Oscar Wilde

Son of prominent Irish surgeon, award the title of baronet, Oscar Wilde was born in 1854, Mr.. Dublin. Tastes of his mother, a poet, extravagant woman, who adored theatrical effects, the atmosphere of her literary salon, which were held early years of the future writer, have had a definite influence. Passion for position, underlined aristocracy educated in his childhood. But not only these qualities he inherited from the mother. Well who knew the ancient languages, she opened to him the beauty of 'divine Hellenic speech'. Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides from childhood became his companions ...

. Art of Ancient Greece, with its calm and serene harmonies and passionate romanticism, with its intense individualism - in them, according to the young Oscar Wilde, embodied beauty, which he makes his idol
. Years at the University of Oxford (1874-1878), where he was due to exceptional scholarship in the field of classical poetry, - is the period of registration of his philosophy of art. Sam Oxford - an island of ancient culture that has preserved seal of strict unity of style, influenced the sensitive, receptive to the beauty of nature, increasing hostility to the unsightly industrial England. Here, he listened to the brilliant, full of polemical fire Ruskin lectures on aesthetics. 'Ruskin introduced us in Oxford, thanks to the charm of his personality and music of his words, so the beauty of intoxication, which is the secret of the Hellenic spirit, and with the desire for a creative force, which is the secret of life'.

. Wilde supported a rebellion against the Pre-Raphaelite gray monotone of reality, against the spirit of lucre, which 'lifted factory chimneys above the steeples of the old abbeys'
. In their paintings, their poetry, he saw the English Renaissance of Art. 'If this Renaissance ... was so poor in the field of sculpture and theater, . then this, . sure, . blame commercialism British: the great drama and great sculpture can not exist, . when there is no perfect, . elevated national life, . and the current commercialism completely killed this life ',
. However, Wilde was not satisfied with the aesthetics of pre-Raphaelites, the ideas of Walter Peytera he seemed more appealing: Peyter rejected the ethical basis of aesthetics. Wilde stood firmly on his side: "We, the representatives of the school of young, away from the teachings of Ruskin ... because the basis of his aesthetic judgments are always lying morality ... In our eyes the laws of art do not coincide with the laws of morality '. At Oxford he became acquainted with the work of American impressionist Whistler, who called to create imaginary worlds of the symphony of colors, have nothing to do with reality. Wilde was ready to follow him, especially since the British reality was disgusting. The underlined its rejection of the young poet has expressed in the most unexpected form. He, to whom was revealed bright future scientist, he chose the dubious role of the 'apostle of aestheticism'. The role that he played, gave a cheap sensation, buffoonery. Extravagant costumes: shoes with silver buckles, . short silk trousers, . flowered vest, . takes long chestnut curls, . lily, . sunflower in his lapel - and that was intended to strengthen scandal, . which flared around the name of Wilde and his religion - aestheticism,
. In 1882, Mr.. he undertook a tour of America, lecturing on art. Their success was very ambiguous: the audience straining to see 'aesthetic', anticipating the sensation. One of the most educated people of Europe in the field of history and theory of art, the young Oscar Wilde chose to express their inner thoughts in the form of puns and jokes, accompanying them with all sorts of tricks and eccentricities. But Wilde is not only posed as an aesthetic. He really was it.

His creed of Oscar Wilde expressed in his book 'concept ". It was published in 1891, it included essays written earlier: 'brush, pen and poison', 'The truth of masks', 'The decline of art lies', 'The critic as artist'. The pathos of the book in praise of art - the greatest shrines of the supreme deity, a fanatical priest who was Wilde. Anxious about the future of humanity and seeing in art a panacea for all evils, he wanted everyone to their faith. However, in its approval of the absolute superiority of art Wilde comes to the absurd. He argues that art should be no life, but life imitates art. 'Nature is not a great mother who gave birth to a pass, it is our own creation'. Art creates life, while remaining totally indifferent to the reality. 'A great artist invents a type, but life is trying to copy it'. Reinforces its position as Oscar Wilde, from his point of view, convincing examples. Pessimism invented Hamlet and 'the whole world fell into a depression because of the fact that some puppet occurred to indulge in melancholy'. Nihilist, that strange martyr without faith, invented Turgenev, Dostoevsky completed his. Robespierre was born in the pages of Rousseau. And the whole XIX century. coined by Balzac. Noting the prevalence of types of art in life, Wilde does not want to overlook the fact that the writers did not invent his characters and create them, observing epoch. Recognition of the dependence of the artist from his time would be contrary to the main provisions of aesthetics Wilde: "Art is an independent existence, like thinking, and develop their own laws'. Prior to Wilde's idea developed in his aesthetics of romanticism, canonized the gap of the ideal and reality. He brings to the extreme, this subjectivity. Art for him - the only reality. 'I love the scene at her all the more true than in real life!', 'The only real people - are the ones who never existed',-conviction preaches Wilde.

