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E312: British Literature since 1760 Oscar Wilde Study Questions Alfred J. Drake. Office: 424 University Hall Extra-Credit Journal Instructions: Respond at appropriate length to 4 questions from "Decay" and 4 from Earnest. "The Decay of Lying" 1. Why do you suppose Wilde uses a more or less "Socratic" form of dialogue to make his case that "lying" is a vital element of human society? 2. Why, on page 35-6, does Vivian have what almost amounts to an animus against Nature? What is lacking in nature -- why is it not the great source of moral intelligibility and renewer of human community that the romantic poets claimed it was? 3. Why are politicians, according to Vivian on 36, merely unsuccessful liars? What is "a fine lie"? 4. Why, according to Vivian on 39, is the realism of Zola a failure? And on what grounds does he further accuse realism of failure on 43? 5. What are "masks," and why, according to Vivian on 39-40, are they more interesting than common human nature? 6. On page 41, Vivian argues that "The only beautiful things, as somebody once said, are the things that do not concern us." To what extent do you think Wilde follows Matthew Arnold's doctrine of "disinterestedness"? 7. On 45-46, what version of society's origins does Vivian set forth? How does he define "decadence"? 8. Vivian says on 47 that "life imitates art far more than art imitates life." How does he go on to explain the purpose of art? How does Wilde describe imagination, and how does art serve imagination? 9. How does Vivian define "the basis of life" on page 50? How does he enlist Aristotle's Poetics to make his case about the centrality of imagination to human happiness? 10. From 51 onwards, Vivian insists on the autonomy, or independence, of art as a separate realm. Why is it important to him that art be considered a realm all its own, separate from other kinds of endeavor? What power attaches to art precisely because it "never expresses anything but itself" and "rejects the burden of the human spirit" (51)? 11. To what extent does Wilde agree with Pater on key issues such as the value of expression and art's autonomy? Does Wilde differ from Pater on any significant issue or in his general approach to the relation between art and the individual, art and life? The Importance of Being Earnest A General Approach: Follow out the play’s exploration of key terms, mainly “sincerity” and “marriage.” Read as many events and situations as possible in light of what you know about commodification. Is everything a commodity in this play? What might Wilde be suggesting about Victorian values? Act I 1. Why do Jack and Algernon need Ernest and Bunbury, respectively? 2. Keep your eye on the status of the females in this play. What do you think of the fact that Cecily Cardew is Jack’s ward and that Gwendolen Fairfax is the closely guarded, yet salable, daughter of Lady Bracknell? Consider Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell, too. 3. Why does Gwendolen want to marry an “Ernest?” 4. Put Gwendolen’s “ideals” together with Lady Bracknell’s requirements for her suitor and try to explain the importance of marriage in this play. 5. Play around with the account Jack gives of his birth. What is significant about his having been discovered in an ordinary handbag lost in the cloakroom of a railroad car? 6. Jack claims at one point that he is tired of living in a society of wits. What do you think is the function of all the witty paradoxes and epigrams in this play? Act II 1. Notice that the play’s setting has now been switched to the country. Is there a legitimate opposition between town and country in Earnest? 2. Miss Prism’s Law of Fiction is that the good should end happily, and the bad unhappily. Can one apply Prism’s Law to Wilde’s play as a whole? 3. Dr. Chasuble asks Jack when he wants to be christened, and Jack seems anxious to avoid mixing with “the lower orders” during this ceremony. This is a good time to ask, what is the use of ‘the lower orders’ in this piece?” 4. While we are on the subject of christening, what is the significance of such an event? Why, that is, are people christened at birth? 5. Just as Gwendolen does, Cecily has a striking way of falling in love. How did she fall in love with “Ernest” and then develop the affair? Act III 1. Lady Bracknell’s requirements will now be brought to bear on Cecily. What does Jack give her by way of introduction to Cecily’s qualities? Consider Lady Bracknell’s response to this list; on what authority does she formulate her judgment of Cecily? 2. Miss Prism is recognized by Lady Bracknell and forced to cough up the secret of Jack’s birth, and it turns out that she mixed him up with the manuscript of her three-volume novel. What sort of novel was it? Why does the peculiar character of this mix-up matter? 3. What is it to “be Earnest,” and what is the importance of doing so? Now that we know Jack was always Ernest, what are we supposed to think as we walk out the playhouse door?
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