Opus 30: Oscar Wilde as a Satirist, Part I
In his preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde famously wrote: "All art is quite useless." From this one can see that Wilde's artistic theory would not allow him to moralize his stories and plays. However, this hardly makes Wilde a socially unconscious artist, who only strives for those "higher truths". Wilde wrote again in the preface, "Vice and Virtue are to the artist materials for his art." Even if the object of Art is beauty, it does not necessary mean that it is entirely removed from social criticism. From this point of view, we can see The Importance of Being Earnest, his most popular comedy, as a extremely critical satire beneath its virtuosic wit and memorable fun.
Elements of satires first found in the works of the Roman poet Horace, perfected by English poets like Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and Lord Byron can readily be traced in The Importance of Being Earnest. I will first, very generally, trace the three major elements of the genre of satire by briefly examining another famous satirical work, Pope's Rape of the Lock. After coming up with three general elements of satire, I will then proceed to examine Wilde's treatment of the three elements in his play.
For those of you who have not yet read Pope's wonderful poem, I will take this opportunity to briefly summary the poem. The poem, written in 1712 in a mock-epic style, is about a gentleman who has cut a lock of hair from a lady named Belinda. The action takes place at an afternoon tea party. Belinda has many immaterial gods (the sylphs) who tried to protect the lock of hair from the gentleman's scissors, but, since they are immaterial, they failed their tast. The "rape" of the lock of hair turns into more or less a pillow fight between gentlemen and ladies, "killing" each other with gazes and smiles. The lock of hair, at the end of the poem, rises to the heavens and turns into some kind of constellation.
Here we can see three satirical elements at work. Firstly, a satire is a reflection of contemporarily society. In Pope's case, this reflection is seen from various points of views, but all points of view are rooted in Pope's critique on capitalism; Pope comically portrays the effects of capitalism on class, social, economic, gender and moral issues. Hence a satire acts as a kind of mirror for a supposedly disinterested reader. Secondly, a satire, although a reflection, is often an exaggeration of the actual. Specifically, Pope is recreating an actual event that occurred around his circle of friends; obviously, the actually event is very much different from Pope's recreation: one can be sure that there were no sylphs, pillow fight or new constellations. Generally, Pope is taking some aspects of the real situation and magnifying it for the reader so that reader to judge the ridiculousness of the situation easier and with greater understanding. In fact, satires do require some exaggerations in order to achieve its function; one only has to think of the other great satires (Gulliver's Travel: Guillver is insane by the end; The Dunciad: Dullness as Goddess reigns over England; Don Juan: human beings eating one another after a shipwreck) to understand this point. Finally, satires meaningfully reverses the serious with the trivial. Pope's choice of form - the mock epic - is a deliberate choice in order to juxtapose the noble epic battles and the deathless gods with the adventures with the trivial "battles" between cards and the immaterial sylphs. This authorial choice creates a sense of absurdity for the readers when they examine the poem and its story, which further brings out Pope's point: Belinda is no Helen of Troy, nor is Arabella Fermor, the real Belinda; it is absurd to have a family feud over a lock of hair that was ultimately lost. The aristocracy had confused the trivial with the serious, and Pope, by reversing that in his poem, shows exactly this ridiculousness of the confusion.
In the next parts of the essay, I will examine each element of satire individually and carefully. In "satire as mirror", I will discuss how each character in the play is a reflection of a certain type of person in Victorian high society. Each type of person will have his or her own relationship to high society as influenced by capitalism and its effects. In "satire as a mirror of exaggeration", I will explore the game of marriage as portrayed by Wilde. In "the reversal of the serious and the trivial", I will talk about Wilde's concern for his society, that what is serious (the value of life and Art) is replaced by what is trivial (food and illiteracy).
Elements of satires first found in the works of the Roman poet Horace, perfected by English poets like Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and Lord Byron can readily be traced in The Importance of Being Earnest. I will first, very generally, trace the three major elements of the genre of satire by briefly examining another famous satirical work, Pope's Rape of the Lock. After coming up with three general elements of satire, I will then proceed to examine Wilde's treatment of the three elements in his play.
For those of you who have not yet read Pope's wonderful poem, I will take this opportunity to briefly summary the poem. The poem, written in 1712 in a mock-epic style, is about a gentleman who has cut a lock of hair from a lady named Belinda. The action takes place at an afternoon tea party. Belinda has many immaterial gods (the sylphs) who tried to protect the lock of hair from the gentleman's scissors, but, since they are immaterial, they failed their tast. The "rape" of the lock of hair turns into more or less a pillow fight between gentlemen and ladies, "killing" each other with gazes and smiles. The lock of hair, at the end of the poem, rises to the heavens and turns into some kind of constellation.
Here we can see three satirical elements at work. Firstly, a satire is a reflection of contemporarily society. In Pope's case, this reflection is seen from various points of views, but all points of view are rooted in Pope's critique on capitalism; Pope comically portrays the effects of capitalism on class, social, economic, gender and moral issues. Hence a satire acts as a kind of mirror for a supposedly disinterested reader. Secondly, a satire, although a reflection, is often an exaggeration of the actual. Specifically, Pope is recreating an actual event that occurred around his circle of friends; obviously, the actually event is very much different from Pope's recreation: one can be sure that there were no sylphs, pillow fight or new constellations. Generally, Pope is taking some aspects of the real situation and magnifying it for the reader so that reader to judge the ridiculousness of the situation easier and with greater understanding. In fact, satires do require some exaggerations in order to achieve its function; one only has to think of the other great satires (Gulliver's Travel: Guillver is insane by the end; The Dunciad: Dullness as Goddess reigns over England; Don Juan: human beings eating one another after a shipwreck) to understand this point. Finally, satires meaningfully reverses the serious with the trivial. Pope's choice of form - the mock epic - is a deliberate choice in order to juxtapose the noble epic battles and the deathless gods with the adventures with the trivial "battles" between cards and the immaterial sylphs. This authorial choice creates a sense of absurdity for the readers when they examine the poem and its story, which further brings out Pope's point: Belinda is no Helen of Troy, nor is Arabella Fermor, the real Belinda; it is absurd to have a family feud over a lock of hair that was ultimately lost. The aristocracy had confused the trivial with the serious, and Pope, by reversing that in his poem, shows exactly this ridiculousness of the confusion.
In the next parts of the essay, I will examine each element of satire individually and carefully. In "satire as mirror", I will discuss how each character in the play is a reflection of a certain type of person in Victorian high society. Each type of person will have his or her own relationship to high society as influenced by capitalism and its effects. In "satire as a mirror of exaggeration", I will explore the game of marriage as portrayed by Wilde. In "the reversal of the serious and the trivial", I will talk about Wilde's concern for his society, that what is serious (the value of life and Art) is replaced by what is trivial (food and illiteracy).
posted by Tristan at 5:14 p.m.
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