THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SURFACES AND DEPTHS IN OSCAR WILDE’S PLAYS OF THE 1890S
Keywords:
Oscar Wilde, plays, human relationship, reality, ideal, concealmentAbstract
Oscar Wilde’s plays have been well-known for students of English literature for quite a long time through the reading of original texts and experiencing their visual adaptations. The study is an examination of Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, all written during 1890s. The method adapted to analyse the plays is close-reading, focusing on both the contents and the implications – thus uncovering the significance of ‘surfaces’ and ‘depths’ of the (con) text which is critically challenged by the author. The study is not, however, an attempt to specifically define the social situation in the late nineteenth century England. On the contrary, it presents the ways in which human relationship could conceal and yet expose vital complexity and frivolity; these ways include the depiction of social concealment, the ridicule of the ideal, and the question against wealth.
References
Wilde, O. (2008). The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays, ed. by Peter Raby. Oxford : Oxford University Press. Cited works
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