Wilde, Oscar - The picture of Dorian Gray and The importance of being Earnest

OSCAR WILDE

Meeting between Dorian and Lord Henry

Dorian Gray, a young exceedingly handsome aristocrat, is having his friend, the artist Basil Hallaward. Lord Henry Wotton has come to visit Hallaward while Dorian is sitting for the finishing touches to his portrait. This is their first meeting and Lord Henry explains to the young man his doctrine of life.Dorian’s wish is realize in a supernatural way. Dorian’s hides the portrait in an abandoned room of his house because it not only bears the sign of his aging but also of his crimes and debauchery.

Lord Henry's advice

According to Lord Henry beauty is the most important value in life. People should judge by appearances . Lord Henry tells Dorian to make the most out of his life, while He is still young, because beauty isn’t forever. Also He tells him not to waist his life following false ideals, but to devote himself to pleasure, to new sensation and to the search of beauty.
When the painter has finished the portrait, Dorian stands in front of the pictures looks at him, and sees his beauty as it was the first time, because He is influenced by Henry’s words. He makes the wish that the portrait could get old while He keeps his beauty and his youthful forever.

The fate of the painter

The painter has been killed by Dorian and He stubbed himself trying to destroy the picture, because the picture reminds him of his crimes and wants to get rid of his past sins.
DANDY: is a men who cares too much about his appearance, about it’s clothes. A men is devoted to style, smartness and fashion in dress and appearance. For a perfect dandy these things are the symbol aristocratic superiority of his mind, They want to keep away from the ugliness of the industrial society. The history of dandyism beings in the middle 18th century with George Brummell, a celebrate dandy who dominated London society and innovated style and fashion with his elegance.

Art for art's sake

In the middle of 19th century in France some artist became the symbol of antivulgarity and the outward manifestation of the inner perfection of the self. They created art which aimed to shock the public. The artist had to shock not only through his works but also through his dress, manners and eccentric views. The doctrine "art for art’s sake" was brought to England from France, It found its prophet in Oscar Wilde: his clothes were a weapon employed to reach success, as well as to protest against the dull unimaginative bourgeoisie. At the close of the 19th century, however, Wilde’s trial defeated the cult of aestheticism and seemed to show that its effeminate posing was a sure path toward vice and degeneration.

Wilde's comedy

Is the Wilde’s best known play, it is drawn according to the tradition of comedy manners: complicated plot, flat characters, wit, exaggerations, paradoxes and highly improbable coincidences. The main theme of the comedy is love, but the play also portrays the snobbish behavior of upper class that want to keep attitudes, values and power in the hands of few people. Verbal humor conveyed through witty, non sense and puns. A pun is also in the title of the play based on the adjective Earnest which means serious and It has also the same pronunciation as the name Earnest.

The aesthetic movement

Aesthetic movement blossomed in the 1880s, it believed the concept of "art for art’s sake" which meant that art existing independently of any moral or political purpose. Writers and artists were deeply disillusioned by the "materialism" of the age and the death of the spirit. They found the centrality of money.