Art of the West in the late XIX century. crisis, great artists in this regard feel acute anxiety, agitated, and Wilde. But as he explains the reason for the decline? 'One of the main reasons that can ascribe surprisingly banal nature of the vast literature of this century, without doubt, is the decline lganya as an art as science, as a public entertainment'. Typically, significant work was determined by the degree of the depth of realistic generalizations mastery of the artistic embodiment of. Wilde argues the opposite. 'The real purpose of art - it is a lie, the transfer of beautiful fairy tales'. In art he most appreciates the artificiality and realism to it is absolutely unacceptable. 'As a method Realism is no good, - he says - and every artist should avoid two things: the modernity of form and modernity of the plot'. In his view, the task of the artist 'is simply to charm, delight, pleasure'. Realists, who have forgotten it, have led to the decline of art. Naturalism, in which Wilde is inclined to see the higher stage of realism, I think it is particularly harmful, because it absolutely everything derives from life, and 'life - a very caustic liquid, it destroys the arts, as an enemy empties his house'. Aesthetics Wilde antirealistichna in essence. Declaring that 'art does not express anything but itself', Wilde gets on the position of 'pure art', refusing to recognize its social functions. He fiercely defends the principle of the futility of art. Disregarding bourgeois mercantilism, all governed by the rules of utility Wilde categorically declares: "Every art is quite useless'.

Especially hateful to him were those who tried to subordinate the interests of the art of morality. 'Aesthetics above ethics'!, Argued with them Wilde. 'No moral or immoral books. There is a book well written or badly written. That's it '. The basis of denial of any connection between the art of Mr. morality rests primarily with the negation of the very principle of morality Wilde. His contempt for accepted standards of morality Wilde is in the form of paradoxical aphorisms. 'Mercy creates evil ... The existence of conscience is a sign of our imperfect development ... self-sacrifice - a relic of savage self-torture ... Virtue! Who knows what is virtue?.. Nobody! ',' The crime is never vulgar, but vulgarity is always a crime '. Starting with the release of the artist from the ethical standards, with justification for its individualism, Wilde came to the preaching immorality.

Stressing antirealisticheskuyu and anti-democratic essence of Wilde's aesthetic, one can not ignore its contradictions. Disregarding laborers literature, . saw his appointment in, . to report, . 'that to be good - it means to be good, . but to be bad - it means to be evil ', . Wilde thought very highly of the great masters of the words of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, . Flaubert, and Thackeray, and skeptical assessments of their creativity in the official bourgeois criticism,
. Realist Balzac had retained the admiration of Wilde, and the death of his hero - Lucien de Rubempre, by his own admission, was the greatest sorrow of his life. True, Wilde had never considered the author's 'Human Comedy' realist, he called it romantic. What attracted him in Balzac? The fact that 'he did, rather than copying life'. Balzac put it much higher Zola, whose works are considered 'wrong on art'. He denies the naturalistic method, but refuses to 'share the high moral indignation against Zola's contemporaries'. As an honest artist Wilde is not afraid to admit the truth: 'It's the indignation of Tartuffe for what it exposed'. The downside of 'holy anger' bourgeois, he was well known. If you take a chance to plunge into the sea of paradoxes Wilde, . sometimes for seemingly asburdnostyu statements can be found quite acceptable truth: sometimes all the stormy philippics against realism reduce to the requirement to recognize the advantage of the creative imagination in front of a flat imitation, . claim, . which would support every realist.,

