Transcript The Victorian Era, Oscar Wilde and The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Victorian Era, Oscar Wilde and
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Victorian Era
Queen Victoria reigned from 1837-1901
 Victoria inherited the throne at age 18
 Married her mother’s nephew, Albert
 Bore him 9 children
 Victoria’s obsessive mourning (10 years) influenced what
would become the Victorian mentality
 Her influence was so great that both a political era and a
literary epoch was named after her.
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Contrasts
An age of great conflicts
 Although Christianity also reigned, this was the first
time that institutional Christianity was truly called into
question
 Darwin, Marx, and Freud emerged during this time
 “Prudish”, “Prim and proper”, “repressed” and “old
fashioned” are often used to describe this era
 Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens
 Regarded artists as society’s conscience
 Jack the Ripper; some 8,000 prostitutes worked in
London during the mid 1800s
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Time of Progress and Prosperity
Great strides in science and technology
 Rapid growth of the middle class
 Middle class valued: hard work, strict morality,
and pragmatism (practicality over idealism)
 Victoria and Albert fostered moral earnestness
and strait laced propriety
 Distinct social classes. Middle and lower classes
could never attain the wealth, luxury, and
privilege of the upper class.
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Victorian Gentlemen
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Elite status, aristocratic, social
class
Lived on inherited income and
did not work
Debonair, “dandy”/ well-groomed
Sophisticated- calling cards,
tobacco pouches, high tea
Inflicted harm on no one,
avoided slander and gossip
Philosophical, well educated
Oscar Wilde
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Birth name:
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde
Birth date: October 16, 1854 Ireland
Mother was a poet/journalist
Father was a doctor
Mother wanted a girl
Death date: November 30, 1900
Died penniless and alone of meningitis in Paris
Married with two children
Style
Known For:
Sharp wit
 Outrageous and eccentric clothing
 Irreverent attitude
 Aphorisms/epigrams: A concise expression often
satirical with an ingenious turn of thought; sage;
witty
 Cynicism: faultfinding; contemptuous; distrustful
view of society
 Flamboyant lifestyle
 Loved to “stir the pot”!
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Famous Quotations
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"One should always be in love. That is why one should never marry."
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“Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often
convincing.”
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“I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their
good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man
cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”
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“ Don't be misled into the paths of virtue.”
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“Women never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.”
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“There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating- people
who know absolutely everything and people that know absolutely
nothing.”
Dorian Gray
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Wilde’s first and only novel.
Written over 100 years ago (1891)
Opened to much criticism
Ultimately, was very successful
So many current themes:
 sin and redemption
 hedonism
 love and marriage
 friendship
 youth and beauty
 Gossip
 influence/manipulation
art(then- paintings, opera; now- films, music, etc.)
 Based on revelations about evil in humanity, pleasures of evil and
destructiveness of evil.
Brief Synopsis
The story of three friends: Basil, Lord Henry,
and Dorian Gray
 The soul is a blank canvas
 Basil-angel
 Lord Henry- Devil
 Dorian Gray- a clean slate
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Id, ego, superego
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Semi-autobiographical
Major Theme:
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Hedonism: The
devotion to pleasure as
a way of life; one’s sole
priority is to seek
pleasure/happiness
without regard for
others.
Id, Ego, Superego
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Freud believed that the id is based on our pleasure
principle. In other words, the id wants whatever feels
good at the time, with no consideration for the reality of
the situation.
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The ego is based on the reality principle. The ego
understands that other people have needs and desires
and that sometimes being impulsive or selfish can hurt us
in the long run
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The Superego is the moral part of us and develops due
to the moral and ethical restraints placed on us by our
caregivers. Many equate the superego with the
conscience as it dictates our belief of right and wrong.
www.allpsych.com
“Few
things are harder to put up with than
the annoyance of a good example.”
-Mark Twain