Read these quotes from Oscar Wilde. Choose one of them and write it on a sheet of paper. What does this show you about the way he sees the world?
• “One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anything.”
• “People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.”
• “The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.”
• “Life is much too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.”
• “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”
• “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”
• “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”
• “The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!”
• “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.”
• “One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anything.”
• “People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.”
• “The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.”
• “Life is much too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.”
• “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”
• “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”
• “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”
• “The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!”
• “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.”
The Victorian Period
1. Literature of this age tends to come closer to daily life which reflects its practical problems and interests. It becomes a powerful instrument for human progress.
2. Moral Purpose: Victorian Literature seems to deviate from "art for art's sake" and asserts its moral message to instruct the world.
3. Idealism: It is often considered as an age of doubt and pessimism. The influence of science is felt here. The whole age seems to be caught in the conception of man in relation to the universe with the idea of evolution.
4. Though, the age is characterized as practical and materialistic, most of the writers exalt a purely ideal life. It is an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood are emphasized by poets, essayists and novelists of the age.
Values: earnestness, respectability, progress, hypocrisy, work ethic, restraint, duty
Major Ideas: expansion of the empire, glorification of war, industrialism, economic prosperity, reform, growing social consciousness, reform movements, struggle or strife
Literary Form/Structure: narrative over lyric, meter and rhythm over imagery, objective over reflective, melancholy response over reverence of nature, moral issues over self-actualization, length over brevity
Literary Content/Themes: isolation/alienation, lack of communication, pessimism/despair, loss of faith, didacticism, a crisis of faith and spiritual/intellectual doubt--work is the antidote
Literary Genres/Style: novel, magazines, comedy of manners
1. Literature of this age tends to come closer to daily life which reflects its practical problems and interests. It becomes a powerful instrument for human progress.
2. Moral Purpose: Victorian Literature seems to deviate from "art for art's sake" and asserts its moral message to instruct the world.
3. Idealism: It is often considered as an age of doubt and pessimism. The influence of science is felt here. The whole age seems to be caught in the conception of man in relation to the universe with the idea of evolution.
4. Though, the age is characterized as practical and materialistic, most of the writers exalt a purely ideal life. It is an idealistic age where the great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood are emphasized by poets, essayists and novelists of the age.
Values: earnestness, respectability, progress, hypocrisy, work ethic, restraint, duty
Major Ideas: expansion of the empire, glorification of war, industrialism, economic prosperity, reform, growing social consciousness, reform movements, struggle or strife
Literary Form/Structure: narrative over lyric, meter and rhythm over imagery, objective over reflective, melancholy response over reverence of nature, moral issues over self-actualization, length over brevity
Literary Content/Themes: isolation/alienation, lack of communication, pessimism/despair, loss of faith, didacticism, a crisis of faith and spiritual/intellectual doubt--work is the antidote
Literary Genres/Style: novel, magazines, comedy of manners