Here is a presentation about 'Oscar WILDE, Victorian Period and The Important of Being Earnest'. We did it for our Theatre Lesson at University. I hope you like it and will be useful for everyone.

1. OSCAR WILDE
AND
HIS PERIOD,
THE
IMPORTANCE OF BEING
EARNEST

2. Born in Dublin in1854
He became a disciple of
Walter Peter, the theorist of
aestheticism.
He became a fashionable
dandy.
BRIEFLY, OSCAR WILDE

3. He was one of the most
successful playwrights of
late Victorian London and
one of the greatest
celebrities of his days.
He suffered a dramatic
downfall and was
imprisoned after been
convicted of “gross
indecency” for homosexual
acts.
He died in Paris in 1900.

4. OSCAR WILDE’S
AESTHETICSM
Oscar Wilde adopted the
aesthetical ideal: he
affirmed “my life is like a
work of art”.
His aestheticism clashed
with the didacticism of
Victorian novels.

5. OSCAR WILDE’S
AESTHETICSM
Oscar Wilde adopted the aesthetical ideal:
he affirmed ‘my life is like a work of art’.
His AESTHETICISM clashed with the didacticism
of Victorian novels.
The artist
Art
Virtue and vice
the creator of beautiful things
used only to celebrate beauty
and the sensorial pleasures
employed by the artist as raw
material in his art:
‘No artist has ethical sympathies.
An ethical sympathy in an artist is an
unpardonable mannerism of style’
‘The Preface’ to The Picture of
Dorian Gray

7. VICTORIAN PERIOD
Victorian period is known as reign
of Queen Victoria.
Exemplifies Victorian qualities:
earnestness, moral responsibility,
domestic propriety.
The Victorian Period was an age of
transition.
Several changes: from politics until
society.

8. VICTORIAN PERIOD
In the Victorian Age, which
encompassed the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, England was at its
climax of power. The British Empire
extended all over the world, coining
the phrase, "The sun never sets in the
British Empire."
The era saw the flourishing of the
English aristocracy, but the rise of the
elite created a huge wealth disparity
between the very rich and the very
poor.
Wilde, a respected member of the
upper-class, concentrated his satirical
efforts only on the aristocracy.

9. VICTORIAN PERIOD
Censorship of writers: no mention
of ‘sex, birth or death’
Materialism, secularism, vulgarity,
and sheer waste that accompanied
Victorian progress led some writers
to wonder if their culture was
really advancing by any measure.
Victorian writing reflects the
dangers and benefits to rapid
industrialization, while encouraging
readers to examine closely their
own understanding of the era’s
progress.

10. To know more about Victorian
period…
Oscar Wilde Charles DickensEmily Brönte

11. KEY POINT TO
REMEMBER
England grew in size, power, and wealth in this
era
Queen Victoria was the key to this era’s
popularity
The population is characterized by “two nations”
The only constant was change
Writers became political
This is the era of the novel
Themes of religion, fear & science, industrialism,
gender
New focus on children of the wealthy

12. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST:
A TRIVIAL COMEDY FOR SERIOUS
PEOPLE
OSCAR
WILDE

13. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING
EARNEST
The Importance of Being Earnest,
Oscar Wilde’s last and most
famous play.
It’s a satire of the Victorian era.
The Importance of Being Earnest
is funny all the time.
Genre of the play:
• Social Comedy
• Comedy of Manners
• Satire
• Intellectual Farce

14. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING
EARNEST:
 Jack has invented an alter ego, a younger
brother called Ernest who lives in the City.
 Humour comes from the characters’ false
identities.
 Witty dialogues and satire of Victorian
hypocrisy.

15. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING
EARNEST
 Set in England during the late
Victorian era.
 The protagonists: two young
aristocratic men, Ernest
Worthing, and Algernon
Moncrieff.
 Ernest, actually called Jack,
was adopted at an early age by
a Mr Thomas Cardew.

16. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING
EARNEST
 They belong to aristocratic
society.
 They are typical Victorian snobs.
 They are arrogant, formal and
concerned with money.
 They are interested only in a
materialistic world
 Lady Bracknell embodies the
stereotype of the Victorian
English aristocrat woman

17. This comedy
was a mirror of
the fashionable
and corrupted
world of the
Victorian
fashionable
audiences

18. Symbols are the double life,
food, fiction and writing .
The title of the play is a
pun.
To be ‘EARNEST’ means to
be serious, and the main
character(John/Jack) uses
the name ‘EARNEST’ when
he is in city.

19. YOU CAN NEVER BE
OVERDRESSED
OR
OVEREDUCATED
-OSCAR WILDE

20. -THE END-
MUSTAFA
ÖNDER
MEHMET ALİ
BEKTAŞLI