. Nevertheless, many of Wilde's ideas were wrong and even vicious
. The secret charm of Wilde's not in them, but in a brilliant form of expression. His unexpected comparisons and sparkling paradoxes sever the threads of logical connections, but only the reader becomes aware of it, as it falls upon a new flow of ideas turned inside out. Paradoxical way of thinking inherent in not a single Oscar Wilde: George Bernard Shaw - a brilliant master of paradox, but behind them is always a deep and serious thought, while for Wilde's paradox is often an end in itself. To him it is applicable characteristics, . which he gave to the hero of his novel: "He played mind, . giving the will of fantasy: he juggled it, . transforming it, . then cast, . then pick up again, made her sparkle, . iridescent sequins adorning his imagination, . inspires paradoxes',
. Still Bitter saw no chance in an effort to Wilde and Shaw 'turn inside out platitudes' manifestation' more or less conscious desire to spite mistriss Grand, . shake English Puritanism ', . Believing, . that 'the paradox of morality - is a legitimate weapon in the fight against puritanism',
. Wilde is often resorted to the sharp weapons to settle scores with bourgeois Britain, 'whose spirit is enveloped in dense fog of hypocrisy, well-being, nothingness'. Denying her the right to be called a true culture of the country, Wilde acknowledges only that "she has invented and established public opinion, this attempt to organize public ignorance '. Staying in the abode of pure poetry and beauty, he still remembers the foolishness and stupidity of the philistine, who ironically identifies 'important historical mainstay of national prosperity'. Reproaching the writers of forgetting great art - an art lganya, he notes with a subtle sarcasm great strides in this area of the bourgeois press and judiciary officials, who 'can make black white' and without any effort.

. Although their attacks Wilde does in passing, for it is not in the fight against social evils he sees the appointment of the poet, yet they are very sensitive
. They will not forget and never forgive. Not only respectable prudish bourgeoisie, but the aristocrats were willing to take it in their stores, will scoff at him during the scandalous trial in 1895. Wilde, transformed for some period of his life in pursuit of pleasure, has paid dearly for it. He was sentenced to two years in prison, from Baloven life has become a pariah, his very name became taboo, his books were withdrawn from all libraries, the play removed from the scene. He was forcibly isolated from the reader. After release from prison, the sick and spiritually broken, he was forced to leave England, and died in poverty and obscurity in Paris in 1900

The emergence of poetry collection 'Poems' in 1881. marked the beginning of the creative quest Wilde. The early poems of his marked influence of Impressionism, they expressed directly isolated impressions. In the future, his verse is all refined literary. Wilde, confident that the 'work of art does not win in the beauty of the fact that it recalls the creation of nature', deliberately depriving verse of vitality and poetic feeling. Full of subtle images, stylized paintings and mythological associations, his poems shine cold artificial beauty. 'Sphinx' - the top of his early poetry. In mysteriously timeless Sphinx, . silent witness and participant of the love of the sacraments of the gods and people of past eras, . embodied the contradictions of the tragic theme, . prisoner of love - the contradiction between the sensual and the spiritual,
. Wilde began as a poet, full of high poetry and prose.

Wilde was a brilliant conversationalist and a great storyteller. 'He is at the whim of the listeners could call it careless smile, . then tears, . could engage them in a world of fantastic myths, . might have softened their living eloquence, . could bring their violent bouts of laughter unchecked bizarre and grotesque farce ', . - Recalls his biographer Pearson,
. The stories, published in 1887: 'Canterville Ghost', 'Crime of Lord Arthur Saville', 'The Sphinx without a riddle', 'The model millionaire' - creates very incomplete picture of this aspect of his talent. Wilde did not like to write down everything that came to mind, many stories, which he charmed the audience, and have remained unwritten.

'Canterville prividenie'-most successful of the printed stories. It all is based on a paradox: not a ghost scare the new owners of the old castle, on the contrary, the family of modern Americans terrifies on the ancestral ghost and make it a nervous breakdown. In this and based comic effect of the story. Resigned all members of the family of Otis has no limit. Their unshakable common sense and serves as a source of comedy. When m-p Otis offers ghost lubricate the chain lubricating oil. 'The rising sun of the Democratic Party', . when his son 'Unsurpassed stain remover and exemplary Cleaner Pinkerton' destroys krovavyy spots on the floor of the library, . that honors the spirit of a point of honor hard to recover, . when Mrs. Otis recommends that the ghost of indigestion medicine, . difficult to solve, . who is more ridiculous - those who are incapable of surprising the Yankees or Canterville Ghost, . which, . otlezhivayas in a lead coffin after another shock of meeting with the younger offspring Otis, . cherished plans for bloody revenge, . invariably ended his ignominious defeat,
. Wilde clearly ridicules Otis, . American Ambassador, . and his son, . parents called in a burst of patriotism Washington, . who promised to be a good diplomat, . 'because it is three consecutive seasons was conducted by the German quadrille at the casino New Port, and even in London, earned a reputation as an excellent dancer. ",

