Essay on Oscar Wilde and His Fairy Tales

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.

In his evaluation of Little Red Riding Hood, Bill Delaney states, “In analyzing a story . . . it is often the most incongruous element that can be the most revealing.” To Delaney, the most revealing element in Little Red Riding Hood is the protagonist’s scarlet cloak. Delaney wonders how a peasant girl could own such a luxurious item. First, he speculates that a “Lady Bountiful” gave her the cloak, which had belonged to her daughter. Later, however, Delaney suggests that the cloak is merely symbolic, perhaps representing a fantasy world in which she lives.

Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, and poet who lived an unconventional life during the Victorian Era. Oscar Wilde is lauded for his works, trademark wit, and the way he carried himself around. Arguably, his most famous piece of work is The Importance of Being Earnest, which is about two people who make up a person that lives in another part of the country in order to escape burdensome social responsibilities. The Importance of Being Earnest is an example of a satirical piece of literature. Satire is the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. Wilde’s life experiences greatly impacted the views, that he expresses through satirical humor, in his works, particularly The

Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband Oscar Wilde (1845-1903) lived an outrageous and controversial life which was well publicized and condemned, as his life defied the strict social mores of the time. He was put into this public position due to the success of his plays which challenged Victorian earnestness while being hilariously funny. His plays, in particular An Ideal Husband, 1895 portray Victorian society as viciously hypocritical at it's worst and laughably pretentious at it's best. Wilde expressed this point of view in An Ideal Husband through the rich use of plot development, construction of characters, dramatic irony, hyperbole, witty and epigrammatic repartee and satire.

In the book, The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, there is a character named Lord Henry Wotton. He is the story's antagonist and whom critics often think most resembles Oscar Wilde. Wilde remarks "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." Within the preface of The Picture Of Dorian Gray, there lie the lines "Those who go beneath the symbol do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their own peril." From Wilde's statement, we can assume that there is a part of Wilde represented in each of the main characters, but how they represent him is up for the reader to decide.

    "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,

Daniel, A. M. "Wilde the Writer: Wilde's Plays." Palgrave Advances in Oscar Wilde Studies. Ed. Frederick S. Roden. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. 54-71.

Throughout his life Oscar Wilde had many strong influences exerted upon him. During his early childhood his mother influenced him and into college some of his professors and certain philosophers left a substantial impression upon him. Into adulthood these influences leaked out in his writing. These influences gave him ample ideas for writing The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde's study of the Hellenistic ideals of Epicurus, his coddled lifestyle as a child and his devotion to the movement of Aesthetics and Moral Ambiguity have produced one of the most astounding works of horror fiction.

Oscar Wilde was born in the height victorian age. His dad was a doctor tell he died. His mother who wrote under an alias for an irish newspaper called The Nation until it was raided in 1848 and had to close. He had 5 siblings, Willie Wilde, Mary wilde, Emile Wilde, Isola Wilde, and Henry Wilde. He has been rich and poor all his life and today he has been remembered for all the good he did and all the bad.

Oscar Wilde was bound for success from the very beginning. His father, by the time he was 28 years old, had not only graduated as a physician, but had also completed voyages to Madiera, North Africa, Teneriffe, and the Middle East, studied at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, written two books, and had been appointed medical advisor for the Irish Census of 1841 (Biography). Among these many successes, his father also opened up his own practice, and founded St. Mark’s Ophthalmic Hospital, and built it entirely at his own expense. On the contrary, Oscar’s mother wrote poems for the weekly Irish newspaper, and was also a profound lyricist.

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

Oscar Wilde works combine the importance of his own life with his ability to write to create famous short stories, plays and novels. A few of his most famous works include The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. This Irish writer used unique themes and techniques to separate himself from many other writers of his time. Themes such as homosexuality, individualism and aestheticism frequently which make his works especially stand out. His most important techniques include characterization, criticism and structure which enable Wilde to explain his way of seeing the world through his works. His themes and techniques work closely with his stylistic usage of fairy-tales, pessimism and dichotomy to bring his works together.

Sagas about princes and princesses, beauty, magic, and love, fairy tales like Snow White and Cinderella among others have become children’s favorite bedtime stories. However, as parents tuck their sons and daughters in, they fail to realize that there is a much more daunting purpose to these stories. American writer and poet, Jane Yolen suggests that fairy tales indicate life values. Furthermore, Yolen insists that these tales are “thumbprints of history” (Yolen 27). Studying fairy tales in depth, she proves that the “functions of myths” consist of “creating a landscape of allusion [and] enabling us to understand our own and out culture from inside out” (Yolen 18). Yolen confirms that these stories comment on, “the abstract truths of our

Unfortunately, history is riddled with anecdotes about talented and brilliant individuals who are ostracized, jailed, or worse for being labeled homosexual. Oscar Wilde is another prominent figure persecuted for his sexuality. This type of discrimination was not unique to the world of the arts. Alan Turing, brilliant computer scientist and inventor of the Enigma machine that decoded German transmissions and was instrumental in the Allied victory in World War II, was also jailed for “indecent acts.” He died shortly after being released; some suspect he committed suicide.

It is apparent that vanity, sin, and beauty are the key elements found in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. But, where do these elements originate from? What is the reason behind man’s internal need to pursue sin or his ideal sense of beauty that, on occasion, leads to his vanity? In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde explores naturalism through the use of symbolism and the tools of characterization, such as speech, action, interiority, the narrator, and the actions of other characters towards the protagonist, to illustrate how humanity’s perception of vanity, sin, and beauty are an inherent part of man’s nature and a blinding disillusion to the meaning of life.