ΜΟΥΣΙΚΟ ΣΧΟΛΕΙΟ ΒΟΛΟΥ Ερευνητική Εργασία Κλασσική Αγγλική και Αμερικάνικη Λογοτεχνία α1 Λυκείου, 2013-14 Υπεύθυνη Καθηγήτρια: Παπαγεωργίου Ελίνα
Α’ ομάδα: Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) Μαρία Αγγελοπούλου– Κατερίνα Αντωνίου – Νίκη Βλάχου Άρτεμις Κατσιφού – Αλέξανδρος Κόκκινος Β’ ομάδα: The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) Κώστας Ανδραδόπουλος – Παντελής Αντωνάκης – Γιώργος Γεωργουλόπουλος Σένια Γρηγορίου – Οδυσσέας Δακτυλάς – Ιωάννα Ιωάννου Γ’ ομάδα: Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare) Μελίνα Αλεξάνδρου – Αρτέμης Γκάτζης – Βικτώρια Ζήση Πελαγία Κόκκαλη – Κυριακή Κούκια – Νίκος Δάτσης Δ’ ομάδα: The Portrait of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) Εβελίνα Γιαννακού – Ευθυμία Γκοντέλου – Μάριος Κατσίκας Θανάσης Καφενταράκης – Αλέξανδρος Ζαχαρούδης-Καγιάς – Ελίζα Καβούρα
Biography of Oscar Wilde One of the most important Irish writers of the nineteenth century Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1854. His father was a doctor and his mother a writer and translator. He went to Dublin and Oxford Universities where he was an unusually clever student. At Oxford he was famous for his unusual personal style. His amusing conversation and ideas about art won him many followers his habit of making fun of people also won him enemies. Wilde began to work seriously at his writing in 1887, beginning with a story, The Centerville Ghost. He wrote many other stories, among them The Picture of Dorian Gray (1892). He also wrote plays about fashionable society, including Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband. Most popular of all was “The Importance of Being Earnest”, which many people think is one of the funniest plays ever written in English. Wilde also wrote a play in French, Salome (1893), which takes the story of king Herod’s daughter from the Bible. In 1895 he became emotionally involved with Lord Alfred Douglas, a young man from a wealthy family. Douglas’ father did everything he could to ruin Wilde. The writer was sent to prison for two years. After this many of his friends turned their backs on him and nobody was willing to put on his plays. Wilde suffered terribly during his time in prison. He became ill and his confidence, both as a person and an artist, was destroyed. In1897, when Wilde came out of prison, he was a broken man. He spent the last years of his life in Paris, living in cheap hotels and asking his friends for money. He died in November 1900 at the age of 46.
What critics and readers think today of Oscar Wilde and his work Today Oscar Wilde’s sexual behaviour is no longer criticized as it was in his lifetime. Instead, he is remembered for his writings and for his daring ideas. As a thinker he believed strongly in the value of beauty. In life as well as in art, although the picture of Dorian Gray shows the danger of such beliefs. Wilde is admired for his imaginative stories, plays and humorous sayings, which both shocked and entertained people.
A short summary of Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray is a young and handsome man who becomes obsessed with the idea of beauty when he has his portrait painted. He makes a wish that he might remain forever youthful and that the portrait of him will age over time instead.
Soon after the wish is made he commits his first sin and discovers that the portrait has already begun to change in response to his amorality rather than to time passing.
Gray realizes that he has license to do whatever he likes, so he become a hideous visage.
Yet, Dorian himself has not changed in appearance since he made his wish. Eventually Gray becomes tormented by his own behavior and attacks the painting with a knife.
He is found to death, while the painting is restored to its original appearance.
Some thoughts about the novel
Wilde used the device of the painting to address various agendas. The most obvious message is that there always a price to be paid for iniquitous and self indulgent behavior, and that it will catch up with you in the end.
The painting is also a comment about the confessional in the catholic church. Like the priest behind the screen, the painting absorbs Gray’s sins, so that he can walk away and continue with his debauchery.
Most of all, the story of Dorian is autobiographical. Wilde saw that his own behavior was leading him down a path that could only end in disaster.
The Novel is a portent of his own abrupt end, yet it seems that he could not help himself and prevent it from happening.
Dorian Gray might ordinarily be perceived as a villain and a cad, who ultimately gets his just desserts, but as a personification of doom. The moral of the story is ‘Be careful what you wish for’ as Dorian allows himself to be overrun by his own wickedness by deferring responsibility for his actions.
People are usually called into check by the consequences of their own misdemeanours, so that the learn empathy and sympathy.
Without consequences, selfish inclinations are allowed to run riot and become amplified until the person has no control.
That is what happens to Dorian Gray, and that is what Wilde is saying about his own plight.
As a privileged and successful celebrity Wilde is allowed free-rein to do what he likes with impunity, but he can see that sooner or later he will come unstuck.
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