Scarica Oscar Wilde: life and main works e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Born in Dublin, when he went to Oxford he was attracted by the Aesthetic Movement (his favourite book was Studies in the History of the Renaissance, by Walter Pater). He moved to London and was introduced to the upper classes (in his comedies he reproduced their superficial lifestyle). Thanks to his personality he became the leader of the Aesthetic Movement. He was the perfect dandy, perfect in the way of dressing and in art, there was no distinction: he wanted his life to be his masterpiece. Works 2 series of fables * The happy Prince and other tales * A House of Pomegranates 1 tragedy — Salomé (not represented) Salomè loves John the Baptist, King Haron loves her and John loves the king She asks the king to imprison John, then dances in front of him and asks for her prize; the guards cut off John's head and take it to her, she kisses him. First success — The Picture of Dorian Gray 4 comedies (ironic titles) * Lady Windermere’s Fan + A Woman of No Importance * An Ideal Husband * The Importance of being Earnest He was sentenced to hard labour at Reading Jail because of his homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. During this period he wrote * The Ballad of Reading Gaol * De Profundis, one of his masterpieces, a meditation on life The Picture of Dorian Gray His only novel and the most important of the Aesthetic Movement. Its preface, written 2 years later, is considered the Manifesto of this movement. Life of sensation and pleasure, the man of taste is above the common morality and pursues his aesthetic goals. Dorian's goal is the pursuit of beauty and pleasure. The most important thing about art is the form, not the content. It has to be perfect. Language — very sensual, particularly in the description of the interior of the houses (very detailed), linked to sensations (hearing, sight, smell), underlines the importance of the senses, of the sensations and the pleasure that comes from them. Structure — third person narrator, unobtrusive (doesn't comment directly); Dorian's point of view, the reader can sympathize with him. Wilde turns upside down the typical renaissance idea (if you were beautiful, you were surely moral, good, if you were ugly you were bad) b Dorian is wonderfully beautiful but completely immoral. Characters e Dorian + introduced indirectly in the 2nd chapter, young and handsome, everybody loves him, typical edonist who wants to transform his life into a work of art, who wants to live every pleasure and sensation, best representation of the aesthetic ideas. ® Basiltheartist e Lord Henry — dandy, lives his life with pleasure Interpretation Portrait > becomes disgusting because represents Dorian's depravation When he tries to behave well the portrait has the sign of hypocrisy Meaning — at the end Dorian is punished but art is immortal, perfect, it returns as it was at the beginning; what remains is the beauty of art. The Preface It states that art isn't moral or immoral. Beauty is beyond meanings, you just have to admire art. In this, he criticizes the society's behaviour (wants and at the same time doesn't want to see itself). The artist can express everything, art mirrors the spectator. Useful things mustn't be admired. We can do useless things only if we just admire them. All art is quite useless — doesn't need to teach something, it just has to create beauty. Dorian’s pact: | would give my soul You have to live fully and you can only do itwhen you're beautiful, so when you're young. Memory and time are negative (Lord Henry) because time passes and destroys beauty and memory is connected to something you've lost (youth). Typical aesthet language (lilies, roses, metaphor of beauty) — The flowers are often contrasted with old images. Dorian realizes his beauty (revelation). VWhen he thinks about what he would be like when he will be old he's horrified and feels like being stabbed with a knife — image of what will happen at the end of the novel. Portrait —> Dorian's double, soul, his negative and immoral side. Dorian’s death At the end everything happens quickly. Dorian is dissatisfied by his life, decides to see the portrait again and impulsively destroys it, because he wanted to try to be good, destroying that horror. But that is his conscience, killing it he kills himself, while the portrait retums to his original beauty. The portrait is connected to Dorian because of the spell, which made it become his soul. Man can't live without moral responsibility, can't avoid it. End + life is imperfect, art is perfect, life can imitate art, but can't be as perfect as it is.
