ENGL 226 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: The Importance Of Being Earnest, Aestheticism, Seething
Document Summary
Victorian earnestness: moral rectitude and seriousness valued, many victorian texts approach world and its problems w sincere desire to improve social and political situations. Aestheticism: anesthetic- numbness to pain , there was an upright moral standard, art is not responsible to depicting, moral ethical ideal. The belief of that art and morality occupy separate spheres: art was not responsible for presenting an ideal, socially and morally progressive view of the world. Wilde and aestheticism: public face of movement, flamboyant writings, dress, lifestyle, arrested for sodomy. Died in 1900 in a sad life: all art is quite useless beauty has as many meanings as men have moods . Importance of being earnest: carefully crafted farce. Farce: play in which physical comedy exaggerated details and overly complicated plotting combine to create and absurd comic world slapstick comedy . Plot is overly complicated mistaken id"s, lies, rivals, unexpected resolution, etc.
