Preview

Oscar Wilde "A House of Pomegranates"

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2203 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Oscar Wilde "A House of Pomegranates"
Oscar Wilde wrote himself into history as a sharp and pungent writer and an exceptional personality with a suitable epigram at hand for every occasion. He is, though, perhaps most well-known for his infamous relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, which resulted in Wilde being sentenced to two years of hard labor for homosexual offences. However, Wilde left to the world not only the fascinating story of his own life, but also a number of literary works in a variety of genres, both fictional and non-fictional. Oscar Wilde was usually presented as a disruptive writer, as an amoral aesthete and an enemy of the Victorian social and sexual values. He was avoided by the Victorian society for his flamboyant behavior and his sexuality.
Oscar Wilde's takeoff of his career and, his shaping of his characteristic style of works could be both considered originating from his fairy tales. The publication of these fairy tales must have come as a surprise to those who had known him only as the notorious aesthete, an author of copyist poems and sentimental dramas. It was not until his first collection of fairy tales had come out that he was regarded as an influential author. The first publication of his collection of fairy tales “The Happy Prince and other tales” in 1888 received acceptance from the critics. Oscar was being encouraged to send copies to such notable personas as Gladstone, Ruskin and Pater. Touched by the hearty reactions, he then, three years later preceded to publish a second collection “A House of Pomegranates”. Wilde’s fairy tales achieved great success, in German-speaking countries these two collections appeared in more than twenty different translations between 1902 and 1976. This success may be linked to the late nineteen twenties, just after the second World War, when many readers, after all tribulations, would have felt the need for a dream world filled with beauty and serenity, a world where good conquers evil. Also a big part of his success was due to the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Author: Oscar Wilde Date of Publication: December, 1898 Genre: Satire, Comedy of Manners Historical information about the period of publications: Wilde originally wrote the play during the summer of 1894 in Worthing, England. Although it was performed the following year, it wasn’t published until 1898 due to Wilde’s tainted reputation and bankruptcy. Wilde had prosecuted the Marquis of Queensbury, the father of his male lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, for publicly harassing him and calling him a “posing sodomite”.…

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the year of 1980, Oscar Wilde published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, before he reached his height of fame. The first edition of his book appeared in the summer edition of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Although, many criticized the novel as being scandalous and immoral. Wilde, being disappointed with its outcome, revised the novel in 1891, adding a preface and six new chapters. One of the main themes throughout this book would be the purpose of art, Wilde believed art did not serve any other purpose than being beautiful. He adopted this attitude from old Victorian England, where the most popular belief stated that art was not only a figure of morality but also had the means of enforcing it. In addition, two other contributing…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Even though his last years were horrible for him, being sent to prison and criticized by lots of people because of one of his own novels, one can’t deny that Oscar Wilde lived a really interesting life. His wittiness -shown in his numerous epigrams, like «The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about»-, sense of humor, vividness and way of thinking made him one of the most interesting people of his time, and also in the history of the literature. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, received terrible reviews from critics and from the society in the moment it was first published, mostly due to its homosexual content (during the trials where he was judged, the book was used as an evidence to prove his homosexuality). It is considered a Gothic novel and one where religion is a prominent theme, with some characters wondering about it and comparing Anglicanism with Catholicism.…

    • 2014 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The homosexual suggestions of The Picture incite criticisms, mostly of righteous anger and criticism. Throughout the Victorian Era movements for strong moral values dominated opposed to greed, exploitation and cynicism. Wilde’s the novel developed during this time. The 1890 date of publishing of The Picture implies that any kind of homoerotic relationships were very much forbidden. Therefore, the only novel of Oscar Wilde caused a public outcry in a pious Victorian England. The typical idealistic image of behavior and modesty inherent to old-time Victorian England was discredited in the novel. The radical ideas the novel contained evoked a conflict between moral rules of the Victorian society and new controversial concepts raised in the book.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilde view of Victorian society is illustrated through his wit and humor embedded in the characters’ dialogues. For example, Jack and Algernon live double lives as lowlifes of society that they, nonetheless, admire due to their alter ego’s carefree nature. When both Jack and Algernon become their alternate personas, it illustrates their desire to escape and cover up their past, in order to become Ernest. The ironic…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    His characters learn their moral lessons—that selfishness and vanity are corruption, that Victorian morality is hypocritical and empty, and that only a balanced life can lead to true moral satisfaction—through the individual situations with which they are presented and through the different ways in which they deal with those situations. Ultimately, the genius of these works lies in the fact that though they are so different, it is only when considering them together that Wilde’s full criticism of Victorian society in his writing can be…

    • 995 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first opinion we get of Wilde view on marriage is when Miss Worsley and Lady Caroline are having a conversation where Lady Caroline explains to Miss Worsley that the English tradition does not allow unmarried young women should 'conceal their feelings till after they are married.' This suggests that Wilde is mocking the English upper class because even having a friendly comment of the opposite sex is thought of as immoral whereas, the opposite have every right to speak the way they feel about women married or unmarried. Oscar Wilde's view also comes across to us as readers when Lord Illingworth says a woman that is been married for too long is perceived as 'a public building' or an, this suggests that Oscar Wilde believes that a woman should not be kept a prisoner in her marriage.…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Hallward stirred in his chair as if he was going to rise. He rushed at him, and dug the knife into the great vein that is behind the ear, crushing the man's head down on the table, and stabbing again and again” (Wilde, 351). Murder is an immoral act that occurs in the novel when Dorian killed his friend Basil with a knife after they had a discussion. Oscar Wilde didn’t wanted people to remember the book due to the immoral acts present on it. He wanted people to see in the novel as piece of art, without any intention of immorality. As he belonged to the aesthetic movement, he wanted to show the beauty of the grotesque. This movement pretends to make art just for pleasure and to show the beauty of things were there’s chaos and unpleasantness. The immoral events presented in the book are the reflection of society attitude and the reason why people critic the book for it’s immorality is because society don’t want to accept there own immoral acts and thoughts.…

