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image TOPIC 51. OSCAR WILDE AND BERNARD SHAW - Coggle Diagram
TOPIC 51. OSCAR WILDE AND BERNARD SHAW
OSCAR WILDE was an Irish poet and playwright born in 1854 whose father was an admired doctor and his mother was a poet.
LIFE
He was awarded the scholarship to attend Trinity College in Dublin and in 1874 he graduated and received the Berkeley Gold Medal for the best student in Greek. He then attended the Magdalen College in Oxford where he won a poetry award in 1878 with his poem "Ravenna". After graduation he moved to London where he continued writing poetry.
- In 1882, he travelled to NY for an American lecture tour where he became successful for his plays too and then started another lecture circuit of Ireland and England which lasted until the mid of 1884.
- Through his early poetry and lectures, Wilde made a reputation as the foremost advocate of the aesthetic movement. He supported the theory of art and literature concerning with the search for beauty.
- Wilde married Constantine Lloyd and had 2 children.
- In 1885 Wilde was appointed as an editor in the popular magazine Woman's world where he dealt with what women of his time felt and wore. He tried to make it a platform to express the opinion of women on different subjects such as art, literature and modern life.
- Wilde became the toast of 1890s London = famous for his society plays and flamboyant wit, as well as for his support of aestheticism. He later became known for his affairs with men and after 2 trials he was convicted of gross indecency in 1895 (this charge criminalised homosexual people in the UK) and sentenced to 2 years of hard labour imprisonment. In 1897 he was released from prison, emotionally exhausted and physically depleted he went to France and did not write much (just in 1898 dealing with his experiences in prison).
- Oscar died on 30th November 1900 due to meningitis at the age of 46.
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Wilde's writings are often authobiographical. Oscar's WRITING STYLE often includes his thoughts/beliefs in his works with beautiful wordplay as he was a perfectionist.
His style is characterised by his wit, flamboyance, and mastery of the epigram. It features:
- A Mix of through realistic dialect and thoughtful imagery (morbid) into an interestingly melancholic tale.
- Accentuating dialogue: prominence of dialogue and ideas, not showing his characters in action. In his plays, there's a clash between ideas rather than actions. He's motivated to arouse musical and visual arts.
- Descriptive, logic paradox : he employed self-contradictory statements to express the deepest truths.
- Highlighting the evilness, holding on the reality of human nature but also focusing on the darkness that is present in the soul of every individual. He acknowledges the human's lust for immortality as in "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
REFERENCES
- Grlica, T. (2013).“THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHING LITERATURE IN A HIGH-SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT WITH THE INCORPORATION OF FILM AND MULTIMEDIA INTO THE PROCESS”.
- Bekmuratovich, X. G. (2020). "The Importance of Teaching History to Students"
- Sanders, A. (1996). "The Short Oxford History of English Literature"
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
BERNARD SHAW was born in Dublin and he was one of the founders of the Fabian Society, an organisation created to promote socialist ideas in Britain.
- He was a great optimist who believed in the progressive realisation of the good. Thus, he saw war as the bankruptcy of the capitalist systems and a tragic waste of young lives that are under the guise of patriotism. These articles proved to be a disaster for his public stature: he was treated as an outcast in his adopted country.
- Concerned about the inconsistency of English spelling, he left a portion of his wealth to support the creation of a new phonemic alphabet for the English language, which became known as the Shavian Alphabet.
- He's the only person ever to have won both a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award (for the script adaptation of his work "Pygmalion")
WRITING STYLE
Shaw was a rationalist, anti-romantic, and antiaesthetic writer whose work is characterised by:
- the incorporation of historical allegory. For example, in his play "Saint Joan," Shaw uses the historical figure of Joan of Arc to explore themes of nationalism and religion, prompting the audience to reflect on similar issues of their time.
- :red_cross:Rejection of all traditional methods and techniques of playwriting: he was a realist in his natural dialogue and action, absolutist in his mental processions;
- Modern theatre of ideas: Shaw's plays were written to make us think. He introduced stage subjects such as prostitution, war, health and economics, the problems of wealth, the sensible breaking of moral codes, ridiculous ideas of heroism
- Didacticism: through his own ideas which he threw into his characters.
- satire (every custom/tradition/value), humour and criticism (of art and social religion/morality/politics)
- Influenced by the Philosophy of Nietzsche and Bergson and by the Realism of Ibsen
- Paradox and wit to sell his commodities among the public
- Clashes in Shaw's dramas are mental, unforced and dramatic.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzxjQtnm0XQ
The Edwardian Era was a brief period of time characterised by significant social change and technological advancement (invention of the airplane , radio and cinema ) that spanned from Edward VII's ascension to the throne in 1901 to his death in 1910. However, it is often extended to the start of WWI caused by the tensions of the imperial expansion and geopolitical tensions of the time.
- It was a time of relative peace and prosperity , marked by a shift in political power of the Liberals with the rise of the labour party, socialism and the suffragette movement . They got pensions to people over 70 and free medical treatment to insured workers.
- Society: in transition, structures began to loose and elegance was epitomised by the changing fashion of the time.
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