Wilde+Class+Notes

May 21, 2008 __Imagery in "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"__ -looking glass ties (plasticine porter) -marmalade skies -rocking horse people (Marshmallow pies) -cellophane flowers- yellow and blue -tangerine trees -newspaper taxis -kaleidoscope eyes

-no strong beginning/middle/end, scattered thoughts

May 27, 2008 __1854-1878__ -born in Dublin, Ireland -Parents of high society -mom- poet/journalist -dad- philanthropist/prominent surgeon __1874-1878__- Attended Magdalen College in Oxford, England -noted for outlandish behavior- "metro sexual" __1876__- Frank Miles __1878__- Attained B.A. degree __1878-1892__ -Heavily involved in Aestheticism/Decadence -Aestheticism- art for art's sake -decadence- response to critics of Romanticism -Many arts-related jobs -lectured on aestheticism in Paris, Britain... -art reviewer -writer/editor to magazines -short stories, fairy tales, only novel- __The Picture of Dorian Gray__ 1891 __Significant others__ -Florence (1878) -Constance (1884) -Lord Alfred (1891)- very flamboyant relationship __1892-1895__ -Wilde's creative and critical peak years -Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) / A Woman of No Importance (1893) __Homosexuality and English law__ -1533- Capital offense under Henry VIII -Sodomy- non pro creative sex -Sodomite- engages in sodomy -1828- downgraded to felony; punishable by imprisonment -1885- Social Purity Movement/ Criminal Law Amendment Act -Section II:raised age of consent from 13 to 16 -"Gross indecencies" punishable as misdemeanor -1967- private sexual acts, including sodomy, decriminalized __Oscar Wilde & Lord Alfred Douglas__ -relationship began in 1891 the Marques of Queensbury (father of Lord Alfred) -unhappy;confrontational -sabotaging "Earnest" -April 1895- the calling card incident & libel trial -April- May 1895: Wilde arrested & tried under Section 11 of CLA Act -served two years hard labor __1897-1900__ -Declining health -wrote "the Ballad of Reading Gaol" about inhuman prison conditions -exile (self-imposed) and signed his name "Sebastian Melmoth" (Saint Sebastian- honorary patron saint for gays) __1900__ -died of cerebral meningitis on 30 Nov. in Paris
 * Oscar Wilde 1854-1900**

Friday May 30

Jack -Jack in country/Ernest in town -Uncle Jack to Cecily Cardew his ward

Algernon -Friends with Jack -Bunbury- always sick, Algy's escape -Aunt Augusta Bracknel -Gwendolen

High Society -money is important -minor- parents - money, smoking, house, 149 -conservative=liberal
 * shallow
 * materialistic
 * conscious about outsider opinion
 * politics
 * uncaring of others feelings
 * don't care about eduacation
 * hypocritical