. The writer has noticed subtle characteristics of American leaders: self-confidence, belief in their own superiority, straightforwardness that extends to the limitations and business acumen
. 'I did come from an advanced country - sees m-p Otis. - We have all the money you can get, and the youth we have, sprightly, our young people - this is the best decoration for your Old World ... Set up in the Europe, at least one ghost, it found itself at once we would have in any museum or traveling waxworks'. Merry wit, subtle irony, a brilliant style, characterizing 'Canterville Ghost', are further developed in the works of Wilde.

. 'Fairy Tales. "

. His tales (collections of 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales', 1888, and 'Pomegranate House' (1891) opened a new reader Wilde
. Arguing with himself, with this thoughtless principles of aesthetics, he sometimes sinning sentimentality, he defended the morality of simple, but truly noble and honest people. Happy Prince and the Swallow who sacrificed their lives for beauty and human happiness, he contrasted the rich, deaf to the beauty and goodness, and the limited vulgar philistines ( 'The Happy Prince'). In the history of the poor gardener's Little Hans, . who died because of the callousness and greed of a wealthy miller, . pretending to be a faithful friend of his ( 'A devoted friend'), . a ludicrous finale bombastic Missiles - which threatened to fly above the sun, . She plopped down in a muddy ditch ( 'Remarkable Rocket')-expressed contempt beskonechchoe writer to the aristocrats and bourgeois, and a sincere affection for ordinary workers,
. Nightingale, . pierced heart thorn roses, . created a beautiful song at the cost of blood the heart and killed in the name of love ( 'The Nightingale and the Rose'), . argue with the assertion Wilde, . if 'beauty end there, . where does spirituality, . if sincerity detrimental to the beauty ',
. The writer was aware that those whom the tale should be ashamed, unwilling to accept their morality, moreover, it would annoy them, and, like a water rat from a fairy tale 'The Constant friend', they yelled at top of his lungs: "Gil!" and plugged ears.

. Wilde thought that he simply creates a beautiful fiction
. Fantasy artist inexhaustible: in his tales Swallow falls in love with a statue of Prince Charming, and fishermen - in the Maritime Maid, Soul otdelyaetsyayaot body and wanders away from his master, birds, flowers and even Bengal fire talk and act like people. But the fantasy that has nothing to do with fiction folklore. He stressed the literary fairy tales and even mannered. Their style and language are subject to the passions of Wilde decoration, to the exotic splendor. Here and 'pink ibises, who stand in the long phalanx shallows of the Nile and beaks caught goldfish', and 'king of the lunar mountains, which chchren as ebony, and worships a large crystal fragment (' The Happy Prince '). With undisguised pleasure he admires luxury items, he is ready to endlessly depict the magnificent decoration of the apartments, luxury clothes, jewelry. Simple enumeration of them gives him a true delight. 'There were opals and sapphires, opals in crystal bowls, and sapphires in bowls of jasper. Large green emeralds have been placed in rows on the fine dishes of ivory, and in one corner were silk bales, packed with turquoise and beryl. Horn of ivory were filled to the brim with purple amethysts, and the horns of copper-chalcedony '(' The fisherman and his soul '). Hero of Oscar Wilde ( 'Young King') publishes a cry of delight at the sight of the finest clothes and jewelry, the long hours he spends in ecstatic delight in contemplating the ancient statue. Truly Wilde was in love with an artificial beauty. In the words of K. Chukovsky, who first introduced Wilde to the Russian reader, it is 'often extolled diamonds than stars, and blue silk for him was a beautiful sky'. Fondness for decorative style is felt in a fairy tale, amplified in the future work. On this point we know the ironic remark Shaw, who was friendly disposed to Wilde: "Wilde was so in love with the style that he never knew the danger to bite off more than be able to chew. In other words - the danger to load style is more than able to make the product '.

