Oscar Wilde

Dorian Gray At the beginning of the book, Dorian Gray is a very sweet and innocent boy, as described by his friends Basil Hallward and Lord Henry. He has a very naive outlook on the world and is easily influenced by Lord Henry and his assertions about life, beauty and pleasure. I will get back to this conversation, because I do believe it has something - if not a lot - to do with Dorian’s future development. Upon meeting and falling in love with Sibyl Vane, Dorian becomes rather obsessed…

“whoppers,” whether the untruths are told to oneself or to another. This is exemplified in the stories of Gimpel, in “Gimpel the Fool” by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Jack, in The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by Oscar Wilde. An orphan dubbed “the Fool,” Gimpel is the target of his town’s (shtetl’s) repeated…

All people are born with the capability to commit evil but are taught right from wrong but learned to suppress these emotions because of what society has decided to be good or bad. No one person is completely void of the ability to be evil, but most people can separate good deeds from bad ones because of what they learned from those who have influenced them the most as well as well as their experiences that have molded them into who they are as a person. This awareness of right and wrong is what…

Paradoxes “Back in the 1800’s, Oscar Wilde once said, “We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.” More than one hundred years have past since he spoke these words, however, I feel they still hold truth, especially for our generation. I have this friend you see, and she is trying to save me from my stresses.” Senior year, the little things like: scholarships, SAT scores, and studying; most of my high school life this is all I've done or worried about. I think she's…

Normally, a man who writes about sin and the failures of mankind wouldn’t be considered a very optimistic person. Nathaniel Hawthorne, however, is a special case. It would be easy to assume, of course, that he had no faith in humanity, but a deeper look into both his life and his writing reveals the opposite. He said it himself in his American Note-Books, “What we need for our happiness is often close at hand, if we knew how to seek for it.” Hawthorne’s personal life was full of tragic…

Oscar Wilde’s preoccupation with vanity and soul combine to form the peerless character of Dorian Gray. The novel is of course for the sensitive soul and must be read objectively, or without prejudice, to enjoy the dramatic tones of Dorian’s descent. Dorian…

Art from the Ground Up Art is everywhere, it surrounds us from the buildings we stay to the nature we enjoy. However, art in all its phenomena is still underrated to this day. As an Art major, I have been asked, “What can you do with art?” I have also been told that I will be a failure and poor for the rest of my life if I rely on art. These statements created an opposite effect. It was intended to discourage me but, instead it gave me the chance to prove people wrong. Art is not worthless, it…

editor The turbulent life of Edgar Allan Poe, the last but not least made many enemies because of his alcohol consumption was significantly influenced by the rift with his foster father John Allan and the early deaths of several esteemed by him women. Since he failed to make the beloved poetry his livelihood, and he could not stand there as a soldier and officer at the Academy Westpoint long, he devoted himself increasingly to the publication of short stories for various magazines. As the de…

There is a quote by Oscar Wilde that says something about life imitating art, but in the case of the art created in France around the time of the French revolution, art was imitating life. The French Revolution played a profound role in shaping what was being put on canvasses by the French artist. The paintings that were created during this time had either a Neoclassical style or a Romantic style. These were the two main styles that came after the Age of Enlightenment. The artist created works…

Oscar WIlde once said, “The books that the world calls inmortal are books that show the world its own shame.” If every book had some kind of blood or speak of death etc, we would have almost every book in the world banned because of it. Some books are banned because opinions or religious beliefs are different. Mice and Men has been on the list for banned books on the list repeatedly and some people still believe that it should be a banned book but I believe it shouldn’t be a banned book. In the…