dorian Gray was heavily influenced by the Aesthetic Movement of the mid 1800’s. The Aesthetic Movement implied that art is only to exist for the idea of beauty, and that the viewer of the art should not look into the meaning behind the art. Oscar Wilde believed this theory, and he used ideas from the Aesthetic Movement in many of his pieces, including The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Picture of Dorian Gray was an incredibly controversial novel, especially with its added aesthetic ideas.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a rich story which can be viewed through many literary and cultural lenses. Oscar Wilde himself purposefully filled his novel with a great many direct and indirect allusions to the literary culture of his times, so it seems appropriate to look back at his story - both the novel and the 1945 film version - in this way.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Michael Patrick Gillespie, Editor. Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007.
Oscar Wilde was written during the Victorian era. The statement that “A text reflects the dominant ideologies of the time in which it was written” in reference to The Importance of Being Earnest is completely untrue. The play explores the inner workings of the Victorian upper class and challenges the attitudes and ideologies which society at the time was based. In particular Wilde criticised the certain social and financial expectations to marry in an upper-class or aristocratic society. Wilde also portrays women to have greater social and moral responsibility and power than men contrary to the ideology that “a woman was inferior to a man” and thus should be powerless. Also critiqued is the immorality of upper class society through their behaviour. Contrary to this the only characters in which are moral are the working class represented by Merriman.Therefore Wilde comprehensively challenges what were dominant ideologies in Victorian England through the use of characters and themes.
Ruddick, Nicholas. "'The Peculiar Quality of My Genius': Degeneration, Decadence, and Dorian Gray in 1890-91." Oscar Wilde: The Man, His Writings, and His World. New York: AMS, 2003. 125-37. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 164. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Artemis Literary Sources. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays. Ed. Richard Allen Cave. New York: Penguin, 2000.
In ‘The Important of Being Earnest’, Oscar Wilde's ridiculing representation of Victorian Society comments on the ridiculous behavior of the Victorian Society’s inability to recognise the difference between important and unimportant issues. Therefore, Oscar Wilde subverts Victorian values to mock and imply triviality and superficiality. Wilde forces the audience to rethink the importance of their life and how they act while also scrutinizing the ignorance of the characters in upper class society through mocking their morals and obsessive fascinations. Wilde's uses the inversion of what isn’t serious and what is to ridicule Victorian Society. Despite this, Wilde wanted to create something beautiful and superficial. Hence, it would be more accurate to say everything in the play is presented as superficial so perhaps there isn’t a message that needs to be taken seriously.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray: Oxford World’s Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
The materialism of the upper-class is particularly shown through Daisy and Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses the...
In conclusion, it has been reiterated that Lord Henry's influence, the changes in Dorian, and the immorality of the yellow book further enforced The Picture of Dorian Gray as a moral book. Oscar Wilde allows for those who could understand the real meaning of the novel by comprehending the importance of these three things to discern that he fully intended on writing this novel as a moral book.
Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Michael Patrick Gillespie, Editor. Norton Critical Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007.
Oscar Wilde’s 19th century The Picture of Dorian Gray portrays a young, naïve man, Dorian Gray, who begins to change because of Lord Henry Wotton’s negative influence on him; likewise, Dorian influences Sibyl Vane as a result of Henry’s influence on him. Because of Henry’s influence, Dorian’s attitude towards women and his respect for women change for the worse. Because of Dorian’s influence on Sibyl, she commits suicide.