Summary : Oscar Wilde's life and works, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Summary : Oscar Wilde's life and works e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! AESTETHECISM - Europe - Middle of 19 century, full Victorian age - Origin : France in 1835 - Main representative: Thèophile Gautier - Cause: Provoked by the sense of frustration and uncertainty of the closing years of Victorian age due to the new discoveries. Aestheticism characterizes the apparent preoccupation that groups of late Victorians (roughly from the 1870–1900 era) had with the necessity and urgency of celebrating beauty in the face of ugly and violent modernity. - Reaction against the self-satisfying morality and rigid orthodox respectability of the age - Illusion replace reality which is imperfect - Characteristics a. Rebellion against the morality: The Empire brought duty (Rudyard Kipling, The White Man Burden) and English men felt they had a special mission to civilize the more primitive peoples of the world. b. Art for art’s sake: art only needed to be beautiful, to justify itself. It rejected realism: art should not just reproduce the world but offer an alternative to it. It didn't have to have a moral responsibility c. Mistrust of Reason: true reality can only be found through senses and that beauty was the only thing that add any meaning. d. Superiority of art: Life was usually ugly and sordid, only art can be really beautiful, so life should copy art. OSCAR WILD (1854-1900) Life 1854 He was born in Dublin. He is the son of a distinguished surgeon and the writer Jane Francesca Elgee who wrote under the name of Speranza. 1861/1864 He first revealed his personality to prove the virility - He wasn't understood ad his teachers didn't appreciate him. He was lazy and disliked many subjects. He also disliked the behavior of his mates. His love for classic languages and literature won him the gold medal for greek and a scholarship in Oxford. - He gained a reputation as a dandy as well as for being a master of witty conversation - He loved the idea of being appreciated and noticed and that's why he wore very noticeable clothes - He was influenced by John Ruskin (for his social ideas and importance of working to make men noble) and Walter Pater (passion for beauty) 1867 He went to Italy and to Greece where he was impressed with Hellenism 1878 He won the Newdigate Prize for his poem Ravenna - He inherited from his father some money and he decided to settle in London - He wanted people to be impressed by him. It was a way to provoke people. He walked with a sunflower in his hand/mouth in Piccadilly. People liked the idea of having him in meetings 1881 He was in constant need of money so he accepted an invitation to USA - When he came back he spent some time in Paris where he met the late impressionists. 1882 He married Constance Lloyd. She knew that he was homosexual but he needed to create an image. She was the daughter of wealthy Queen's Counsel Horace Lloyd. They had 2 children. - Oscar Wilde was obliged to look for a job so in 1885 he became a book reviewer and than the editor of “The Woman's World.” 1891 The Picture of Dorian Gray provoked a scandal because the protagonist was allowed to do everything against the moral of the time. Dorian did everything in the name of self satisfaction. He didn't care about anything but himself. Only beauty could satisfy him and make him happy. It also received quite a negative response because of the novel's homoerotic overtones, which caused something of a sensation amongst Victorian critics. 1891 Wilde began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, nicknamed 'Bosie', who became both the love of his life and his downfall. 1895 He was accused of homosexuality by the Marquis of Queensberry. The father of this boy discovered this relationship through some letters. He forced him to confess. Oscar Wilde decided to tell the truth. Oscar Wild was told to go to exile in France to avoid hard labour. He was sentenced to 2 years of hard labour. His books were not sold anymore. In prison he wasn't allowed to read or to write. He adopted the name of Sebastian the Marthyre To try to publish something after his sentence. - His wife Constance was forced to flee the country with their children, and to change the family name, though she still hoped that Oscar would renounce his lover and return to his family on his release from prison. However, despite his attempts to comply with his wife's wishes, Wilde was unable to resist temptation. He returned to Bosie, thereby sealing his own fate. - He died abandoned by everyone and also diminished in fame in 1900 after embracing the catholicism just before dying 1900 He died at the age of 46, penniless and alone in a cheap Paris hotel room Works 1881 – Poems 1895 – The importance of being Earnest 1888 – The Happy prince, the Nightingale and the Rose, the Selfish Giant 1891 – The Picture of Dorian Gray 1897 De Profundis -Portions of letters that he exchanged with Douglas -Sufferings which was provoked to him by the lord, who exploited him to become famous 1898 – The Ballad of Reading Gaol -Long poem about his prison experience Society plays -A woman of no importance -Ideal husband -Importance of being Earnest Influences -Changes of drama in the Victorian age 1)At the beginning English drama was not existent. There was a decline, because people were much more interested in reading novels and not to meditate but try to escape from the reality of the period. Also actors wanted high salaries and this increased the prices of tickets. Also the stages needed original products. The back of the scenery was painted and it was expensive. People were much more involved in the sceneries than into the representation. -Theatre represented the classics because they were a guaranteed success 2)Revival coming from the rest of Europe : France, Russia, Scandinavia -Adaptations of French novels -Henrick Ibsen (1828-1906) who introduced a. Modification of the structure of the play introducing the retrospective method which disregarded the traditional method based on three development. He skipped the antecedent. Previous events were told by the dialogue of the characters b. He used the stage as an instrument for social criticism. He shared the naturalist spirit of total objectivity, heredity ecc. He confronted his audience with real life problems. c. Introduction to the problem of the drama + realism in characterization and language + psychological exploration + rejection for sentimentality + rejection of any conventional moral ending + defense of women's independence (the heroins are ready to fight) + involvement of the audience - The blood part is obvious, but perhaps “wine” indicates that the inmate was intoxicated when he committed the crime. This might have pushed him to do something he wouldn’t have done if he were in his senses. 