Essays on Oscar Wilde

The Devoted Friend

Context This is a story developed by Oscar Wilde to educate children on the importance of valuing friends. The story has been passed from one generation to another, and different versions of the same have come up. The different versions differ with some characters being added to the later versions. There is also some variation in the length of the different versions of the stories, but the original message remains.

Significance

The story’s main theme is friendship and family and how important it is for individuals to have people they can trust as devoted friends. The author introduces little ...

Introduction

There are periods in life when it seems that it is impossible to go on, rise from ashes, or simply continue a journey. This time may be characterized as a dark hour, a gloomy dream, or a “the light vanished from our golden sun” (Wilde 25). It is challenging to encounter with the most difficult circumstances and to have strength to overcome them. Not everyone has an inner will and power to overcome the barriers and find a guiding threat again. However, literature presents the readers with the invaluable gift of experience, inspiration, and guidance, which helps to continue ...

Satire in The Importance of Being Earnest

The most important role of any work of fiction is not simply to entertain its readers but to teach some moral lesson or convey a message. Each writer seeks to improve bad side of humans’ nature, presenting all their shortcoming and inappropriate behaviour in the images of the main characters of their stories. The best way to do it is definitely by using such genre of literature as satire. It does not only ridicule different vices and faults of particular individuals or society in general, but aims to construct social criticism and lead to further improvement. The Importance of ...

The Picture of Dorian Gray is a contradiction of people who are authentic such as Sybil and Henry and those who are hiding their true selves behind deceptions, like Dorian and Basil. This paper will look at the use of “smoke and mirrors” in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. “Smoke and Mirrors” is a metaphor that refers to the hiding of truth behind a veil of deception. This is a concept that is popular in Victorian Literature and helps to drive the plot as the conflict is often times essential to the advancement of the storyline. ...

Undoubtedly, Oscar Wilde is one of the most prominent figures of the world literature. A number of the writer's publications is huge and continues to grow even today. His plays do not cease to put in the world best theaters. Many people devoted to him researches, novels, movies, and TV shows; moreover, his paradoxes are abundantly quoted in any sections of society. Since Wilde's talent is undeniable, he is known not only for his creativity. The writer is considered a very bright and extraordinary personality that combines an extraordinary charisma and many contradictions. Oscar Wilde is a great playwright, ...

In the most unlikely places are literary themes that are eerily similar. Such is the case for “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” In Cold Blood, and “The Crucible,” a poem by Oscar Wilde, a novel by Truman Capote, and a play by Arthur Miller, respectively. Although each of these pieces of literature deal with different time periods and different experiences, each discusses the darkness inside the human soul, the piercing reality of very banal, human evil that burns inside most people. While Capote’s characters chase the ghost of a murderer around a complex, interwoven plot, Miller’s characters fight against a corrupt, hysterical system ...

Influence in The Picture of Dorian Gray And The Book of Job

The Picture of Dorian gray is a novel written by Oscar Wilde. Dorian Gray is the main character in this book and it revolves around his life and how the characters in the novel influence the protagonist’s life. Dorian Gray is depicted as a wealthy, beautiful, and unspoiled male who changes his life completely by sinning and pleasure after meeting Lord Henry who totally influenced his life. Wilde writes a story whereby the main character Dorian Gray is influenced to embark on a hedonistic life; a life he had feared for a very long time. Dorian was an innocent man who was forced to ...

1. Some facts of Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde’s biographies are surprisingly similar: they both had elder brothers and younger sisters, both lived in Chelsea, Britain (though, under different circumstances and in different times: Edgar studied in a boarding school in 1817, and Oscar moved there in 1879 to establish a writing career). Also, both became estranged from their parents: Poe over his gambling debts during his university studies and Wilde due to his charge of "gross indecency" for homosexual acts. Both authors first started to write poems and both have the volume titles “Poems”, however they then moved ...

