How Does Oscar Wilde Use Epigrams

Throughout mankind, there have been plenty of time where disobedience has lead to  greater changes for humanity. Author Oscar Wilde once stated “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history. Is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion.” Wilde’s statement claims that disobedience is a trait that every human possesses, disobedience is the reason society is so developed. As history has shown us, humans have never been satisfied when there is a higher power over them. For this reason, it is through disobedience and rebellion that social progress has been made.

Wilde’s lifestyle may have caused him to be snubbed in certain social situations.   It maybe that he drew on his own experiences to create the atmosphere of scandal in the last chapters, even though, other than murder, the protagonist’s “sins” are never named and only briefly alluded to.

1. Wilde is saying that modern culture is basically about what you shouldn't do. Modern culture is about the wrongs and the rights, it's how we define how someone fits into their role in life.

    "I turned half way around and saw Dorian Gray for the first time. I knew that I had come face to face with someone whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself" (7). During the Victorian era, this was a dangerous quote. The Victorian era was about progress. It was an attempt aimed at cleaning up the society and setting a moral standard. The Victorian era was a time of relative peace and economic stability (Marshall 783). Victorians did not want anything "unclean" or "unacceptable" to interfere with their idea of perfection. Therefore, this quote, taken from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray,

While the undertones of the novel were disgraceful when researched, this was only due to the Victorian people’s religious countenance. A similar situation still occurs in the 20th and 21st centuries. There is a struggle to understand and normalize homosexuality while still understanding that it is something that is an integral part of society. In this dissonance, The Picture of Dorian Gray became a middle ground for the community by walking that fine line between being the pinnacle of a sexually fluid revolution and having

Wilde jeers at the corrupt mind-sets of the Victorian Era by making the stiff beliefs of his community

In The Picture of Dorian Grey, Oscar Wilde explores the importance of physical appearances, and its relations to success in society. “Dorian experiences the psychic transformation and gradually ends up in self-destruction after alienating his self-identification” (Zhang). Wilde writes about how his main character, Dorian Grey, explores and learns about the philosophical elements of life and mortality. “To him, man was a being with myriad lives and myriad sensations, a complex multiform creature that bore within itself strange legacies of thought and passion, and whose very flesh was tainted with the monstrous maladies of the dead” (Wilde 150). Oscar Wilde is able to create a fictional world that explores many controversial issues present in real life. Wilde uses the development of his characters to discuss his opinions on several different matters relating to beauty, mortality, and the supernatural.

Is it truly being our best-selves? Is it feeling emotionally content? Or is it neurotically trying our hardest to mold ourselves into a person that appeases others? Whether or not we intend to, we often cater to the last. We live in a society where beauty and glamour are pervasive, creating an almost subliminal standard of perfection in the backs of our minds. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Birthmark”, he tackles this notion of perfection, while also noting the lust that humanity has for it. He delves into the imperfections of all things natural and writes about a scientist hoping to mend his wife’s physical shortcomings in order to create the flawless woman. Hawthorne covers the many themes that go into the pursuit of perfection, fabricating an allegorical representation of today. Exemplifying how striving for an unattainable standard of perfection is detrimental to one’s health, “The Birthmark” serves as a literary precursor, highlighting the negative effects of contemporary ideals of beauty

The Victorian era emerged as a narrowly conventional society that strived to continue the excellence of idealistic morals and conventions that both assisted in the formation of the time period and that remained constant throughout the sixty-plus years in English history. Notable figures of the 19th century influenced how society functioned and often challenged the norm. Among these figures, Irish playwright Oscar Wilde poised his actions and writings to contest and satirise the societal customs that were existent during the era. Throughout Wilde’s workings, he both explicitly and implicitly wove myriad viewpoints into his plays and novels – these contained the satirised comments and suppositions of the Victorian era, which ranged from social

Mabel epitomises the supposed silliness and frivolity that a young Victorian girl would have and this is further encouraged by Wilde’s use of epigram and absurdity in the line “Oh, I love London Society! I think it has immensely improved. It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.” showing the shallow and flamboyant nature of Mabel’s character to reflect to typical young woman in Victorian society. Farce can be further seen by the interaction between Lady Basildon and Mrs Marchmont who are described as ‘types of exquisite beauty’. The lines (Lady Basildon) “What martyrs we are, dear Margaret.” (Mrs Marchmont). [Rising.] “And how well it becomes us, Olivia!” Utilises hyperbole to show their frivolity and silliness to highlight their situation within the gender norms. Their willingness to suffer conversation with boring men makes them more attractive and also shows how women were forced to settle for men they may not particularly like. This comment is then further driven by Wilde via Lord Goring’s epigram “if we men married the women we deserved, we should have a very bad time of it” highlighting the inequality between the sexes in terms of

Wilde’s intentions are to expose the hypocrisy and reveal the cruel, manipulative and brutish manners

If Wilde did not disguise his very declasse views

“Society never cares about substance but instead reveres style and triviality (Summary and Analysis Act I: Part 1). Wilde is saying Victorian’s society they don’t know the difference between trivial subjects and affairs of life. Jack is only accepted in the upper-class, because of the Cardew’s fortune. He knows all the rules, the manners of the upper class. Many people from this era love to use the orphan plot. But, Wilde is the one of the few turn it on its head. By having

In Oscar Wilde’s Popular nineteenth century novel, the Picture of Dorian Gray demonstrates the importance of the aesthetic movement in Victorian England. This suggests youth and physical attractiveness is emphasized and are valuable additions to society. Therefore, what matters to Dorian, is not the internal goodness an individual possesses but the appearance they present. Consequently, Dorian is able to forget the violent acts he commits as long as he appears beautiful on the outside. Since external beauty is valued, Wilde argues that people tend to lose their individualism and conform to society’s expectations. With this in mind, Dorian gray grows more corrupt, self-centered as he focuses more on the pleasure for himself as he becomes more vulnerable to his own misgivings. He loses his individualism, because he is conforming to society’s form of asethics. I agree with Wilde’s arguement about Dorian Gray, that individuals lose their sense of idenity when conforming to society’s influence, such as in today’s beauty standards portrayed on social media, racism described through facism, and LGBTQ rights violated by intolerant individuals. (too wordy)

     The Picture of Dorian Gray is a novel by Oscar Wilde. The genre of this novel can be classified as a comedy of manners or a gothic novel. The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in 1890 in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Another version with an additional six chapters was published in 1891. One of the major themes in the novel was the Supremacy of Beauty and Youth. A very attractive man has a portrait painted of himself, and after being warned of the mortality of his youth the man, Dorian, trades his soul to remain young while his portrait bears the markings of his age and evil deeds. Dorian becomes increasingly evil thoughout the novel, while constantly being encouraged by Lord