General review of O. Wilde's oeuvre

 

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet and author of numerous short stories and one novel. Known for his biting wit, and a plentitude of aphorisms, he became one of the most successful playwrights of the late Victorian era in London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. Several of his plays continue to be widely performed, especially " The Importance of Being Earnest".

The list of O. Wilde's most prominent literary works:

Prose: "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1890), "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" (1891), "The Happy Prince and Other Tales", "A House of Pomegranates", "The Canterville Ghost", "Without A Secret", "The Model Millionare";

Plays: " Lady Windermere's Fan" (1892), Salome (1894), "A Woman of No Importance" (1893), "An Ideal Husband" (1895), "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895);

Poems: "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" (1898), "Charmides", De Profundis, "The Harlot's House", "Helas!", "Impression du Matin", "Pan — Double Villanelle", "The Sphinx", "Symphony In Yellow";

Criticism by Wilde: "The Decay of Lying" (1889), “The Soul of Man under Socialism», “The Beauties of Bookbinding” [38].

The main themes that O. Wilde touched upon in his literary works:

— Individualism;

— Public indifference to the authority;

— Anxieties and hypocrisy;

— The inevitability of tragedy;

— Homosexuality [26].

The peculiarities of O. Wilde's writing style:

— style outweights sincerity and substance;

— prevalance of imagery, especially morbid and evil ones;

— frequent use of rhetoric devices;

— the use of irony and satire [43].

One of Wilde's first books ever published was A Selection of Poems in 1881, which, unfortunately, attracted admiration in only a limited circle. However, the next six years were to become the most successful and creative period of his life. During this period he published two collections of children's stories, “The Happy Prince and Other Tales” (1888), and “The House of Pomegranates ” (1892).

His first and only novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray", was published in an American magazine in 1890 to a storm of critical protest. He expanded the story and had it published in book form the following year. Its implied homoerotic theme was considered very immoral by the Victorians and played a considerable part in his later legal trials.

Oscar's first play, “Lady Windermere's Fan,” opened in February 1892. Its financial and critical success prompted him to continue to write for the theater. His subsequent plays were almost all highly acclaimed and firmly established Oscar as a playwright.

However, less successful was "Salom é " (1892), that had been denied a licence for English performance by the Lord Chamberlain because it contained Biblical characters. Wilde was furious, even contemplating changing his nationality to become a French citizen.

His next comedy was "A Woman Of No Importance", produced on 19th April 1893 at the Haymarket Theatre in London by Herbert Beerbohm Tree. It repeated the success of " Lady Windermere's Fan", consolidating Wilde's reputation as the best writer of "comedy-of-manners" since Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

A slightly more serious note was struck with "An Ideal Husband", produced by Lewis Waller at the Haymarket Theatre on 3 January 1895. This contains a political melodrama — as opposed to the marital melodrama of the earlier comedies —running alongside the usual Wildean epigrams, social commentary, comedy, and romance.

Barely a month later, his masterpiece «The Importance Of Being Earnest» appeared at the St. James's Theatre. Unlike the three previous comedies, it was free of any melodrama. With its polished colloquialness and ease of speech, the perfect timing of the action and happy couples paired off in the last act, the play caused yet another sensation. The play shows the author's revolt against the social conventions and the pettiness of high society for which he felt profound repugnance, since it was in this society that the tyranny of public opinion leveled individuality down to mediocrity.

Perhaps, the most striking feature of O. Wilde's style and manner of writing is the paradoxical form of expression [40]. His paradoxes are based upon a sceptical altitude to the conventional ethical norms of the bourgeois way of life.

What O. Wilde's plays triumphantly demonstrate is the author's broad knowledge of the great drama of the past and a sound understanding of the problems of the modern theatre. As George Bernard Shaw said in his review of O. Wilde's career as a playwright, "...Mr Wilde is to me our only serious playwright. He plays with everything: with wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors, with audience, with the whole theatre..." [51].

The most important of Wilde's critical works is a volume titled "Intentions" (1891). It consists of four essays: "The Decay of Lying," "Pen, Pencil and Poison," "The Critic as Artist", and "The Truth of Masks". The work advocates one of the tenets of Wilde's Aestheticism, namely, that of Art being superior to Nature.

Unfortunately, O. Wilde's successful writing carreer was cut short after the big scandal concerning his personal life. As a result, the writer was accused of «unnatural practices» and imprisoned for two years.

Oscar Wilde wrote very little during his last years; the only notable work was a poem he completed in 1898, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", revealing his concern for inhumane prison conditions.

