“I AM SO CLEVER THAT SOMETIMES I DON’T UNDERSTAND

A SINGLE WORD OF WHAT I AM SAYING.”

Born in Dublin, 16 October 1854 Educated at Trinity College Settled in London Friends with Yeats and Henry James A terrible actor, but beloved

celebrity and writer – sort of like Woody Allen.

•Wrote reviews•Edited a women’s magazine•Published a volume of poetry

•Published The Picture of Dorian Gray – not well received

•The Importance of Being Earnest

•Hit literary stride: Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband

Preferred genre– Victorian melodrama a.k.a. “sentimental comedy”

Genre derived from the French variety of “well-made play” which commonly features fallen women abandoned children of uncertain parentage Letters and miscommunication dark secrets from the past rise to threaten

the happiness of seemingly respectable, well-meaning characters.

Wilde introduced a new character to the genre = the “dandy”

Character represented a moral perspective never before portrayed in drama

Dandy = man who pays excessive attention to his appearance = heavily autobiographical = facilitates authorial voice = witty, overdressed, self-styled philosopher = speaks in epigrams and paradoxes = ridicules the insincerity and hypocrisy of society = self-deprecatingly presents himself as trivial, shallow, and ineffectual. HOWEVER the dandy always proves to be deeply moral and essential to the happy resolution of the plot

THE DANDY

early experiment in Victorian melodrama

Part satire, part comedy of manners, and part intellectual farce

seems to have nothing at stake because the world it presents is so blatantly and ostentatiously artificial

serious subtext that takes aim at self-righteous moralism and hypocrisy

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

•The Importance of Being Earnest

•2 wks after IOBE opened, the Marquess of Queensbury (Lord Alfred’s belligerent, homophobic father) publicly accused him of being a homosexual•Wilde sued for libel and lost•Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885: homosexual acts punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment

•Served full sentence under conditions of utmost hardship and cruelty.

•Released from prison•Poor healt/broken spirit•Moved to Paris•Lived in poverty under assumed name

Wilde could have escaped England before the trial

Speculation as to why he remained includes: self-destructiveness denial desperation desire for martyrdom.

Possible alternative to why Wilde did not escape – Did he remain to protect his lover’s brother, who

was a also a homosexual and who was having an affair with the future prime minister?

Was the persecution a media trick? Was it meant to draw attention away from other homosexuals in positions of power, such as the future prime minister of England?

Was Wilde further punished by the government when his lover’s father threatened to reveal the truth about the future prime minister?

EPIGRAMS: A PITHY SAYING OR REMARK EXPRESSING AN IDEA IN A CLEVER AND AMUSING WAY.

Dialectic response to: Realism Didacticism Morality The monotony and vulgarity of bourgeois life

Belief in Art for art’s sake.

Unconventional lifestyle Appreciation of Beauty at expense of utility/social

value Pursuit of Pleasure & Worship of the Senses

(Hedonism) Evocative Use of the language of senses Excessive attention to the self

characterised earlier and even concurrent cultural fashions