Oscar Wilde As A Character In Victorian Fiction

This book documents how Oscar Wilde was appropriated as a fictional character by no less than thirty-two of his contemporaries, including such celebrated writers as Joseph Conrad, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, George Bernard Shaw and Bram Stoker.

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 3,0, University of Mannheim, language: English, abstract: This paper will identify certain types of characters of the upper-class and relate them to the developments of the gender role in the Victorian era. Going along with it the men ́s different attitudes towards marriage as a constantly present issue in the play will be illustrated and compared to the points of view that dominated the high society in that time. Wilde refers to many more social habits and temporary fashions which however shall not be part of this paper.

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1.3, University of Bonn (Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie), course: Victorian Literature an Culture, language: English, abstract: This paper deals with the use of different spaces in the two Victorian Gothic stories "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and compares important places, houses and their meaning for the respective plots. Besides the city of London, which is the common overall setting of both novels and will be discussed in chapter 3, the paper focuses on the house as a traditional space for Gothic fiction and one of the elements that both texts have in common. Preliminarily, the character and meaning of the literal and metaphorical threshold will be made a subject of discussion. A story's setting is an important factor for each literary work. Together with the story time it provides on the one hand a framework for the plot, on the other hand the space around which characters can move more or less freely throughout the story. Literal spaces represent the interaction of different factors, that all characterize the space: among these of course typical place descriptions like nature or architecture of buildings, but also abstract concepts like the weather, light and darkness or countless sensory impressions that a special place can offer, and of course life – human and non-human – that colonizes the space. Literary spaces, however, do not only function as places for actions and happenings but are functionalized in different ways. One purpose of space, that is especially important for Gothic fiction, is to set the mood of the story, which also implies to capture the fears and issues of the respective time and use them to create a certain atmosphere around the plot. During the Victorian era, issues like sciences, especially psychology and the human psyche, were omnipresent. But also urbanisation and thus the metropolis and what may hide in the jungle of houses and streets aroused the fear of many Victorians. Due to this fact, and because of its demography and its great socio-political issues, London is a perfect and likewise popular setting for Victorian Gothic stories. Also Oscar Wilde and a few years later Robert Louis Stevenson chose the metropolis for their Gothic novels "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde".

Jack Worthing gets antsy living at his country estate. As an excuse, he spins tales of his rowdy brother Earnest living in London. When Jack rushes to the city to confront his "brother," he's free to become Earnest and live a different lifestyle. In London, his best friend, Algernon, begins to suspect Earnest is leading a double life. Earnest confesses that his real name is Jack and admits the ruse has become tricky as two women have become enchanted with the idea of marrying Earnest. On a whim, Algernon also pretends to be Earnest and encounters the two women as they meet at the estate. With two Earnests who aren't really earnest and two women in love with little more than a name, this play is a classic comedy of errors. This is an unabridged version of Oscar Wilde's English play, first published in 1899.

Essay from the year 2021 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: A, , language: English, abstract: The paper discusses the main characters in Oscar Wilde's play “An Ideal Husband” and their relation to art and what it means to be an artist. Oscar Wilde was a writer who often protested against the Victorian ideology through his work and often wrote about how societal norms and rules were mere control tools imposed by the few who wanted to establish their power over others.

Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture: The Making of a Legend explores the meteoric rise, sudden fall, and legendary resurgence of an immensely influential writer’s reputation from his hectic 1881 American lecture tour to recent Hollywood adaptations of his dramas. Always renowned—if not notorious—for his fashionable persona, Wilde courted celebrity at an early age. Later, he came to prominence as one of the most talented essayists and fiction writers of his time. In the years leading up to his two-year imprisonment, Wilde stood among the foremost dramatists in London. But after he was sent down for committing acts of “gross indecency” it seemed likely that social embarrassment would inflict irreparable damage to his legacy. As this volume shows, Wilde died in comparative obscurity. Little could he have realized that in five years his name would come back into popular circulation thanks to the success of Richard Strauss’s opera Salome and Robert Ross’s edition of De Profundi. With each succeeding decade, the twentieth century continued to honor Wilde’s name by keeping his plays in repertory, producing dramas about his life, adapting his works for film, and devising countless biographical and critical studies of his writings. This volume reveals why, more than a hundred years after his demise, Wilde’s value in the academic world, the auction house, and the entertainment industry stands higher than that of any modern writer.

In this renowned work and his only novel, Oscar Wilde paints disturbing portrait of the effects of evil and depravity on a young dandy in late-19th-century England. Merging elements of Gothic horror and decadent French fiction, the novel centers on an arresting premise: As Dorian Gray delves deeper into a life of crime and unrefined sensuality, his body retains its flawless youth and vitality while the recently painted portrait of himself becomes more and more a hideous evidence of evil, which he manages to keep hidden from the world. For over a hundred years this spellbinding tale of suspense and horror has enjoyed massive popularity. It is surely one of Wilde's most important writings and among the classic literary achievements of its time. This Victorian Ladies Edition is illustrated with Black and White Sketches from Wilde's own mystical and haunting Victorian Era. Press ADD TO CART now! Press ADD TO CART now! Press ADD TO CART now!

The Picture of Dorian Gray, the only novel by Oscar Wilde, was first published in 1890. A substantially revised and expanded edition was published in April 1891. For the new edition, Wilde revised the content of the novel's existing chapters, divided the final chapter into two chapters, and created six entirely new additional chapters. Whereas the original edition of the novel contains 13 chapters, the revised edition of the novel contains 20 chapters. The 1891 version was expanded from 13 to 20 chapters, but also toned down, particularly in some of its overt homoerotic aspects. Also, chapters 3, 5, and 15 to 18 are entirely new in the 1891 version, and chapter 13 from the first edition is split in two (becoming chapters 19 and 20). The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Dorian is selected for his remarkable physical beauty, and Basil becomes strongly infatuated with Dorian, believing that his beauty is responsible for a new mode of art. The Picture of Dorian Gray is considered one of the last works of classic gothic horror fiction with a strong Faustian theme. It deals with the artistic movement of the decadents, and homosexuality, both of which caused some controversy when the book was first published. However, in modern times, the book has been referred to as "one of the modern classics of Western literature. Oscar Wills Wilde (1854 – 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, his only novel (The Picture of Dorian Gray), his plays and poetry, and the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death.