    • 694 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a writer whose homoerotic texts pushed the social boundaries of the Victorian era. Born to a family of unabashed Irish agnostics, the self-proclaimed "dandy" valued art, fashion, and all things physically beautiful. After receiving a comprehensive education from Oxford, Wilde made a name for himself in London first as a novelist, penning the now famous The Picture of Dorian Gray.…

    • 23284 Words
    • 94 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wilde took the stand and the jury deliberated the evidence for over 3 hours but released Wilde on bail on May 7th. Three weeks later Wilde was tried for the second time in front of the liberal government. The case and evidence was deliberated for 3 hours and eventually Wilde was sentenced to the maximum of 2 years hard labour in Pentonville prison followed by Reading prison 6 months later. The hard labour weakened Wilde and began to show the true image of hard labour in prison providing a fairly negative view of it. In 1897 Henry Havelock Ellis wrote in his book, ‘sexual inversions’, that Britain had “the most draconian laws against homosexuality”, this was the first time the term homosexual had been used and by providing a name an identity was formed one that was thought to be treated badly by the law making public view of the police more negative for their cruel treatment of homosexuals. The Vagrancy Act of 1898 introduce the offence of ‘importuning’, it was to be the solution for immoral purposes referring to prostitution etc. during the year the Ballad of Reading Gaol written by Oscar Wilde was published, coinciding with the Gladstone report. This ballad described the hanging of a soldier who slit the throat of his wife; it detailed the horrors endured by prisoners awaiting their deaths bringing the public great dismay and animosity towards the law and its ways…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oscar Wilde, author of The Picture of Dorian Gray, was an Irish author who lived from October 16, 1854 until his death, at the age of 46, on November 30, 1900. He attended the Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and the Magdalene College in Oxford, England. Mr. Wilde was an active member of the aestheticism literary movement, during his day, although he lived during the Victorian Era. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, there are many passages or episodes that hold key meanings in the book as a whole, and without them; a large amount of the underlying tones and themes would be lost. In chapter two, there is a very significant key passage that has to do with the roles of Lord Henry and Dorian Gray and how they are going to affect each other. The key passage pushes Lord Henry under the role of the victimizer and Dorian Gray as the victim.…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Oscar Wilde is remembered today for his use of epigrams and his plays. Wilde wrote ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’ in which many people argue that it appears Wilde subverts the typical Victorian gender role. Gender roles are cultural and personal, they determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact within the context of society. Masculinity and Femininity refer to the dominant sex role pattern in the vast majority of both traditional and modern societies: that of male assertiveness and female nurturance.It is very clear and evident that Wilde distinctively does subvert from these gender roles and in the process satirizes these Victorian values.…

    • 1814 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1888 7 years after he wrote poems Oscar Wilde published The Happy Prince and other Tales and a collection of children's stories in 1891 he published intentions an essay card Even the tenets of is aestheticism and that same year he published his first and only Now, The Picture of Dorian Gray man who is a cautionary Tale about a beautiful young woman he commenced wishes that his portrait ages while he remains youthful and lives a life of sin and pleasure. Around the same time that Oscar Wilde was enjoying his best literary success Douglas had an affair with a man named Lord Alfred at Wilde’s home. Oscar February 18th 1895 Douglass father left a calling libel, but was Wilde’s homosexuality though Oscar for having libel but an Open Secret Oscar Wilde was so mad by Queensberry’s note that he sued him for in his that ruined Oscar Wilde’s…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Wilde’s description of Sibyl Vane as a caged bird invokes the thought that Dorian’s love for Sibyl has trapped her. There are two instances where the imagery of her entrapment is brought up, “the joy of a caged bird in her voice” and “in her prison of passion” are both statements where the common entity is a sort of cell like set-up for Sibyl. The use of these metaphors is a representation of the confinement Sibyl is in in this relationship, where to keep Dorian’s interest she must act as a character in a play and not as herself. It is evidence that Dorian only has a superficial interest in her and also can be linked to aestheticism because Dorian only looks at her outside beauty and talent and not into the meaning of the girl inside. By using a metaphor such as “joy of a caged bird” Wilde is able to conjure the image of Sibyl as the bird trapped in a cage, purely for the enjoyment of an onlooker such as Dorian, the cage is her stage for her to please her master. This is significant in understanding why their relationship breaks down after her dismal performance in the theatre. A caged bird that is not entertaining to watch is not worth keeping as is shown by Dorian who immediately ends all affiliation between them as he would rather the Sibyl who is an actress and knows nothing of love than the new Sibyl who is in a “prison of…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Young King Summary

    • 308 Words
    • 1 Page

    "The Young King" by Oscar Wilde is part of a collection of short stories and fairy tales published under the name of The House of Pomegranates". Most of the short stories in this collection have the expected traits of Wildean style in the form of epigrams and paradoxical endings, with an aim to appeal to the senses in a surprising and creative way.…

    • 308 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics