Oscar Wilde

In The Picture of Dorian Gray when talking to his friend, Dorian himself says that “‘each of us has Heaven and Hell in him, Basil.’” (Wilde 169). While Dorian was making an objective point with that statement, he is also describing himself. However, Dorian’s balance of Heaven and Hell was more inclined towards Heaven than Hell. Dorian started out as a very innocent young man amazed with…

influenced writer’s style. As shown in both Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray gothic elements influence the novels by using imagery of death and destruction. In the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the portrayals of a monster differ…

Max Beerbohm’s Enoch Soames highlights the need for being known for one's artwork and having it tell the tale of one’s name. Enoch Soame’s ego is seen as he tries to bend the rules of nature and see if he ever becomes famous posthumously. Soame’s college Max Beerbohm, becomes the narrator of the tale and a main character as well. Here, the reader sees the first signs of his selfish nature and how both characters self-deprecate in order to appear rather dependent on the reader and their tales…

owned a garden which had “soft green grass” (Wilde,1994, p.32) where “beautiful flowers like stars” (Wilde,1994, p.32) stood with “twelve peach-trees that in the spring-time broke out into delicate blossoms of pink and pearl, and in the autumn bore rich fruit” (Wilde,1994, p.32). Wilde (1994) states that when the Giant returned from his travels he declared that that the garden was his own and that “I will allow nobody to play in it but myself” (Wilde, 1994, p.32). The Giants struggles commences…

In Oscar Wildes comedic play, The Importance of Being Earnest, the secrets kept and maintained by Jack Worthing, his friend Algernon Moncrieff and his abandoner Miss Prism completely influence the plot. In the play we are opened to multiple different types of characters. Many of these characters are put into situations which reveals to the audience the true meaning of the play. Often in a play, the characters success usually comes with some secret keeping from other characters. In The Importance…

trivial matter as a name. When Jack attempts to tell Gwendolen that his name is really "Jack" and not "Ernest" she replies saying, "Jack?... No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. The only really safe name is Ernest." Wilde deliberately uses farce in the play to exaggerate the mind frame of the upper class. It is seen here that Gwendolen loves Jack, but she places greater importance on silly, superficial and trivial matters such as a name, something a person has…

sticks to the dialogue from the original Wilde play, though he does include alterations…

Victorian literature was composed from roughly 1830-1900 under the reign of Queen Victoria of England. It is most often characterized by the hypocrisy of the social stratosphere and the precedence of good over evil. Victorian author Oscar Wilde, however, challenged the bounds of typical Victorian literature and ultimately “opened the door for the development of modernism” (Gutierrez-Folch). Two of his works, The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband, portray Wilde’s ideas and…

in their upper-class position is the most important even it means sacrificing their own identity. Oscar Wilde uses irony, characterization, and satire to criticize the behavior and unreasonable expectations of the upper class in 19th century Victorian England. Wilde…

The picture of Dorian Gray was published in July of 1890. It was written by Oscar Wilde and it was first published in Lippincott's monthly magazine before it was published into a personal novel. One thing that made the book such a hit was the historical controversy that comes with it. When the story was first published into the magazine the conflict of the time changing was highly argued. In fact before Wilde published The picture of Dorian Gray into a book he was urged to censor some parts of…