Oscar Wilde (1854-1900): vita, opere e "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

Oscar Wilde: Vita e Opere

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Performer Shaping Ideas Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella, Margaret Layton @ 2021 ZANICHELLIOscar Wilde

Vita di Oscar Wilde

1. Life
   • Born in Dublin in 1854.
   • He was one of the most relevant author that belongs to the movement of the Aesteticism. A literary movement that developed in Europe with the theory 'Art for Art's Sake'.
   • Art for Art's Sake means that the final goal, the final aim of Art is the Perfection of Art itself.
   • He studied at Oxford University, and he became a very fashionable dandy a person very eccentric and elegant, who uses his wit to shock other people
   • In 1881 he held some lectures about the Pre-Raphaelites and the Aesthetes during a tour in the United States.

Performer Shaping Ideas ZANICHELLIOscar Wilde

Vita di Oscar Wilde: Caduta ed Esilio

1. Life
   • After publishing his first and only novel, he developed an interest in drama.
   • He was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London and one of the greatest celebrities of his time.
   • He suffered a dramatic downfall because of his intimate association with the young Lord Alfred Douglas, 'Bosie'.
   • He was imprisoned for two years after been convicted for homosexual acts.
   • When he was released his wife refused to see him and he he went into exile in France where he lived in poverty his last years. He died in Paris in 1900.

Performer Shaping Ideas ZANICHELLIOscar Wilde

L'Estetismo di Wilde

1. Wilde's Aestheticism

Oscar Wilde adopted the aesthetical ideal: he affirmed 'my life is like a work of art. His Aestheticism clashed with the didacticism of Victorian novels.

• The artist the creator of beautiful things.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY OSCAR WILDE PENGUIN READERS

• Art used only to celebrate beauty and the sensorial pleasures.
• READ THE DOCUMENT UPLOADED ON CLASSROOM

Performer Shaping Ideas ZANICHELLIOscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Pubblicazione e Accoglienza

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray

Published in 1891. It is based on the archetype of staying young and beautiful forever

• It reflects Oscar Wilde's personality.
• It was considered immoral by the Victorian public.
• The book received criticism, so Wilde in a second publication of the book, wrote a preface where he explained the main ideas of aestetics and that a book can't be moral or immoral, it could only be a work of art or not. For this reason the preface is considered the manifesto of the English aestetics.

Performer Shaping Ideas ZANICHELLIOscar Wilde

Trama de Il Ritratto di Dorian Gray

1. The PLOT

The picture of Dorian Gray is a novel about a young man named Dorian who has a portrait of himself painted by the artist Basil Hallward. He thinks that Dorian is very handsome and becomes obsessed with him. One day, Dorian meets Lord Henry Watton, a brilliant talker who has a powerful and poisonous influence on Dorian. He is amoral and believes that youth is the most important value «It is better to be beautiful than to be good>>. He corrupts Dorian to a life of pleasure and vices. After meeting Lord Wotton, Dorian realizes that he will become less beautiful as he grows older, so he wishes to obtain eternal youth. He is led to a Faustian pact (a deal with the devil) where he will remain young and beautiful, and the portrait will become old in his place.

Performer Shaping Ideas ZANICHELLIOscar Wilde

Sviluppo della Trama e Morte di Dorian

1. The PLOT

Everytime Dorian does something evil or selfish his picture ages, becoming more and more horrible. For 18 years, Dorian does not age. He uses everybody for his interests, even letting people die because of his insensitivity. When Basil sees the corrupted portrait, Dorian kills him. Later Dorian wants to free himself of the portrait and stabs it, but, in doing so, he kills himself. In the very moment of Dorian's death, the picture returns to its original purity, and Dorian's face becomes old and dreadful. Dorian is an hedonist, who researches pleasure and sensations, but in the end, his vanity ruins him. The portrait reflects the degradation of his soul, his dark side, his double.

Performer Shaping Ideas ZANICHELLIOscar Wilde

Personaggi de Il Ritratto di Dorian Gray

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray

MIME Characters

• Dorian represents the ideal of youth, beauty and innocence.
• Lord Henry Wotton, a brilliant talker and an amoral aesthete, expresses sharp criticism of institutions.
• Basil Hallward is an intellectual who falls in love with Dorian's beauty and innocence. When he tries to guide Dorian towards good moral conduct, he is killed by Dorian.

Performer Shaping Ideas ZANICHELLIOscar Wilde

Temi de Il Ritratto di Dorian Gray

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray

Themes

• The importance of beauty and appearance.
• A Faustian pact involves the portrait as a means of keeping ageless beauty and youth.
• The picture is Dorian's double: it stands for the dark side of Dorian's personality.

Performer Shaping Ideas ZANICHELLIOscar Wilde

La Morale del Romanzo

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray

The moral of the novel

• Every excess must be punished and no one can escape reality.
• When Dorian destroys the picture, he cannot avoid the punishment for all his sins death.
• The horrible, corrupting picture could be seen as a symbol of the immorality and bad conscience of the Victorian middle class.
• The picture, restored to its original beauty, illustrates Wilde's theories of art: art survives people, art is eternal.

Performer Shaping Ideas ZANICHELLIOscar Wilde

Riflessioni di Wilde sui Personaggi

IN A LETTER WILDE WROTE: «Basil Hallward is what I think I am, Henry Wotton is how the world thinks me and Dorian Gray is what I would like to be.»> Shaping Ideas ZANICHELLI