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Oscar Wilde Research Paper

1335 Words6 Pages

I. Background of the Author Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1854 to Sir William Wilde and Lady Jane Francesca Wilde. William was a valuable ear and eye surgeon, who wrote books on medicine, history, and poetry, while Oscar’s mother was known as “Sperenza,” and was a poet as well as a proponent for women’s rights and the independence of the Irish. Wilde attended Trinity College in Dublin, and later went to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied the classics and took an interest in Ancient Greek. He met many other authors and philosophers like John Ruskin, who presented new ideas to Wilde, such as the practice of aestheticism, praising the savage human instinct, and defying society’s norms, which Wilde …show more content…

As a result of this union, as well as Oscar gaining confidence from the support he was met with after publishing his most acclaimed novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde began to have a long-term affair with Lord Alfred Douglas. As a result of this, Douglas’s father was prompted to legally accuse Wilde, and the author was soon convicted on charges of sodomy. During his years in prison, he continued to write, and his observations of the poor conditions in prisons helped to pass laws stopping child imprisonment. After Oscar left prison, he fled to France, shunned by those who had previously admired him. His flamboyant life ended friendless and lonely, and Wilde died in Paris by himself (“The …show more content…

Inside the fortress, one can find suits of medieval armor, large paintings of long dead family members, and dark hallways with quiet whispers to be heard. The ghost inhabiting this place has killed his wife and is now taking out his anger with his own killers on unsuspecting bystanders. There is a bloodstain on the floor that cannot disappear, no matter how it is cleaned. The housekeeper herself often faints from fear. In Oscar Wilde’s “The Canterville Ghost,” all of this is true, but the literary elements of dialogue and perspective convey the theme of how appearances are not always to be

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500 Words | 2 Pages

‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, by Oscar Wilde, is a novel that revolves around a core theme, beauty. Depicted in many forms throughout the novel, one of the most prevalent symbols of beauty proves to be the very portrait of Dorian Gray. Specifically, one thing that can be concluded from the portrait was that Dorian sees beauty as beyond skin deep, and believes that true beauty is only achieved through the character and morals of a person. Events in the novel that support this claim occur during Dorian’s reaction when he discovers the secret of his portrait, and his resolve to fix his behavior that caused such changes. When Dorian discovers the truth about his portrait, his reaction was not that of a man who primarily values looks in beauty.

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