By Oscar Wilde

Wilde also was famous for his leading of the aesthetic movement and his imprisonment for propagating homosexuality. The Picture of Dorian Gray tells a story about a degradation of a young man Dorian Gray. At the beginning, an artist Basil Hallward paints a portrait of the kind and innocent Dorian Gray and, after seeing the artwork, Lord Henry Wotton - a vain and snobbish class man - requests to meet him. Influenced by eccentric Henry Wotton’s philosophy, Dorian begins to become vain and cruel but while his external appearance remains unchanged, his appearance on the painting alters every time he commits a sin. The novel explores many issues, one of them is aestheticism - exaltation of art and beauty, leading to the eternal question - can a beautiful person be moral and a moral person be beautiful, which always have and will stir society’s curiosity. Oscar Wilde once said that "All art is quite useless" and in The Picture of Dorian Gray, he tends to juxtapose various expressions of art with the routine of Dorian Gray and a shallow life in the nineteenth century. As a tool to reveal the concept of a life at the end of the 19th century Wilde uses art of pretty - but meaningless - things used to please one’s vanity and create a mundane environment. This raises the question: what did Oscar Wilde want to imply by and how does he use art to develop the theme of morality in The Picture of Dorian Gray? It was impossible to avoid art in any of its expressions (parties, theatre, clothes, etc.) in even the most regular lives in the 19th century and of course it influenced the way of thinking, created the social status and the image of oneself, so, after all, art had a huge impact on the individuals of the 19th century. And, as often beauty does, art encourages greed and vanity, which Oscar Wilde demonstrates through the usage of art in the novel.

In The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, we see how the different characters show their love of beauty and pleasure and the affects they have on the main character: Dorian Gray. Each of the three main characters, Basil Hallward, Lord Henry Wotton, and Dorian Gray portray a part of how the author felt about himself and the world around him. “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks of me: Dorian what I would like to be- in other ages, perhaps” (qtd. in Bloom pg. 117). Through these characters, Wilde shows the ramifications of a worldview based entirely on the pursuit of happiness, beauty and sensuality demonstrated by their integration with the world around them. This is most strongly seen through the life

The life of the Victorian people was a time in which people were prude because of their repression. Many of the people of that time had a lot of pent-up emotions, there was a time and a place for something and it solemn did any good for anyone, depending on your class you had to have a curtain way of carrying yourself, many of which was not the must enjoyable of ways and lacked some fun that many need in their life. This forced many to split their Public life from the Private one. Written in the Victorian Era, the works of The importance of being earnest by Oscar Wilde, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson ,and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley displays how

Oscar Wilde is judging society as pertaining to them living two different lives where they can be who they actually, want to be. Jack and Algernon run to the city where they can go to do the things they judge people for while in the country. Jack feels "When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring". The characters have also created a thing such as Bunbury which gives them a way of life which offers away for the characters to escape from the social norms. Oscar Wilde has created two completely different society's one where the characters can go. We also can begin to see the story of Oscar Wilde into this book and how he is considered a higher member of society but he is also living another life as being a homosexual man we could question maybe if he was questioning the way that he lived and how he felt he

In the play, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, there is a lot of humor that can be found. Specifically, developed behind the characters in this play that display many instances of irony and how important it was to fit into the “status quo” of this time period. There are specific behaviors from the characters of Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen, and Algernon that portray Wilde’s opinion of society during the Victorian Age. The attitude of these characters is snobbish and their manners display double standards and superiority. The play’s use of mockery and irony of these satirical situations is meant to publicly ridicule the self- loving attitude of the upper class while exposing their true absence of intelligence which causes their absurd social behaviors

Dorian Gray’s life throughout the book is revolved around social class/Aristocracy. Dorian Gray comes from a wealthy family but he is not really part of Aristocracy, but this Aristocracy within the society and the people has been an influence on him. Dorian is more of a middle-class men that does not seem to know what to think about everything going on around him. That is why he takes interest into Lord Henry’s words. He thinks that it is someone who is experienced and should take his word. Wilde, in this story, is representing and criticizing the British Monarchy within that time period. In the

Wyndham Lewis recognizes, “Wherever there is objective truth, there is satire.” Most readers don't recognize this until they feel insulted, mostly due to the fact that humans don’t acknowledge their lifestyle flaws until others make them known. This concept has come to be the brick and mortar of the wry play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

The Importance of Being Earnest, written by a fascinating Oscar Wilde reveals a story of social class and hierarchy during the roaring Victorian time period (1837-1901). Focusing his writing on the social classes, the play becomes comical when he exposes the flaws held by the upper class during this time. Wilde saw earnestness as being a key ideal in Victorian culture for much of British society struck Wilde as dry, stern, conservative, and so “earnestly” concerned with the maintenance of social norms and the status quo that it had become almost inhuman. This play depicts certain characters that conform so easily to the conventional social status and characteristics of the Victorian culture. Such characters include Algernon, Jack, Cecily, and Gwendolyn. These characters introduce many themes that focus on the Victorian lifestyle, primarily the issues of being “earnest” and one’s own morality.

