The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde

publishing date

1895

Birth and death year

1854-1900

Oscar Wilde era

Victorian Age

Start of the Victorian Era

1832, Great Reform Bill (transformed English society)

English Society

1. rigid class system - people define themselves as their social class (no social mobility)
2. prudish and conservative over sexual matters
3. no homosexuality - crime in Victorian era
4. Earnest: honest, sincere, and serious - Victorians think they are earnest and modest (NOT)

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde's only novel

aestheticism

art for art's sake (beauty)
Oscar Wilde is most associated with it
for words: clever, witty, how it is said
NOT teaching a lesson

Lord Alfred Douglas

Oscar's bf, dad is Marquis of Queensbury

Marquis of Queensbury

Lord Alfred Douglas's dad. Finds out that Oscar and son are dating... accuses Wilde of homosexuality during IOBE play
Wilde sues Marquis of libel (writing something defamatory that is FALSE)
Since it was true... Wilde loses in court --> goes to jail (hard labor) for 2 years

After jail

Wilde moves to Paris disgraced ... dies in a hotel room

Upside down use of language

characters say the opposite of what the norm is