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is an exceptional book by James Joyce, a renowned Irish writer. Arguably, one of the key aspects of the story is the depiction of a character, Stephen Dedalus, who aspires to be an artist. The story explores his transformation from the good and religious boy he is to a man who ends up running away from his hometown, denouncing his religion and social constraints looking for a world of freedom to express his artistic self. The story navigates the transformation of the boy from an immature believer to a mature college student who can decide what ...

People tend to feel good when they have established a daily routine, and a life in general, which complies with the rules of the community they belong, their morals, and personal beliefs. It is perhaps the safety provided to them by the entire societal structure around them that makes them not willing to accept anything “out of the ordinary”, when ordinary is what they have baptized as normal, based on all the aforementioned. With this in mind, being homosexual was definitely something a community could not easily accept. Having sexual drives with a particular focus on same-sex relationships was something unconceivable until very ...

Real Life Application Observations

The basic law of Supply and Demand: If the demand increases and the supply remain unchanged a shortage occurs, leading to higher prices. This is one of the most relevant laws of economics that can be applied to real life. Let us take an example of today’s real estate market. The real estate prices have increased almost five to six times over past twenty years. This is mostly due to the influx of more and more people into our cities. Who thought that there would be a day where we would actually buy water! Thanks to the ever-increasing population ...

Introduction

Oscar Wilde lived a short life: it was shortened, blighted and humiliated - social hypocrisy, the letter of the law and the arrogance of decadent behavior of the poet. Oscar Fingal (according to some sources - Fringal) O'Flaherty Wills Wilde was born on October 6, 1854 in the family of Sir William Wilde, Dublin ophthalmologist with the world-famous author of dozens of books on medicine, history and geography. "The dirtiest man in all of Ireland" this was saying about him. However, in England, he was appointed court surgeon, and later made a lord. In Stockholm, he was given the Order ...

Oscar Wilde said, “Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.” This punishment that Oscar Wilde speaks of us is what makes self-actualization an incomparably rewarding but also increasingly lonely path. But the gift of fulfillment, wonder, and delight that it offers keeps us going, keeps us evolving towards a higher consciousness. Dreaming is an entryway into that endless field of energy. Modern day dysfunction undercuts the spiritual aspect of existence with its focus on the material ...

The “Importance of Being Earnest” written by Oscar Wilde is a ridiculous comedy whose protagonist as depicted in this play maintains a fabricated personality as a way of breaking away from onerous social obligations (Thacker 21). Apparently, throughout this play, Oscar Wilde the writer of this play makes apparent the themes of the play using appropriate and effective styles to capture the audience attention. Considering that man themes are brought to light in this essay, this essay will essentially analyse the major themes that are well established throughout the play. Manners and sincerity is a theme that is well brought to light ...

The play, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde which is a ludicrous comedy where we are shown people running away from their community commitments. There is a lot of satire that has been brought out by the writer in most marriages. In some marriages, people are concerned about the name and advantages that come with it. Some look for wealth while the others aim is nobility that is associated with their counterparts (Hörz, Stefanie 94). Jack opted to propose to Gwendolen at the absence of her mother and her cousin, Algernon. However, Gwendolen is not ready to accept ...

In Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the protagonists Dorian Gray and Santiago Nazar are the central characters in these literary works. The protagonists make the stories develop as their ideology or value system are the central part of the conflict (Literary Devices). The protagonist are the main but not necessarily ideal characters. Despite the protagonists’ being unbiased and honorable or not, the changes in their characters, their suffering in the face of psychological and moral dilemmas highlighted by the author lead to the climax of the story ...

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, conceived in 1894 and first performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, is a play of social pretense and mistaken identity. The very title puns on the name “Ernest” and the quality of “being earnest.” The main event of the play is the matchmaking of two egoists Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff to two girls. The plot is full of farcical and melodramatic elements, for example, both heroes pose as men named Ernest to please their ladies, but then exposed. As the story unfolds, it turns out that ...

[Subject/Course] [Submission Date] The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is widely acknowledged as an alluring and horrendous novel. The majority of reading publics in America and Britain in the eighteenth century considered it as an immoral work of art due to the explicit sexual content of the novel (Gillespie 13). However, the readers in the contemporary times do not worry over the issue of sex as doesn’t discuss and/or mention sex by itself. The primary reason people thought The Picture of Dorian Gray as an immoral narrative is that Dorian Gray, the central character, ...