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde demonstrates how the victorian society is corrupt and ignorant through details and imagery. In the book, Wilde uses characters such as Lord Henry and Dorian Gray to reveal how the victorian people are ignorant through details. When speaking to Dorian, Lord Henry comments on his view towards crime within the victorian society which shows how Wilde portrays him as an ignorant character. Wilde states “It is not you, Dorian, to commit a murder.

Social status refers to a person 's position or importance within a society. I have done some research and have acquired information over the way social status is addressed in both the writings of Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde. In the novel Persuasion we can see how the characters go beyond their means to uphold their title and social value. In the play The Importance of Being Earnest we can see how the social rank and wealth of a person gets them what they most desire. Persuasion by Jane Austen and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde are similar to each other in two important ways, they both emphasise the value of a person 's rank and they both show how money and the stance of a person in society played a major role in the way the person lived their life.

The decision ruined his life (A&E Television Networks). Homosexuality was illegal at that time in England (Kenyon). Back then, homosexuals became more aware of their ability to find one another, using Wilde’s fashion as a signaling system (Dumortier). Wilde was the first significant Irish person to raise the awareness for homosexuality (GradeSaver

Homoeroticism and Defiance of Victorian Values in Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Mr. W.H. Oscar Wilde once satirically said, "Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everybody in good society holds exactly the same opinions. " Rather than hold the same opinions as those in good Victorian society, he boldly challenges them. Oscar Wilde parallels the relationships of Shakespeare, Michelangelo and other revered historical intellectuals with his relationship to Lord Alfred Douglas in his work, The Portrait of Mr. W.H., and during his criminal trial. Through these parallels, Wilde attempts to normalize and justify his homosexuality in a time of rampant homophobia, forcing the examination of self-expression, through writing and speech, as a tool of defiance.

Ironically, people were willing to lie and hide truths in order to seem respectable. People of this time wished to appear dignified and proper, yet it is known that underneath the surface and behind closed doors, they were anything but that. Historians today look back on the era and often recall how prostitution and child labor were common. Beyond just that, as conformity was normal, people that were different were not accepted into society. Homosexuals, for example, were looked down upon and often arrested for “gross indecency.” Wilde was arrested and mistreated by his peers for being gay. Homosexuality, although frowned upon, was still found often in the “underworld of male prostitutes” (Stade). In order to appear principled, people didn’t act principled. They simply kept their unsuitable acts where they couldn’t be caught. As a result, Wilde receives his credibility as he witnessed first-hand the hypocrisy found in the supposed wholesomeness of this time. He has a right to be criticizing the society since he was aware of all the underlying faults; he isn’t simply mocking them for no reason. Everyone of this time had a struggle; they wished to be dignified and honorable, yet they had their own selfish or egocentric ideas

Food is a crucial part of everyone’s lives. It gives people energy and nutrients to essentially grow, move, work, play, think and learn and most importantly, to survive. It is the one thing everyone in this world knows despite its shape, form or smell. In Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, food and eating are constantly being presented. Wilde uses the character’s constant consumption of food to emphasize the overeating, excessive consumption and self-indulgence of the upper-class members of the Victorian society. The necessity of food becomes a euphemism for all the things pleasurable yet is also used as a way to suppress emotions. With the outbreak of the new era for women, food introduces Wilde’s playful yet snub opinion on the freedom of women, while still referring to the struggles of being accepted in society.

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, premiered in London in 1895 when Wilde was in the peak of his career. During this time of the Victorian Era, society was very moral and chaste, at least on the surface. There was a very specific code of behavior that governed almost everything, but focused mainly on the topic of marriage. This affected Wilde first-hand as he was married to a woman but also involved with men which was forbidden at the time. Using the themes of dualism and marriage, Wilde is trying to show the audience the ridiculous nature of Victorian society. Through the reoccurring theme of dualism, Oscar Wilde uses sizable amounts of satire to not only mock the trivial Victorian society, but more specifically to ridicule