Key Ideas (General notes from Class)

Question 1

What are the 5 Key Contextual references for Wilde?

Answer 1

• Controversial sexual preferences
• Prominent inure in Aesthetic movement
• Patriarchal Society
• Melodrama as a fashionable genre of drama/theatre conservatism
• Individualism

Question 2

What are the 5 key Contextal references for Rossetti?

Answer 2

• Christianity
• Women’s movements: Society for the Employment of Woman, Contagious diseases Act, Woman’s property acts etc.
• Voluntary work at Highgate House for fallen women
• Pre-Raphaelite movement
• Other woman writers

Question 3

Ho does Dandyism challenge Victorian masculinity? (3 things)

Answer 3

• Flamboyance of dress/costume
• Rejection of formality + work in pursuit of idleness + leisure
• Don’t suppress their emotions or thoughts but express them, defies the male restriction.

Question 4

What are the 2 things that the New Woman is conveyed as ?
How does Gertrude, Cheveley and Mabel embody this?

Answer 4

• Self sufficient, not relying on wealth of others
• Not dependent / possessed by the husbands

Gertrude - not dependent on marriage, individual pursuits
Cheveley - autonomous, not solely dependent on men, power to be promiscuous and manipulative
Mabel - Rejects marriage

Question 5

What are the two points in regards to Wilde and feminism?

Answer 5

• Edited the magazine ‘The Woman’s world’ between 1887/89, being an enthusiastic supporter of women’s influence in politics
• Cultivation of separate sorts of virtues / ideals of duty in men and women has led to the whole social fabric being weaker and unhealthier than it need be

Question 6

How does Wilde flatter the privileged elite in AIH? (5 things)

Answer 6

— Emphasises sophistication, sensibilities, and praises their artistic nature
— Flatters them in their descriptions, i.e artistic references of characters
—Dandyism/ Aestheticism celebration
— Morally complex characters
— Character progression towards a more moderate future

Question 7

How does Wilde satirise the privileged elite in AIH? ( 6 things)

Answer 7

• Ridicules Goring’s idleness through Cavershams older prejudices
• criticises idealism
• Cheveley is symbolic of manipulative power gain- artificiality, fake multifaceted
• melodramatic dialogue/mannerisms
• ‘Morality is simply the attitude we adopt to people we personally dislike’
  -Blindness of Robert to his own guilt

Question 8

What are the four potential ideas that derive Cheveley being punished?

Answer 8

• Celebratory view ‘ her face is illuminated with evil triumph. There is joy in her eyes. Youth seems to have come back to her. Her last glance is as switch as an arrow.’
• Shows no one is exempt from punishment, exposes vulnerability of all
• Melodramatic ending to a villain who deserves their downfall
  -Shows moral differences

Question 9

Why might Wilde have chosen to punish Cheveley?

Answer 9

Despite his own views on pursuing ambition and wickedness, he may have chosen to punish Cheveley for the sake of pleasing a puritanical audience.

Question 10

What are the 4 ideas as to why a Dandy may celebrate Youth?

Answer 10

• unlimited potential to sophisticated and grow
• lack of responsibility, freedom of autonomy
• ungoverned, not contributing to society
• Employment / responsibility may force beauty and art, and forbid it from naturalism.

Question 11

What are the 2 examples from AIH of how youth is seen as subversive in Victorian England?

Answer 11

• Characters try to maintain youth and often subvert conventional demands form society i.e natural aging, employment, adult responsibility
• Goring relishes in preserving his Dandyism
• Cheveley’s aging is present as artificial and duplicitous

Question 12

How is the generational clash of youth presented through Lord Caversham and Goring? ( 2 things)

Answer 12

• LC places pressure on Goring to marry due to his age
• LC only takes Goring’s upfront lack of seriousness into account and denounces the possibility that he may be serious in thought/ morals. Caversham sees youth as an affection, Goring as an art.

Question 13

How does Mabel epitomise youth being a source of honesty/ vitality?

Answer 13

She is genuine/ open when confessing love to Goring, irrespective of the consequences to her social status.
She is willing to admit something so scandalous ‘ it is a public scandal how much I adore you’

Question 14

How do Mabel and Goring convey playful wit as a feature of youth?

Answer 14

Their shared repartee envokes the lack of seriousness in times when they are being playful, but are only serious in times it matters most — Goring says ‘ Mabel, do be serious. Please be serious.’

Question 15

What are the four aspects to Lord Goring that suggest Wilde is using him as his own mouthpiece?
What are the quotes that link with each?

Answer 15

Wit/ Epigrammatic style - ‘To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.’
Critique of social hypocrisy - ‘ The truth is rarely pure and never simple.’
Advocate of clemency/ forgiveness - ‘Nobody is incapable of doing a wrong thing.’
Champion of emotional integrity over rigid morality - ‘ Oh, be some thing better than that. Be a real woman.’

Question 16

What are the aspects to Goring’s speech with Gertrude in Act 4 that suggest he is re-establishing predetermined gender roles?

Answer 16

• Speech shows the contradictory nature of ideologies between genders - women; submisssive and emotional, men; ambitious, powerful.
• Men’s actions more easier to forgive, i.e Cheveley demised.
• Exposes Gertrude as victimising Robert
• Addresses moral complexities of characters
• Factually true - women didn’t have vote, not politically involved,
• Ironic - Wilde critiques absurdity of men idealising women, although Gertrude must forgive- she is being placed on a pedestal and denied real agency.