ASE 2011/Megprompt

Discussion Prompts for June 14, 2011

1.	Several of our class members have taken issue with gender in Wilde’s poetry, citing an image that is nearly always “white,” “red-lipped,” and “golden-haired.” Does this image continue through Wilde’s short stories? What do you make of the females that Wilde does portray—do you fault or applaud him for them?

2.	Can you find any evidence of aestheticism in these stories? Is there a tension here between “art for art’s sake” and more political leanings?

3.	Can you find any “morals” within these stories? How do they compare to the morals/anti-morals that we encountered in Wilde’s fairy tales?

4.	Some of Wilde’s poems—such as “Wasted Days” or “Madonna Mia” (732) are heavily focused and reliant on specific images. Do you find that his short stories are also heavily focused on image and description? Or is Wilde focusing on something else entirely with his prose?

5.	“The Canterville Ghost” may be seen as a parody of the gothic novel. Do you think that Wilde successfully parodies the genre? Furthermore, by parodying a genre that has been described as “feminine” in nature, does Wilde make any sort of remarks on gender by subverting it?

6.	Can you find any comments on class or politics within these stories? What do you make of the utter failure of charity in “The Model Millionaire?” Finally, what do you think Wilde meant with the last lines of the story: “Millionaire models…are rare enough; but, by Jove, model millionaires are rarer still!”

7.	How might you compare these views to the political views expressed in “Sonnet to Liberty” (709), “To Milton” (713), and “Libertatis Sacra Fames” (715)? Are they comparable to any of the fairy tales on Monday?

8.	“Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime” makes fun of the palm reading craze that swept the upper classes during Wilde’s time. Do you think that Wilde is also commenting on the frivolity of the upper classes (such as Windermere’s mercurial tastes)? Furthermore, what do you think is his comment on fate and destiny?

9.	In “The Canterville Ghost,” Wilde clashes two literary genres; realistic Americans battle it out with the gothic, more performative Lord Simon. What do you make of Wilde’s mixing genres? Which do you think ultimately succeeds—realism or fantasy? Or it is neither?