File:Class Summary Essay.doc

Oscar Wilde and Aestheticism

On this humid March morning we all came into class ready for a reward quiz since we had not had one in a couple class periods. As Foss entered the classroom he said we were about to have our quiz and we all got our pens, pencils, and paper ready by numbering one through five as we always do. We were all waiting anxiously for the first question when Foss said, “Just kidding no quiz today!” The class stared in disbelief as we all put our papers back in our notebooks. Today is April Fools Day in British Victorian Literature (since we are not in class on April 1st this year). We began our large group with an easy way to receive participation points. We turned to Oscar Wilde’s aphorisms and talked about which ones we liked or didn’t like and why. One person said that the aphorism, “I have nothing to declare except my genius” defines Wilde and I agreed with them. My favorite aphorism was “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes” because I feel that even in modern times people can relate to this. We discussed how the aphorisms are often spoken by characters in Wilde’s work; therefore Wilde may not necessarily believe or say these words. Some of the aphorisms have gotten Wilde in trouble with society because of the straight-forwardness of them and how they may single out a certain group, such as women. As a student got out her computer to take notes the laptop made a dinging sound, marking the end of the large group session. When first getting into our small group we began talking about the fire drill that had taken place in Eagle Village the night before. Someone decided to use the fire extinguisher as a joke and therefore everyone was forced to stand outside and wait for 3 hours while the fire department took care of everything. After we all came to the conclusion that we hate dorms and on-campus housing we began our discussion on the aestheticism in Wilde’s work, how art plays a role, and the serious claims Wilde makes in this piece. Our group focused on “The Decay of Lying”. Many of us had mixed feelings about this work and had trouble figuring out what the main points or argument was. In the dialogue between Vivian and Cyril, Vivian proves that nature and life imitate art, not the reverse. At first Vivian criticizes nature, saying it is imperfect. He also criticizes modern literature and realism. Then, he shows that life and nature are imitations of art. Therefore, art should never be imitative of nature and life. It solely expressed itself and always tells lies. Meg made a point that aestheticism in general is a difficult subject for the modern reader to understand and we all found that true. For that reason we all wondered if Wilde would have appreciated modern art. The main point we came up with at the end of our small group discussion is that Wilde wants artists to stop imitating reality and to use life and nature to create a real life by lies. From a religious point of view, only creative lying would be allowed due to sin. After discussing “The Decay of Lying” we all came to a conclusion that lying does make life entertaining and without them life is boring. After about twenty minutes in our small group we moved into large group to discuss what we came up with and to move on to the three poems we read. One group came up with a good point; “Is Wilde lying in “The Decay of Lying”?” and “Can we really take him seriously?” These are two interesting points and they definitely made me look at Wilde’s work differently. The first poem we looked at was “Impression du Matin” and we discussed the impressionism seen within it. I found this poem very interesting due to the change in subject matter within the stanzas. The poem starts out describing nature and the Thames river flow but ends describing a prostitute in the streets of England. Although these two subjects are very different I find them both “art” in a way. The poem shows the city in daylight then has it going through movement and eventually explaining a “waking life” with the human figure. The poem goes from a long shot of the Thames River to a personal view of the city life. The second poem we discussed was “Symphony in Yellow”. This poem is one of little action, unlike the first. Instead, it is filled with description that makes the reader view a picture or painting in their mind rather than just words of a poem. The line “Crawls like a yellow butterfly” suggests the aesthetic idea that life should be lived by following beauty. Because Wilde is able to make the reader feel involved with the poems details and description allowed him to be a figure in the Aesthetic movement. The last poem we discussed in our large group was “The Harlot’s House”. Personally this poem was my favorite and I felt that I was in the poem while I read. This poem shows the society’s view of lust versus love. Lust is considered lifeless and cold and love is seen as innocent and warm. Wilde contrasts the images of love and lust in the poem using the ghostly images of the women as symbols for lust. They have decayed from true love and have no real feelings. In Wilde’s other poems he sticks with supporting “art for art’s sake” but in “The Harlot’s House” Wilde dehumanizes the women prostitutes by making them like ghosts, puppets, or machines. As the class began to put their bags away and get their things ready to leave I thought about what I had learned today. I realized that art is seen everywhere, lying does make life interesting, and that sometimes morals didn’t exist in Victorian times. Oscar Wilde’s work represents how art can be shown in various ways. Wilde was definitely a prominent figure in the Aesthetic movement of this time. "Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art". -Vivian (“The Decay of Lying”)