Wilde against Victorian England

This work seeks to display Wilde?s art, aesthetic and moral principles and the practice of these concepts in The Picture of Dorian Gray as well as in his play The Importance of Being Earnest. Wilde?s art and morality cannot be separated and have to be assessed together to understand his approach to art and morality clearly. In this study, Wilde?s art, aesthetics and moral vision are discussed in relation to the Victorian period and are depicted as a protest to the aesthetic and moral views of the period. Evaluation of Wilde?s moral vision and aesthetics in this respect illuminates his discussion of The Picture of Dorian Gray and provides a useful approach to the interpretation of The Importance of Being Earnest. In accordance with this target, the depiction of the social dynamics of the Victorian Era is followed by a brief discussion of Victorian moral values, which developed under the influence of this social structure. Later Wilde?s moral principles that appeared as the antithesis of Victorian morality are assessed and then prior to the literary exploration of Wilde, in order to contextualise him in the period, the observation of Victorian literature is included in the discussion. Subsequently, Wilde?s art and aesthetics, which developed in this period, are analyzed bearing his relationship to aesthetic and decadent traditions in mind. Later on, the aesthetic and moral values he adopted in The Picture of Dorian Gray and in The Importance of Being Earnest are analyzed as a rejection of Victorian moral and aesthetic values; his refusal of conventional Victorian values is investigated by utilizing details from his works as a source for the argument.