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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 lived there under the name Sebastian Melmoth. He wrote De Profundis, a reflective letter about his suffering, and The Ballad of Reading Gaol , a poem about his prison experience.
- Oscar died on 30th November 1900 due to meningitis at the age of 46.
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Wilde's writings are often authobiographical, often including his thoughts/beliefs in his works. He mocked Victorian social conventions with irony and clever, beautiful wordplay as he was a perfectionist.
His style is characterised by his 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 and paradoxical epigrams: : he employed short, witty self-contradictory statements to express the deepest truths while making social commentary, developing characters and making them memorable.
- 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, introducing a Modern theatre of ideas to make us think, tackling stage subjects such as prostitution, war, health and economics. Thus, conflicts in his dramas arise naturally through intellectual debates🗣️
- 📖 Didacticism: through his own ideas which he threw into his characters to educate audiences through. 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
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+60 WORKS
[known for their wit, and exploration of complex themes, such as gender equality ]
Shaw published a collected edition of his plays, comprising 42 works. He wrote a further 12 in the remaining 16 years of his life, mostly 1-act pieces.
- Major plays address ethical questions
- Short plays are 1-act comedic sketches
3 plays for puritans which centre on questions of empire/imperialism and morality
Plays pleasant are lighter in tone, often using humor and irony to explore human relationships
Plays unpleasant dealing with harsh social realities.
Music and Drama reviews
Turned to critic as a way to support himself financially while he worked on his plays.
He reckoned Music Criticism should be interesting to everyone so he wrote avoiding technical jargon. He campaigned against huge amateur choirs and inflated orchestration, calling for 20 capable artists . He railed against the opera productions unrealistically staged or sung in FL.
In his opinion, Lndn theatres presented too many revivals of old plays and not enough new work. He campaigned against melodrama, sentimentality, stereotype and worn-out conventions.
SOCIOPOLITICAL COMMENTARIES: Shaw increasingly propagated his ideas through his works, using his writings to challenge prevailing ideologies and push for reform. After loosening his ties with the Fabian movement, his writings were + personal and often provocative.
"The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Imperialism": political treatise, flirtation with dictatorial methods
"Man and Superman": dramatic play with philosophical elements, a vision of human evolution driven by Life Force and guided by the principles of eugenics and selective breeding
"More Common Sense About the War": a pamphlet denouncing the pacifist line of socialist leaders and proclaimed his readiness to shoot all pacifists rather than give them power or influence.
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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.
- It was a time of relative peace and prosperity , marked by a shift in political power 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 loosen and elegance was epitomised by the changing fashion of the time.
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