Oscar Wilde 1854 - 1900

A “dandy”

Wilde’s Life The story of Oscar Wilde’s life is probably more famous than his works of fiction. He was Irish but lived in London and spent his time with wealthy and aristocratic friends. He was a homosexual when homosexuality was illegal and was eventually arrested and put in prison.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) This is the only novel Wilde ever published. It is the story of a beautiful young man named Dorian who’s picture is painted at the beginning of the story. He lives a life of vice and decadence but never ages or grows ugly. Instead the face in the painting becomes old and horrible.

Dorian He keeps the picture covered. When he dies, his face is old and deformed and the painting is beautiful.

Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Jekyll and Hyde was published 4 years before Dorian Gray and the stories are very similar. They both assume that you can tell a “bad” person by the way they look. Nobody suspects Dorian of being corrupt because he remains beautiful.

Plays He began by writing short stories, poems and a novel, but his plays made him famous. The plots of his plays are not very serious. They are intended to be humorous and superficial.

Famous lines Many of the lines in his plays are more well-known than the plots. The plots of the plays fairly silly are not particularly important……

Example of a Wilde witticism Algernon: “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.”

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) The Importance of Being Earnest is about two friends named Algernon and Jack. Jack pretends to be a sensible man named Jack in the country and pretends to have an irresponsible brother named Ernest in the city. In the city he calls himself Ernest.

The title The title is a PUN. A pun is a phrase or word with 2 meanings. “Earnest” means serious But “Ernest” is a man’s name This is also a joke, because the play is not serious at all.

Love Jack loves Gwendoline, but her favourite thing about him is his name (Ernest) Her mother will not allow their marriage when Jack reveals that he was found as a baby in a handbag

More Love Algernon comes to the countryside pretending to be Jack’s fictional brother, Earnest. He falls in love with Jack’s ward, Cicily.

Happy Ending Eventually after many misunderstandings and coincidences, the two couples marry. And everyone is happy.

Double Life Writing about men with secret lives was a way of writing about homosexuality. Some of Wilde’s friends would have understood these references and found them funny.

Marriage Oscar Wilde was married and had 2 sons despite having affairs with lots of men. He wrote children’s stories for his sons and these were some of the first things he had published.

Children’s Stories They are so different from his other works that people often forget he wrote them…..

The Happy Prince (1888) The story of a golden statue (called the happy prince) who is saddened by all the misery he can see.

The Happy Prince The Happy Prince makes friends with a sparrow who is about to fly south for the Winter. He asks the sparrow to take the jewels from his eyes and the gold from his body and take it to the poor.

The Happy Prince Though it is Winter, the sparrow stays with the Prince, who is now blind and no longer golden. The sparrow eventually freezes to death and the Princes lead heart cracks.

The Happy Prince Because the statue is no longer beautiful, it is taken down and melted. But the heart won’t melt. The heart is thrown away with the dead sparrow.

Ending In heaven, God sends one of his angels down to find the most precious things in the city The angel brings back the sparrow and the lead heart.

Children’s Stories Like many traditional fairy tales, Wilde’s children’s stories are incredibly sad. They also have strongly religious themes. They are much more serious than his plays for adults.

Important message Wilde felt that stories like the Happy Prince contained important moral instructions. It is a simple story that argues in favour of kindness. It also makes a comment about the inequality in 19th century society.

Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece Wilde’s poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol is often considered the best thing he ever wrote. He wrote it after he was released from prison.

Wilde’s Trial Homosexuality was illegal in the UK (until 1967) In 1895 Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labour.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1897) Wilde was released from prison in 1897. He wrote the long poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol that year. It describes the things that he saw in prison.

Death Penalty The poem focuses on a man who has killed his wife and has been sentenced to death. It is an argument against the death penalty.

Rhyme structure He did not wear his scarlet coat, A For blood and wine are red, B And blood and wine were on his hands C When they found him with the dead, B The poor dead woman whom he loved, D And murdered in her bed. B

Death Penalty Wilde is writing about the true story of a fellow prisoner who had killed the woman that he loved. Throughout the poem he repeats the line, “All men kill the thing they love.” The poem is asking us to find sympathy for a murderer.

Prison Writing Oscar Wilde’s prison writing is very moving because it gives us an idea of how much he must have suffered in prison. He died just 3 years after he was released from prison.

Next Week Next week we will be in room 6202 We will be studying E.M. Forster. You can read the first chapter of Where Angels Fear to Tread at sandaenglishliterature.wikispaces.com

Film Club Next Monday: Lost in Translation 6pm in room 6205 sandafilmclub.blogspot.com