Interviewing Oscar Wilde

compito: Intervistando Oscar wilde (periodo – vita – opere – il suo Estetismo)  -  Dopo aver letto questo testo, che traduce in Inglese e condensa quanto presentato nei post precedenti di questo blog, e tenendo conto delle evidenziazioni, formula quattro domande in Inglese, immaginando di rivolgerle allo scrittore Oscar Wilde, quindi, dalle informazioni qui fornite, formula anche la risposta (breve e condensata !!!!) immaginando questa volta di essere tu lo scrittore che parla.

THE PERIOD

 introduction   -    Oscar Wilde lived during the Victorian Age .

the Victorian Age  -   Victorian Age refers to the long reign of Queen Victoria .

its values  -  Thanks to her moral example people believed in values such as honesty, patriotism, family devotion,  respectability, good manners, chastity, sense of duty, hard work and trust in the material progress.

its double face  -   Nevertheless the Victorian Age had  a double face: it was chaste, puritan and repressive,  while it could be sensual and unconventional, the most contradictory periods in the English history.

As a consequence sexual severity was followed by a foolish research of  the denied.

Victorian Compromise   -    This was called the “Victorian Compromise”: there was a high sense of morality together with  prostitution, bad theatres and drug addiction.

the role of the writers -  Oscar Wilde was thus an observer of this contradictory scene.   “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, "The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde",  and Sherlock Holmes and  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, dealt with this duplicity.

LIFE – OSCAR WILDE

life education and personality   -    Born in Dublin in 1854, after  a good education he became very popular for his sharp criticism, versatile intelligence and his really extravagant way of  living and dressing. He met Pater and Ruskin, who introduced him into Aestheticism.

his works   -    He got married, had two children, but his homosexual relationship caused the end of his marriage. This is the period of his first collection of tales for children “The Happy Prince and other stories” and of  “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, his unique novel, where he talks of decadence and moral disorder. In all his works,  all  “comedy of manners”, he illustrates the apparent good and moral society of the time.

 the period of  prison   -    For his homosexual relationship he was sent in prison later seen  as  a sort of  prize to be paid for his life of pleasure (“De Profundis”). He died in Paris alone.

Catholicism -   “Catholicism is the only religion in which I would like to die”, he had said during his youth. Catholicism was denied to him by his father who had chosen to be Anglican  fearing to go down in the social ladder. It was during  the period in prison that he ended his process of conversion.

AESTHETICISM

the movement   -   This was also the age of  Aestheticism believing in the principle of “Art for Art’s sake”

 Victorian  vs  Aesthetic values    -    Aestheticism wanted to free art from  any moral, social and political aims, as the Victorian thinkers wished and  it wanted art only  to be beautiful in itself.

the reaction    -     As a consequence aesthetic people contrasted capitalism, money, social position, a powerful nation and positivism because they were typical Victorian false moral values.

Wilde contributed to shake the conventional and apparent moral  apathy of the period.