Filling In The Gaps: A critical dialogue with the lacunas in Suchismita Hazra’s article “Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest: A Critique of The Victorian Society” This paper proposes to launch into an analysis of Suchismita Hazra’s article “Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest: A Critique of The Victorian Society” and investigate the inconsistency of the hermeneutics of her paper. The paper seeks to take issue with her exploration of Wilde’s intent and purport in exposing the double-standards inherent in Victorian society and prove how her analyses, despite extensive quoting from ...

Oscar Wilde is a unique representative of the Victorian era in the English literature. The most valuable ideas of his works are rejection of egoism, permissiveness of personality, ethics and moral principles. All of these them Wilde illustrates in his play “The Importance of Being Earnest”. There is something exceptionally ironical in the title of the play itself. It may be interpreted for the both meanings of the word – as a treat of character that lacks practically every person in the play, and as a name of the fictional and at the same time real character of it. The point is ...

30-Sep-13

An essay comparing the book "The picture of Dorian Gray" to “Stavrogin's Confession” by Fyodor Dostoevsky excerpt in "The Evil and the Guilty". An essay comparing the book "The picture of Dorian Gray" to “Stavrogin's Confession” by Fyodor Dostoevsky excerpt in "The Evil and the Guilty" (Sackett, GreatBooksAll.htm). The two novels ‘The picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde and “Stavrogin's Confession "(Woolf-Stavrogin) by Fyodor Dostoevsky are the remarkable pieces of literature. However, the prime difference between the two is that of structure and style. The novel "The picture of Dorian Gray" is the only published novel ...

Oscar Wilde once said, "An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be." Oscar Wilde has never been wrong when he said that about engineers as engineers are always concerned about number, design, construction, and improvement of objects or equipment that will benefit humanity. Moreover, just like what engineers do, I am fascinated with numbers and design. My name is Fayez Alharbi, a [nationality] national and I am [age] years old. Ever since I started going to school, I had ...

Oscar Wilde’s play ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ reveals the hypocrisy that was prevalent in the society at that time. One needs to keep in mind that the title of the play is a take on the bizarre norms of the society. The subtitle previously described it as “a serious play” and the people as trivial, but was later changed by him. This expressed the seriousness of the play in exposing the various faults and errors of the society. The play was aimed to put forth the wrongs that predominated in the Victorian society. However, by referring to the people ...

The Importance of Being Earnest, a play by Oscar Wilde, is often considered a classic, and ahead of its time in terms of social commentary. The play, a comedy of errors in which people put on fictitious personalities to get what they want, touches on the triviality of Victorian culture and the institution of marriage, among other things. Wilde's work delights in its ravaging of the continental lifestyle that many rich people in the Victorian era experienced, the play does not reach to the point of moralizing, or providing solutions or lessons to be learned from the work. Instead, the play is ...

Some people actually have multiple personalities as a result of a disorder, while others, for various reasons, create another personality. Bunbury, is an example of such a personality that Algernon Moncrieff, one of the main characters in Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of being Earnest, creates as a means of getting away from real life. Of course, Algernon is not the only one with another identity or personality, Jack Worthing, the protagonist of the play, actually living as the persona of ‘Earnest’ when he resides in London. Algernon actually comes up with a name for this act of creating an alter ego to ...

Assignment Number

2. Purpose Statement Living in the name of preconceived ideas is the essential in the late Victorian London, where things are not what they seem to be, but in the end they are: people, society, class, even love, they all hide under the mask of reputation and respect, lies and deceit, pride and prejudice, for expressing the essence of being yourself, as long as this satisfies and complies with what the society needs and desires. 3. Thesis Statement Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of being Earnest” mingles the social Moravians of the 19th century England with ...

