Dandyism and Moralism in Oscar Wildes An Ideal Husband Essay -- essay

Oscar Wilde, An Ideal economizeOscar Wilde wrote An Ideal Husband in 1895, during the decade known as the chickenhearted or Naughty Nineties, a movement with its roots in dandyism and decadence, the twilight years of Englands Victorian era, reflecting decay and scandal . Some biographers declare integrityself that Wilde might have been inspired by a second of events which occurred in his private life, to write this play , as it is the case for the dandified showcase of passe-partout Goring, which one could say is the double of Wilde himself, and who will maybe actualize the figure of the ideal hubby. As the stage notes from Act III indicate, master copy Goring is in immediate relation to modern life, making and get the hang it. An Ideal Husband emphasizes Lord Gorings modernity by opposing him to his father, Lord Caversham, who is still living the old fashion way, in a number of dialogues, which appear to be comic, when we notice the radical opposition of thinking of th e ii characters. The meeting of the two produces a clash between the old make and the modern thinking. This is seen in the first part of the third act, in which in that respect is a conversation between Lord Gorging and his father, who came to speak about the brilliance of getting married, and the occurrence he can not go one living only for pleasure.LORD CAVERSHAM Want to have a dangerous conversation with you, sir.LORD GORING My dear father At this min?LORD CAVERSHAM Well, sir, it is only ten oclock. What is your objection to the hour? I think the hour is an admirable hourLORD GORING Well, the fact is, father, this is not my day for talking seriously. I am very sorry, merely it is not my day.LORD CAVERSHAM What do you mean, sir?LORD GORING During the season, fath... ...the walls of his room at Oxford in the 1870s, Wilde hung pictures of Cardinal Manning of England and Pope Pius IX, two ardent defenders of Catholic orthodoxy. Wilde regarded two men as heroes. Mor e impressive is a letter Wilde wrote as a young man to his friend W.W. Ward in which his universality seems near to full blossom. He wrote about what he called the beauty and fate of the Incarnation. That central belief of the Nazareneianity helped humanity grasp at the skirts of the Infinite, Wilde declared. Since the birth of Christ the dead world has woken up from sleep. Since him we have lived. There is therefore safe evidence of Christian moralism in Wildes texts. However, my reading of An ideal husband gives me a much stronger picture of Lord Goring as a Dandy although, throughout the text, there is this dualism between dandyism and moralism.