However, creating their beautiful fables, Wilde was not able to escape from reality. The reality is present in his tales, inimitable ironic manner povestvovaniyayaopredelenno is a reaction to it. The palette of shades of irony, Wilde is extremely rich: from the bitter and sad tones - to mischievous and sarcastic. But in general it is always subtle and elegant, as are the fairy. Usually Wilde's irony stems from the discrepancy between essence and appearance of the phenomenon (this is constructed tale 'devotee friend' and 'Remarkable Rocket'). Ironic paradoxes with profound implication scattered throughout the narrative, but sometimes they make and the very basis of the plot. Moreover, the nature of these paradoxes is not only a comic (as in 'Canterville Ghost' and 'remarkable rocket'), but tragic. Victim Nightingale in vain, she rejects the scarlet rose, filled with the blood of his heart: 'everyone knows that the more expensive stones flowers' ( 'The Nightingale and the Rose'). Dies a little dwarf, because his heart was broken when he realized his ugliness. Beautiful Infanta, whom he ardently loved, outraged by the death of such a fun toy. 'For the future, please do so that those who come to play with me, no heart! " ( 'Birthday of the Infanta'). Wilde Fairy Tales filled with humanistic mood, brought to him to give up their declarations of self-sufficient art in the name of love for people of compassion for Mr. their grief.

. 'Portrait of Dorian Gray'.

. Oscar Wilde lived in captivity of its own contradictions: he is a supporter of 'pure art', a fighter for his podchchnenie high ethical ideals
. The novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' (1891) was conceived, according to the preface the author, as the apotheosis of 'art, standing over life as hedonistic anthem - the philosophy of pleasure. In the preface of paradoxical aphorisms Wilde repeated the well-known of his aesthetics: 'artist - one who creates beautiful', 'an artist not a moralist', 'art - a mirror reflecting the one who looks at him, not life'. From the theoretical positions he turns to tragedy. History of Dorian Gray. The world knows of many heroes who gave their soul to the devil in exchange for riches, throne, knowledge of the truth, the possession of the woman he loved. Dorian Gray's soul sacrifice in the name of eternal youth and beauty. Young, handsome, admiring his image, can not help thinking that the portrait will always have that which he would inevitably lose. 'Oh, if it was the opposite! If a portrait of me, but I could always stay that way as it is now! " Plea was heard, and a wish fulfilled. Weak-willed Dorian becomes obedient plaything of highly experienced cynic Lord Henry. Believing his speeches about the omnipotence of beauty on her immune to any laws, Dorian is given to sensual pleasures, slipping into the abyss of depravity and crime. Vile passions, however, do not leave a trace on it, runs for many years, but his face glows with freshness of youth, its unique purity. Portrait of the same monstrous changes, because the soul of Dorian, incarnate in him, became a vicious, false and dirty. Unable to endure the painful encounters with his stained conscience, in the portrait of Dorian stabbed the knife to get rid of this terrible witness, the knife, which he first killed the painter Basil, who wrote this portrait. On reaching the servants saw a magnificent portrait of his master in all the glory of his marvelous youth and beauty. And on the floor lay a hideous corpse, in which only rings on their hands, they learned of Dorian Gray.

The storyline of the novel resembles 'shagreen skin' Balzac novel, both philosophical and symbolic. But beyond the similarities, there are significant differences. Wilde created not a realistic novel, though many scenes are plausible. 'It's purely decorative affair! 'Portrait of Dorian Gray' - gold brocade! ', Argued the author. Wilde was not asked to create a multifaceted, each of his hero, the embodiment of one idea: Dorian - a desire for eternal youth, Lord Henry cult philosophy of pleasure, Basil - devotion to the art. The focus of the writer gives no action, no characteristics, and the fine play of mind, which is Lord Henry, whose daring paradoxes embody the inner thoughts of the author. In its intellectual game Prince paradox involves Dorian, striking his imagination unusual and bold speeches. A word to Wilde's much more important than the facts, he, and with him and his heroes, fully understand the verbal duel.

New hedonism, Lord Henry in something close to the teachings of Nietzsche. Both of them glorifying the cult of selfishness dream of a beautiful, perfect man. 'The purpose of life - self-expression. We must show in its entirety its essence - that's why we live ... If everyone could live a full life, . giving everyone a sense of will and every thought, . carrying out his every dream, . - The world would once again felt a powerful impulse to joy, . that would have been forgotten by all diseases of the Middle Ages, . and we would return to the ideals of Hellenism, . maybe, . and to something even more valuable and beautiful ',
. Argue with Lord Henry is difficult, in particular, he is human, but these partial truths do not hide the error of its initial position. Nobody except Basil, and not trying to disprove it. In a world where it rotates in a big fashion similar mind coquetry. 'You are charming, but the real demon-tempter. Be sure to come to dinner ', - exclaims the venerable duchess.

