The 19th Century in Europe, and especially in England, is marked by the appearances of new artistic movements. Aestheticism is one the most important because it embodies a real change in the mentality and in art, considered as self sufficient. Immanuel Kant is one of the pioneers of it, and certainly the most important. But aestheticism is most of all represented by the great Irish writer: Oscar Wilde.
[...] In fact, the value of a masterpiece is determined by feelings and not by demonstration with reason. The “beautiful” has to be “subjective universal” judgements. III] An important figure: Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde was born on October in Dublin to unconventional parents - his mother Lady Jane Francesca Wilde (1820-96), was a poet and journalist. His father was Sir William Wilde, an Irish antiquarian, gifted writer, and specialist in diseases of the eye and ear. In 1878 he received his B.A. [...]
[...] In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd (died 1898), and to support his family Wilde edited in 1887-89 Woman's World. Wilde's marriage ended in 1893. He had met a few years earlier Lord Alfred Douglas, an athlete and a poet, who became both the love of the author's life and his downfall because his intimate association led to his trial on charges of homosexuality (then illegal in Britain): he was sentenced to two years hard labour for the crime of sodomy. [...]
[...] A Lutheran pastor thought that he saw some talent in young Immanuel and arranged for him to receive a thorough education. Soon in his life, his two parents died. Another subject of sufferance was his physical appearance: he was noticeably little. Nevertheless he was often surrounded by an important group of friends who admired his powers of conversation. He entered the university at sixteen and became later on a private tutor. Kant began to acquire a reputation as a teacher and was even occasionally offered posts by other universities. [...]
[...] Nevertheless, the first official population survey in 1851 shows that religion is decreasing/ in fact the nation is not as religious as its people, and especially the upper-classes, would like to make the others believe. This is the first point which reveals a kind of hypocrisy of the time: actually, Queen Victoria has moral and religious values and often goes to church. And the aristocrats follow this way of living despite of the fact that they are not pious: this is what the artists of the period want to denounce. [...]
[...] He is encouraged by one of the painter's friends: Lord Henry by telling him sentences such as "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." Actually, through this work, Oscar Wilde puts in evidence a man who lives in a corrupted system: during his dinners with aristocrats, we can see that they are hypocrite and all act under curtains. They embody the idea that the writer has of the Victorian Era. [...]
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