2.1.3. Literary analysis of the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose”

 

The Nightingale and the Rose (1888) is O. Wilde's short story included in his fairy tales collection The Happy Prince And Other Tales [50]. This short story embodies the typical writing styles and techniques of Oscar Wilde, namely vivid imagery, satirical tone and flowery wording style. It is frequently anthologized as a classic short story about love which interprets its true meaning.

Genre: It is a short story. Although the literary work does have certain features of a fairy-tale, like fantastical elements (talking Nightingale, Lizard, Daisy, Rose-trees) and occurrences in groups of three, it does not adhere to fairy-tale conventions, as there is no happy ending.

Theme: Nightingale's noble self-sacrifice in the name of Love.

Main idea: Persuing true love may involve some sacrifice, while the «fake love» always involves material interests.

The short story may be perceived as critique to the society that values usefulness and material wealth above true feelings.

Conflict: Love vs. Reason.

Range of problems: problem of altruism and self-sacrifice, problem of changing nature of the human emotions, problem of greed, problem of bookish knowledge as opposed to true wisdom.

Plot

Exposition: The Nightingale decides to help the Student find a red rose for the Professor's daughter so he could dance with her.

Rising Action: The Nightingale travels to several rose bushes in search for the red rose. She then finds out about the way she can obtain one and considers sacrificing her life.

Climax: The Nightingale sacrifices itself to create a beautiful crimson rose.

Falling action: The Student finds the red rose and brings it to the Professor's daughter.

Denoument: After being turned down, the Student complains about love and regards it as silly, useless and unpractical. He goes into his dorm and studies.

Narration / Point of view

The story is told from an omniscient narrator. The narrator uses the third person to tell the story and he is not involved in it.

Specific Setting

1) Time: winter (day and night);

2) Places: the Student's garden, the Nightingale's nest in the holm-oak tree, the boy's room and the Professor's house.

Mood: sad and very emotional; dark and tragic.

System of characters:

I. Main characters:

Protagonists:

— The Nightingale: empathic, unselfish, motherly, kind, self-sacrificail, determined, brave, impulsive;

— The Student: naive, superficial, unexperienced, intelligent, but not wise; his love for the girl lacks depth and passion.

Antagonist:

— Professor's daughter: a selfish, materialistic girl.

II. Secondary (minor) characters: Lizard, Butterfly and Daisy (mere observers, symbolize the cynic people); White Rose Tree, Yellow Rose Tree, Red Rose Tree, Chamberlain's nephew.

Symbols:

1) The rose: love, beauty and passion (it is hard to find and sometimes it involves sacrifices and pain); the unattainable / fantasy;

2) The Nightingale: romance, utopian love, nurture, sacrifice;

3) White: purity and innocence;

4) Red: love and passion;

5) The student: naiveness, intelligence;

6) Professor's daughter: fickleness of love, insincerity;

7) Oak tree: wisdom;

8) Thorn: death, suffering;

9) Jewels: material possessions, greed.

Some of the symbols have biblical aspects.

Archetypal interpretation:

The caregiver — The Nightingale;

The Sage — The Student;

The Magician — The Red Rose Tree;

The Skeptic — The Lizard;

Stylistic devices:

Personification: The white Moon heard it, and she forgot the dawn.

Simile: His hair is dark as hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose.

Hyperbole: S he will dance so lightly that her feet will not touch the floor.

Metaphor: She sang of the birth of passion in the soul of a man and a maid.

Repetition: Bitter, bitter was the pain, and wilder and wilder grew her song.

Allusion: Life is very dear to all. It is pleasant to sit in the green wood, and to watch the Sun in his chariot of gold, and the Moon in her chariot of pear.

Polysyndeton & gradation: But the Nightingale's voice grew faiter, and her little wings began to beat, and a film came over her eyes.

Irony: The Nightingale calles the Student «the last true lover», when in truth his feelings lack depth and passion. The most cruel bit of irony resides in the fact that

the Nightingale's sacrifice has gone to waste and her feat was never acknowledged.

Possible interpretation

The short story also demonstrates Wilde's dissatisfaction about the alienation towards him and his ideas [33]. Nightingale is a symbol of Wilde himself. He expresses his grievances through this short story that he is like the nightingale, producing art with blood from his heart, whereas the world is too insensitive and conservative to notice. The implication being that a society that suffers from hypocrisy and spiritual emptiness simply cannot aknowledge such «nightingales».