Preaching Freedom instincts, Lord Henry's whole soul rebels against the self-restraint. 'The only way to get rid of temptation - to give him ... Sinned, free from desire to sin, because the implementation - this is the path to purification '. Lord Henry flattered by the attention of the young Dorian, who, like rare violin, spoke to every touch, he liked the mentally corrupting it, hear his hot rhetoric echoes my own thoughts. By making the young man into an object of dispassionate observation, he experimented on his soul, completely subordinating her own. Same willingly and unknowingly drank sweet poison, a prisoner in the paradoxes of the teacher.

Love Dorian to Sibylle Wayne most clearly demonstrates the unconscious philosophy of Lord Henry. Dorian is incapable of simple human feeling. He did not fall in love with a girl, but in art, which she gave herself unreservedly to meet with him. He loved it Rosalind today, tomorrow, Imodzhenu. He adored in her Juliet, Ophelia, Desdemona, but he never liked an ordinary girl Sybil Vane. And he relentlessly pushed her, breaking her heart, as only a great actress, she turned into a living loving woman. It ceased to occupy his imagination, and agree with her that love is above art, he could not. Dorian confessed to another philosophy, under which full self-determination rights is only possible in the art. His life, he wished to turn into the greatest art. Falling in love with himself above all else, he's not worried about other. Sybil, photos, in his view, selfish, causing his death, his momentary excitement - the first victim of Dorian for her, followed by other. Friendship with him turns out to be disastrous for the young people it infects their insane thirst for pleasure, they either commit suicide or roll to the bottom.

. Life Dorian would become a nightmare if the day and at night the ghosts of his crimes reminded him of himself
. But he makes silent conscience: 'Life is too short to take on more and burden of the mistakes of others. Everybody lives, as he wants, and pays himself '. Turpitude and crimes committed by Dorian, for him - a chain of amazing experiences, followed by the distinct pleasure he plunged into the atmosphere of art. Learning of Sybil's suicide, he goes to the opera to listen to 'the divine Patti', killing Basil, enthusiastically given to reading poetry Gauthier. Evil was for him only a means for what he considered the beauty of life. 'The worst thing in the world - is boredom. Here - the only sin that has no forgiveness'. Dorian learned this the commandment of the Lord Henry. He transforms the world by force of his imagination, creates his own world, where everything has its own forms and dressed with bright, bright colors'. He constantly changes his hobbies. That Oto Catholic, attracts with its rituals, the mysticism 'with his marvelous gift for a simple mystery', then Darwinism - 'so tempting was the idea of absolute dependence on the physical conditions of the spirit'. A life of Dorian period when he devoted himself to the entire music. So he studied aromatic compounds, revealing that 'every state of mind associated with sensory perception'. Then there is a new passion: jewelry, tapestries and antique embroidery. All these treasures helped him escape from the fear that he experienced before the depth of his own fall. He was convinced that his life culture and corruption go hand in hand. And this is understandable: Dorian banished from all human culture, art perceived as something neutral, not affecting human activities. Once he was intoxicated by the thought that 'eternal youth, tireless passion, pleasures subtle and restricted, the madness of happiness, and even more frenzied madness of sin - all will be given to him'.

. Wilde wanted to glorify the hero who brought soul to sacrifice beauty and art, but artistic truth was stronger than this plan
. He showed that Dorian dirtied themselves that beauty, devoid of eternity, it is ugly. In the words of Lord Henry, Dorian addressed to the end "of the novel, sounded a bitter irony, which he did not feel: 'Oh, Dorian, how lucky you are, how wonderful your life!.. ... All of you in it perceived as music, so it will not spoil. ... I am very glad that you are not sculptured, no statues, not painted, generally did not create anything outside itself. Your art was life '. And it says at the moment when Dorian realized that disfigured his soul, ruined lives, having tasted the poison of such seductive speeches. At the moment of awareness of the unsoundness of self-centeredness and hedonism is particularly absurd sound idolatrous words: 'The world has changed, because in it you came, made of ivory and gold. Bend your lips rewrite the history of the world '. Dorian was a victim of its maximalist passion - love for yourself. Thinking only about your own personality, he'd allow. 'Trying to kill his conscience - Dorian Gray kills himself' - so to draw the moral of the novel by the author himself. Wilde argues with Wilde and his hands, destroying erected with such elegance and ease of building its false philosophy. But Wilde is far from consistent in its condemnation: Dorian is it more compassion than the victims of his passions. It is the fate of Oscar Wilde opened the tragedy of real contradiction: the pleasure, has become an end in itself, creates no joy, and torment.