Abstract

The works of Oscar Wilde are both entertaining and humanizing. The stories are usually critiques of the rich or wealthy in society. They also seem to a reflection of Wilde’s own life and circle. A prevalent theme in Oscar Wilde’s works is the hypocrisy of the rich which result in the abuse of themselves and others, especially the poor or less privileged. This theme is particularly apparent in many of works. Analyzed in this paper are Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray; short stories, The Devoted Friend and The Model Millionnaire; and the poem, ...

1) Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde's many poems, plays and novels poke subtle fun at the Victorian mainstream, addressing the faults and the problems inherent within that society. Many of his works deal with the decadence and beauty of the Victorian upper class, as well as how empty and duplicitous that society is. By painting detailed portraits of flawed and overly vain characters, he shows the Victorian aristocrat as someone nearly inhuman, and far from sympathetic. In many ways, it transcends the nature of the Victorian mainstream by holding a mirror up to it and pointing out its flaws, whether ...

The Picture of Dorian Gray is an iconic novel by Oscar Wilde that tells the story of a highly cultured and refined young man, Dorian Gray, who inadvertently catches the attention of a local painter, Basil Howard. Basil approaches the young Dorian as a front man for a new kind of art he considers as an elemental turning point of his career. He essentially uses his mastery of art to showcase his feelings towards the young Dorian: feelings that he later deems a likely point of weakness on his part that should be checked. He then introduces Dorian to a close friend by the name ...

English Literature

The play, The Importance of Being Earnest is amongst the most famous in the world of literature. It tells the tale of two young men, both of whom adopt of the moniker ‘Ernest’, in the pursuit of two young women. It is the original farcical tale which sees the two young men become ever-more embroiled in the lies and tales that they’ve spun. The play is heavy in themes which help to further the comical circumstances within which the plot unfolds. These themes include the satire of society and triviality within Victorian society.

Wilde is well known for ...

English Literature

The play, The Importance of Being Earnest is amongst the most famous in the world of literature. It tells the tale of two young men, both of whom adopt of the moniker ‘Ernest’, in the pursuit of two young women. It is the original farcical tale which sees the two young men become ever-more embroiled in the lies and tales that they’ve spun. The play is heavy in themes which help to further the comical circumstances within which the plot unfolds. These themes include the satire of society and triviality within Victorian society.

Wilde is well known for ...

The author Oscar Wilde once said, "Marriage can be compared to a cage: birds within the cage, need to escape. The idea that marriage is a source of stress and unhappiness is the institution of marriage." Kate Chopin, the author of the short stories, "The Storm" and "Story of an Hour," seems to agree with this assessment - in both of these stories, marriage is seen as a stifling influence on the women who are the subjects of the poems. In "The Storm," Calixta momentarily escapes the trap of her existing marriage by having a passionate tryst with a former lover who finds himself ...

The Importance of Being Earnest, a play by Oscar Wilde, is often considered a classic, and ahead of its time in terms of social commentary. The play, a comedy of errors in which people put on fictitious personalities to get what they want, touches on the triviality of Victorian culture and the institution of marriage, among other things. However, despite its ravaging of the continental lifestyle that many rich people in the Victorian era experienced, the play does not reach to the point of moralizing, or providing solutions or lessons to be learned from the work. Instead, the play is more of a ...

"Uncanny is what one calls everything that was meant to remain secret and hidden and has come into the open" (Schilling).

The uncanny, a concept coined by Freud, postulates that something can be both familiar and foreign to someone - if something is uncanny, it is recognizable, yet alien. When someone looks at something they find uncanny, they are paradoxically attracted to and drawn away from that thing simultaneously. It is one of the more interesting aspects of cognitive dissonance, and one which is present in a lot of fiction. The uncanny is used in many instances to create a subtle sense ...

1.0 Oscar Wilde: Art and the Handicraftsman This particular lecture focused on the relationship that brings together art and the craftsman. The presentation outlined that pulling one from the other affects both. If one is kept away from the other, negative effects of that action ruins the two. Art is all about expressing things in a personal view. Such expressions are based on diverse feelings of the handicraftsman. The resultant expressions of such works constitute the art. Attitude, motives and expectations are just but a few ways that determine the forthcoming artistic works. Art is all about getting imaginative according ...