Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) See website for more information: http://www.cmgww.com/historic/wilde/index.php

Picture of Dorian Gray https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziCXgS2B5oU Read articles for homework—Due Thursday, Sep. 3rd Quotes to discuss: You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.”  “Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”  “When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.”  “Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.”

The Aestheticism Discussion in Dorian Gray “What of Art? -It is a malady. --Love? -An Illusion. --Religion? -The fashionable substitute for Belief. --You are a sceptic. -Never! Scepticism is the beginning of Faith. --What are you? -To define is to limit.”  OR: “Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?” 

Wildean Epigrams “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” “I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.” “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.” “Work is the curse of the drinking classes.” “A true friend stabs you in the front.”

Irish Wit, dramatist, and dandy “I can resist anything except temptation.” Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act III “Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.” Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I “The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.” A Woman of No Importance, Act 3 “In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” Lady Windermere’s Fan, 1892

Class take on the Attributes of Wilde’s Humor, scepticism, Life, and Aestheticism: Please discuss how the novel changes, complicates, gives new insight, etc. after looking deeper into this… Use the text to discuss! AND just for fun……

Wildean wares Contradictory: “Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” Declarative: “I have nothing to declare but my genius.” To U.S. Customs agents Provocative: “Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.” Confessional: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” Satirical: “The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.” Good old-fashioned arrogance: “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” Definitive: “What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”