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E335: Literature of Victorian England Oscar Wilde Study Questions "The Decay of Lying" (1889, rev. 1891--in Victorian Prose Archive) 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 1018-19, 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 1019, merely unsuccessful liars? What is "a fine lie"? 4. Why, according to Vivian on 1021-22, is the realism of Zola a failure? And on what grounds does he further accuse realism of failure on 1025? 5. What are "masks," and why, according to Vivian on 1022, are they more interesting than common human nature? 6. On page 1023, 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 1024-25, what version of society's origins does Vivian set forth? How does he define "decadence"? 8. Vivian says on 1027 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 1030? How does he enlist Aristotle's Poetics to make his case about the centrality of imagination to human happiness? 10. From 1030 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" (1031)? 11. To what extent does Wilde agree with Pater (you might read Pater's Conclusion to The Renaissance in our anthology) 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? Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act I 12. What are Lady Windermere's values, and from whom does she say she inherited them? And what kind of ethical system does Lord Darlington, Lady Windermere's admirer, subscribe to? Do the two converse on equal terms? 13. How does the Duchess of Berwick describe marital relations, and what advice does she offer Lady Windermere about how to rein in Lord Windermere, whom everyone thinks is having an affair with the racy Mrs. Erlynne? In what sense is the Duchess a representative character? 14. By the end of the first act, what are the respective aims of Lord and Lady Windermere? What is she upset about? What is he determined to do for Mrs. Erlynne? 15. How does wit function in the first act (and in subsequent acts)? To what extent does it encapsulate the conventions of upper-class British life? Does it uphold those conventions, mock them, or both? Act II 16. What arguments does Lord Darlington use to convince Lady Windermere to run away with him? 17. What effect does Mrs. Erlynne have on the company at Lady Windermere's evening party? What sort of personality does Wilde give her, and what transformation does Mrs. Erlynne undergo in the second act? Act III 18. How do conventional class-based assumptions about propriety and "good and evil" structure the third act? What role does sentiment (as opposed to wit and intrigue) play in the proceedings between Mrs. Erlynne and Lady Windermere? 19. How is Lady Windermere's fan more than just a plot device? (It will appear again in the fourth act.) If you have read Othello, how does the fan compare to Desdemona's handkerchief--another telltale object of affection? Act IV 20. How does Mrs. Erlynne collect her reward for the good turn she has done Lady Windermere? By the play's end, who understands her story, and who does not? 21. What "moral" has Lady Windermere learned by the end of the play concerning the nature of good and bad? Has Lord Windermere learned as much as Lady Windermere? 22. The traditional structure of comedy is as follows: protasis (setting forth of plot elements and main characters); epitasis (complication of the plot); catastasis (false or incomplete climax); and catastrophe (climax). Where do you find these four structural points in Lady Windermere's Fan? Edition: Wilde, Oscar. Lady Windermere's Fan. Dover, 1998. ISBN: 0486400786. Salome: A Tragedy in One Act. 23. What is the affinity between Salome and the moon? 24. What view of love does the play set forth? 25. How do other characters besides Salome regard Iokanaan? Whose perspective do you consider most accurate or significant, and why? 26. Why doesn't Herod want to grant Salome her wish? 27. Can this play be properly interepreted within a moral framework, or is it wrong to say that Salome has "sinned"? Explain. Edition: Wilde, Oscar. Salome: A Tragedy in One Act. Dover, 1997. ISBN: 0486218309.
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