2nd and 3rd Stanza - He imagines the setting in which the deliberations took place, and casts Wooldridge there in his “suit of shabby grey.” He describes the man as appearing “wistful,” and walking with a “light and gay” step. Although he has been sentenced to die, Wooldridge is not bothered by it. It is known from historical records that Wooldridge deeply regretted his attack on his wife and was satisfied to spent his remaining days, until his execution, in prison. - “with such a wistful eye”. This phrase is an extremely important part of the poem as it shoes the other side of the crime, the side that people never think about. He says that the man didn’t try to resist what was happening to him, perhaps implying that he regretted his crime so much that he felt that he deserved his punishment. The speaker describes the everyday things that happen around him, apathetic to the loss of life that will happen and shake the prisoners. This part of the poem is essentially written in order to show the cruelty that the prisoners are doomed to live with. - Gray: color connected with death and black. It is grey and not red anymore because he had been imprisoned - In prison there was not many light so he's happy to finally see it. The day might be seen as the light after darkness of prison but also as the day of the execution when he is going to pay for his crime From his own place in the prison Wilde is able to see Wooldridge as he moves through his daily routine. 4th Stanza - For the first time Wilde refers to himself as “I.” Here he is, “with the other souls” as they walk in a “ring” around a prison courtyard. This is the manner of exercise that they are allowed to take. While walking the men whisper to one another and Wilde meditates on what Wooldridge, and the other inmates, have done. He does not know whether “the man,” presumably Wooldridge had done a “great or little thing.” He gets a clue from an inmate behind him who says in a low whisper, “‘That fellow’s got to swing’.” He knows now that the man in question is on death row, waiting to be executed. - Nobody feels pity for sinners except christ - Nobody cares about the reasons behind the crimes - Only few lines show the crime and then he is immediately shown in prison - Ring: Prisoners repeat the same action everyday. But it is also a metaphor of their life: they are condemned forever to be just “criminals” and not human beings anymore - “Swinging”: he is treated like a puppet and not a person 5th Stanza - This revelation, about the pain Wooldridge must be in, causes the narrator to “reel.” It sends his head spinning and it is as if the “walls” are moving. The sky that hangs above Wilde’s head became “Like a casque of scorching steel.” Casque, refers to at the metal helmet of a knight’s costume. It is as if the world has compressed itself around the speaker and he is trapped in an even greater nightmare. - All he can feel is the pain that Wooldridge must be experiencing, his own problems and future slip to the side. 6th Stanza - The only thoughts he knows are those of Wooldridge. Wilde is able to, through their shared experiences in Reading Gaol, understand a good portion of what he is going through. Wilde comprehends the fact that this man is “wistful” because he knows he deserves to die. He had “killed the thing he loved / And so he had to die.” Wooldridge has accepted his fate and finds peace there. - Desire of reaching the light – the woman who he killed - Oscar Wilde take the occasion of the hanging to develop a universal theme 7th, 8th and 9th Stanzas - Wilde expands his comprehension of Wooldridge’s situation, and relates it to all men. All men, “each man,” destroys what he loves most in one way or another. Some of these men ruin relationships and possibilities “with a bitter look,” others, through a misplaced “flattering word.” There is a portion of the male population that, in their fear, betray the ones they love and never own up to it, others, like Wooldridge are “brave” in their choices. While Wilde is not condoning what Wooldridge did, he sees it as being “braver” than slinking away, taking no responsibility. - Wilde expands this thought in the next two stanzas making a number of different categories for the ways in which men ruin their lives or drive off the ones they love. Some do it when they are “young,” some when they are “old.” There are the men who are driven by “Lust,” and others by “the hands of Gold.” - He concludes this stanza by stating that while all men are going to kill “the thing [they] love,” not all will die for it as Wooldridge will. - The coward does it with a kiss” is a reference to Judas Iscariot -Do the deed: Shakespeare, Macbeth. He never uses the world “crime” but “deed”. It shows the responsibility and the unavoidability. He could not control his terrible suffering. Oscar Wilde analyses what pushed this man to commit the crime. -Reflection: all of us are unpunished and potential killers -Death is a constant threatening presence -Cruel society + cruel god waiting for his victim (human justice on the world who decides to take away the life for somebody) Conclusions 1)Nature of guilt and innocence. The difference between the free and the prisoner, the prisoner and the condemned are matters of degree not of character. Each man is capable, under the right circumstances, of the same crime. 2)Love itself corrupts or alters its object. That would certainly seem to have been true of his relationship with "Bosie", Lord Alfred Douglas. 3)Hypocrisy of the prison system itself, destroying the souls and bodies of those it would reform.