 Life of Oscar Wilde  His style and the era the play was written  The Importance of Being Earnest  Jack Worthing and Lady Bracknell  My translation

 born on 16 October 1854  Mother Jane Francesca Agnes, a writer  Father Sir William Robert Wills Wilde, a surgeon  Brother William, younger sister Isola

 Classics at Portora Royal School  Was awarded Royal School Scholarship by Trinity College

 A Foundation Scholarship  Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek  Demyship scholarship to Magdalen College in Oxford

Adieu! Adieu! yon silver lamp, the moon, Which turns our midnight into perfect noon, Doth surely light thy towers, guarding well Where Dante sleeps, where Byron loved to dwell

 “Poems” published in 1881  Long tour of America and Canada in 1881  Back to Europe in 1883

 Married Constance Llyod in 1884  Two Sons: › Cyril › Vyvyan

 The Happy Prince and Other Tales(1888)  The Picture of Dorian Gray(1891)  Lady Windermere's Fan(1892)  A Woman of No Importance(1893)  An Ideal Husband(1895)  The Importance of Being Earnest(1895)

 Wilde was charged with "gross indecency" for homosexual acts  Wrote the Ballad of the Reading Gaol

 Yet each man kills the thing he loves By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!

 Adopted the name Sebastian Melmoth  Reunited with Robert Baldwin Ross  Died of meningitis on 30 November 1900 at the age of 46.

 Social Life  Economic Life  Political Life  In spite of the prosperity of the VictorianAge, factory and farm workers lived in terrible poverty.

 Victorian writers dealth with:  the contrast between the prosperity of the middle and upper classes and the wretched condition of the poor.  Loss of faith in traditional values

 brilliant dialogue and a provocative form  caricatures of social types  humorours remarks to express the hypocrisy of the upper class  autor’s comment vehicled by long detailed stage directions, containing all sort of information (gestures, noises, music, etc)

 Premiered on 14 February 1895 at the St. James’s Theatre  A total of 86 performances  Written as a farce

 Exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy, and it has its philosophy that we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.

 Fortunes and misfortunes of two young upper-class Englishmen: John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff.

 Puns  Inversions  Epigrams  Paradoxes  Irony  Foreshadowing

 is less a realistic character and more an instrument for representing a set of ideas or attitudes.  represents the idea of leading a life of respectability on the surface and a life of deception for pleasure

 First and foremost a symbol of Victorian earnestness and the unhappiness it brings as a result.

Lady Bracknell. [Sitting down.] You can take a seat, Mr. Worthing. [Looks in her pocket for note-book and pencil.] Jack. Thank you, Lady Bracknell, I prefer standing. Lady Bracknell. [Pencil and note-book in hand.] I feel bound to tell you that you are not down on my list of eligible young men, although I have the same list as the dear Duchess of Bolton has. We work together, in fact. However, I am quite ready to enter your name, should your answers be what a really affectionate mother requires. Do you smoke? Jack. Well, yes, I must admit I smoke. Lady Bracknell. I am glad to hear it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind. There are far too many idle men in London as it is. How old are you? Jack. Twenty-nine.

Lady Bracknell. A very good age to be married at. I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing. Which do you know? Jack. [After some hesitation.] I know nothing, Lady Bracknell. Lady Bracknell. I am pleased to hear it. I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square. What is your income?

Leydi Bracknell: [Oturarak] Oturun lütfen, Bay Worthing. [Çantasında defter ve kalem arar] Jack: Teşekkür ederim, Leydi Bracknell, ayakta durmayı yeğlerim. Leydi Bracknell: [Elinde defter ve kalemle] Bolton Düşesiyle listelerimizin aynı olmasına rağmen, kendimi size genç ve münasip damat adayı listemde olmadığınızı belirtmek zorunda hissediyorum. Aslında biz beraber çalışıyoruz. Ancak, cevaplarınız müşfik bir annenin beklediği cevaplara uygun olduğu takdirde sizi listeye almaya hazırım. Sigara kullanıyor musunuz? Jack: Şey, evet, sigara içtiğimi belirtmeden geçemeyeceğim. Leydi Bracknell: Bunu duymak beni çok mesut etti. Bir erkeğin öyle ya da böyle bir uğraşı olmalıdır. Malum, Londra'da gereğinden çok başıboş erkek var. Kaç yaşındasınız? Jack: Yirmi dokuz.

Leydi Bracknell: Evlenmek için çok uygun bir yaş. Evlenmek isteyen bir erkeğin ya her şeyi bilmesi gerektiğini ya da hiçbir şeyi bilmemesi gerektiğini düşünmüşümdür hep. Siz ne biliyorsunuz? Jack: [Biraz tereddüt ettikten sonra] Hiçbir şeyi bilmiyorum, Leydi Bracknell. Leydi Bracknell: Bunu duyduğuma sevindim. Katıksız cehalete etki eden hiçbir şeyi onaylamam. Cehalet narin bir egzotik meyve gibidir, dokunduğun anda tazeliğini yitirir. Bütün bu modern eğitim teorisi baştan aşağıya hatalı. Neyse ki İngiltere'de eğitim hiçbir işe yaramıyor. Yarasaydı, üst sınıflar için ciddi tehlike teşkil ederdi ve muhtemelen Grosvenor Meydanı'nda şiddet olaylarına yol açardı. Geliriniz nedir?