Analysis of Oscar Wildes The Picture of Dorian Gray or The Importance Research Paper

Analysis of Oscar Wildes The belief of Dorian Gray or The Importance of Being fervent - Research Paper ExampleWeb. A modern review of Lady Bracknell includes interviews with women and men who have played the most formidable character in Earnest. I allow use this article to show how Earnest has accumulated meaning over time. Gagnier, Regenia. Idylls of the market place Oscar Wilde and the Victorian Public. Stanford University Press Stanford, 1986. Print. This book talks about the truth of Earnest, which volition add a different fish to my discussion of expectations both internal and external to the play. It also talks about the popular reaction to Wildes downfall, soon after the play opened, which will be of use as my paper will examine non only Earnest but also its playwright. Gillespie, Michael Patrick. Oscar Wilde and the Poetics of Ambiguity. Gainesville University Press Florida, 1996. Print. Gillespies book talks about Earnest in terms of expectations contemporary expecta tions of Wilde, of young men, and of the play genre. This is something I would like to investigate further, and with this books help I will show how studied triviality and Wildes reputation interacted with expectation in Earnest. Kohl, Norbert. Oscar Wilde The Works of a Conformist Rebel. Trans. David enthalpy Wilson. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1989. Print. The chapter on Earnest begins by declaring that before its first opening, audiences expected that Wildes new play would offer the rattling opposite of what was promised by the stolid-sounding title. I find this interplay between title, content and expectation very(prenominal) interest with Earnest, was Wilde subverting expectations or living up to them? Prewitt Brown, Julia. Cosmopolitan Criticism Oscar Wildes Philosophy of Art. Virginia Virginia University Press, 1997. Print. Prewitt Brown argues that Earnest reflects the national fabrication of the century, that an orphan can achieve great things in spite of unce rtain origins. I will use her examples to ask whether Earnest was at all trivial, or if Wildes calculated superficiality is little much than a veneer. Sweet, Matthew. Inventing the Victorians. London Faber & Faber, 2002. Print. Sweets book offers a comprehensive new look at the Victorian era, and is very useful for subverting our expectations of Wildes time. I will use this book to help create the background for my paper, placing us in Wildes world rather than a modern misconception of Victorian Britain. Taylor, George. Players and Performances in the Victorian Theatre. Manchester Manchester University Press, 1989. Print. In this book George Taylor looks at Victorian drama as a whole, examining how actors felt about their art. I hope to use this as a standard of expectation and seriousness by which to compare Earnest. Expectations of, and Undermined Triviality in, The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wildes last play and penultimate piece of litera ture before his untimely expiry in 1900, is pivotal in the life of its playwright because it was first performed in 1895, just a few short months before Wilde was sentenced to two years hard labor in prison for his homosexual liaisons. The play is jump of Wildes carefully cultivated persona as a dandy, creating a tone of studied triviality which was lapped up by an audience engaged in a continuous search for bigger and better thrills