Oscar Fingal O 'Flahertie Willis Wilde was born in 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. His father was a doctor and his mother was a revolutionary poet. Given his mother 's profession, Wilde was exposed to the arts at a very young age through conversations and interactions with his mother 's peers (PowerPoint). In addition, his mother often dressed him up as a child, developing a keen interest in aesthetics in Wilde. His interest in beauty and the arts led him to Trinity College, Dublin, where he won the Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek, and to Magdalen College, Oxford for his graduate study, where his poem "Ravenna" won him the Newdigate Prize in 1878 (poetry foundation). It was also at Oxford that Wilde became influenced by John Ruskin and Walter Pater, both …show more content…
Through the use of the characters Algernon and Lady Bracknell, Wilde effectively tackles multiple Victorian ideals. Algernon serves as an attack on marriage, shown by his conversations with Lane and Jack, where he claims it is "demoralizing" and destroys true romance. Algernon also created an invalid character named Bunbury who allowed him to leave the city to care for him, which actually resulted in Algernon going to party without being bound by Victorian society. Lady Bracknell stands as a symbol of the strong sense of Victorian ideals present in the upper class of society. She proved to be a major obstruction to Gwendolen and Jack 's marriage due to her disapproval of Jack 's birth despite his love for Gwendolen and commitment to being married. Through Algernon and Lady Bracknell, Oscar Wilde was effectively able to criticize Victorian ideologies such as marriage as well as upper class