Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde

 

  • A late nineteenth-century artistic movement, which spurred the appreciation of ‘art for arts sake’ as it emphasized the sensual and provocative nature of the world as opposed to the coldness of social constructs. 

 

  • The movement brought about much change from music to literature as society became focused on the pursuit of beauty and self-expression and self-indulge in it, even if it defied moral expectations (Hedonism). Not applicable to all people of the time.

 

  • There was a quiet rebellion against the effects of the industrial revolution as they did not want to purchase products which seemed dull in nature and which were created by ‘soulless’ machines

 

  • Aesthetic art is characterized by:
  • Subdued colours
  • Geometric designs
  • Beauty with simplicity

 

BIOGRAPHY

  • He was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. His father was an acclaimed doctor who was held in high regard during that time
  • Wilde fell in love with Greek and Roman studies during his time in school. He was very passionate about his studies and was awarded the Berkeley Gold Medal at Trinity College as well as the Newdigate Prize for  one of his poems in 1878. It was at Oxford that Wilde made his ‘first sustained attempts at creative writing’.
  • He published many poems during his initial years but between the years of 1888 and 1891 did he publish his much more esteemed works of literature. While he was at Oxford, Oscar Wilde took up his own way of thinking and became involved in the aesthetic movement
  • His success in the literary world came all at once; however, there were still many who considered his work ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ an immoral piece and made the generalization that it was a reflection of his own nature. Wilde had a potential affair with a young man – which didn’t exactly help his situation – and led to his arrest on charges of “gross indecency” in 1895. 
  • He was imprisoned for approximately two years and died in poverty three years after his release

 

 

STYLISTIC TYPICALITIES

 

  • Thoughtful imagery 
  • ‘Art of morbidity’
  • Paradoxical
  • Satirical
  • Juxtaposed differing ideas
  • Many clever insights revealing truth(Aphorisms)
  • Despised conformity
  • Valued personal desires

 

 

In The Gold Room

 

Her ivory hands on the ivory keys

   Strayed in a fitful fantasy,

Like the silver gleam when the poplar trees

   Rustle their pale-leaves listlessly,

Or the drifting foam of a restless sea

When the waves show their teeth in the flying breeze.

 

Her gold hair fell on the wall of gold

   Like the delicate gossamer tangles spun

On the burnished disk of the marigold,

   Or the sunflower turning to meet the sun

   When the gloom of the dark blue night is done,

And the spear of the lily is aureoled.

 

And her sweet red lips on these lips of mine

   Burned like the ruby fire set

In the swinging lamp of a crimson shrine,

   Or the bleeding wounds of the pomegranate,

   Or the heart of the lotus drenched and wet

With the spilt-out blood of the rose-red wine.

 

∗Gossamer: to be fragile and exquisite, like a spider web

∗Aureoled: Radiant – in terms of hair, when the sun reflects off someone’s hair and an aura-like effect is created

 

  • Gold is the external beauty, which is linked to masculine energy, representing success and prosperity. It adds richness and warmth to everything it is associated with but is usually seen as an outside characteristic.
  • Ivory/silver has feminine energy, innocence, and can be seen as a colder and harsher colour
  • Red gives off masculine energy as well and also represents the sexuality and intimate passions which move within each of us. A line I heard somebody in our AP class say was how God rests in reason but moves in passion; in the same way these colours can be applied – reason is in ivory and passion is in red.

-The first lines of the three stanzas can be lined up to work coherently in a sentence because of how the theme resonates in every line

  • The title ‘In The Gold Room’  is used to describe the external beauty of a person and how all these other colours exist on the inside. Although a person may have reason and passion as traits within them, for aesthetic purposes they are judged purely from their appearances.

 

 

“Innocent blood had been split. What could atone for that? Ah! for that there was no atonement; but though forgiveness was impossible, forgetfulness was possible still, and he was determined to forget, to stamp the thing out, to crush it as one would crush the adder that had stung one”.

 

“I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married, I’ll certainly try to forget the fact”.

 

 

EMULATION(COLD)

 

Why marry, when you can be in love. And if married, why attempt to love. These obligations, these constraints, shackled to our feet, not letting us speak, breathe, or talk freely. The very essence of love is in its uncertainty, but this love is usually best left for actors and not for people.Why fear the beauty of uncertainty and why compromise it for the sake of false wedding vows, where the fragrance of first love has dissipated. Some marriages offer false promise, a hand which opens to reveal nothing, but we are deceived into thinking more exists. That empty hand is all there is. Love is simple and careless; Marriage its antithesis.

 

 

EMULATION (Melody’s group on Han Kang)

 

After you were born, I couldn’t bring myself to hold your funeral

So these eyes that once saw you tormented me day and night

These ears that once heard your cries were pulsating angrily with blood

These hands that once held your small feet kept tricking me into thinking that you were still there

And worst of all, your small, angel-like face smeared in blood, never to cry again

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

 

 

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