Oscar Wilde and the decadents

the life 1854-1900

he was born in ireland and then he studied at cambridge

he had two children and a wife but later in his life he was imprisoned for omosexuality

he died in poverty in paris

aestheticism

it was a movement which motto was: "art for art's sake".

his personality

He was the most popular dandy of the period

the picture of dorian gray

it's manifesto was the novel written by Oscar Wilde the picture of dorian gray

it's the only novel that Wilde wrote and it's a gothic novel

the main charcater Dorian is complex

he is a hedonist

he is a narcissist and a Faustian character

The novel describes the moral decline of Dorian

The narrator is omniscient

the importace of being earnest

it is a critique to the superficiality of the late victorians

the language is very important

The language is unrealistic, a language never used by ordinary people.

the characters are stereotypes

Gwendolen the sophisticated young woman of high society

Algernon the perfect dandy and he is the self portait of wilde

the decadents

at the end of the 19th century some french poets called themselves decadents

the wanted to set the art free from the materialistic preoccupations of industrial society

in italy

Gabriele D’Annunzio was the main representative of Decadentismo.

Jack represents the fashionable young man,

Lady Bracknell the strong and arrogant woman