. 'Salome'.

. This was a theme he turned again in the one-act drama, 'Salome' (it was banned in England and set in Paris in 1893)
. Passion of the Jewish princess, daughter of Herodias, Salome becomes a beautiful tragic duel with the asceticism of the Christian prophet John the Baptist. All leads Salome to him: his eyes are 'like black holes, . hardened torches Tire carpets', . his body 'white, . a lily meadows, . who have never mowed ', . his hair, . in comparison with which the 'long dark night, . night, . when the moon is not showing ', . look pale, . his mouth, . 'as garnet, . cut with a knife of ivory ',
. The thirst for sensual pleasure is exacerbated by the fact that it is aware of spiritual purity and chastity of the prophet: 'He looks like a moonbeam on a silver moonbeam'. It seems as if Oscar Wilde wrote a new 'Song of Songs', but it is a tragic song. Salome loved John the Baptist, she did not want to hear his calls for his abdication, curses, fell from his mouth, insulted, but not stop it. 'Let me kiss your mouth, Jokanaan!' She repeated n goes to meet his request, not a shudder even before death. By refusing to dance for half of the kingdom of Herod, Salome dances marvelous dance of the Seven Veils, demanding that the head of John the Baptist. It reached its. 'And, you did not want to give me a kiss thy mouth, Jokanaan. Okay, now I kiss it '. Reproaching him already dead, including that he live, did not want to look at her, sleeping, said: 'I know you would love me, because the mystery of love more than the mystery of death. Only in love we must look '. But the love of Salome was disastrous not only for the man she loved. She herself became a victim of her own passion and died after kissing the dead lips. Oscar Wilde estetiziruet this contradiction, exalts the love and thirst for pleasure, turns into its opposite, carrying death and suffering. In the drama, 'Salome' is clearly manifested decadent nature of his work.

Comedy. Wilde.

1894-1895 Messrs. is the years of noisy triumph uayldovskih comedies. One after another appeared on the scene of the play: 'Fan Lady Windermere', 'Woman, not worth mentioning', 'An Ideal Husband', 'The Importance of Being Earnest'. Wilde did not become the reformer of the theater, as George Bernard Shaw, but his achievement is considerable: he has revived the art of British comedy. He returned her national color, which she had long lost. In his comedies in front of the audience appeared closed, inner circle, which Wilde know best - 'high society', but it was a truly English high society. Only the English lady could exclaim: 'He speaks the truth? My nephew Algernon? Can not be! After all, he oksfordets'. Bourgeois critics chided Wilde in 'ibsenizme' and not by chance. The language of comedy, he exposed the conservatism and hypocrisy prim aristocrats, showing the instability of family and social attitudes in Britain, T. e. its own way the same problems that the master of realistic drama. And he did it easily, like a joke. 'He simply derives from the very quintessence of art, - writes Shaw, and gets the play, which until then had staged that they rave about all the theater, if they have a drop of the mind'. In the comedy in all his glory was manifested his art witty companions: his dialogues are great. The sharpness of thought, polished paradoxes so admired, that sometimes there is no place outrage ridicules. He knows how to subdue the game, often playing mind so fascinated Wilde, that becomes an end in itself, then the impression of significance and brightness to create a truly out of nowhere. The ease with which he is doing suggests that such effects can make anyone not having the talent of Oscar Wilde, is only turn truisms upside down. But this impression is deceptive. "His pieces are unique ...'- warns Bernard Shaw. The uniqueness of them, like all works of Wilde, of language, style, manner of presentation of facts, methods of characteristics. The plots of his plays is not so original, though certainly a surprise to the British scene in the late XIX. Like Shaw, Wilde brings conflict plays a contradiction between the essence of man and his appearance. Mrs. Arbuthnot - woman, . not worth mentioning, . the opinion of Lord Illingworth, . is more noble and morally stronger than he; Hester Worsley, . Convinced puritanka, . - Only one of all, not only do not turn away from disgraced Mrs. Arbuthnot, . but admires her,
. Sir Robert Chiltern, supposedly a man reputation, in fact, created a career, to sell state secrets jobber.

'An Ideal Husband'.

Not all of Wilde's comedy equivalent. 'An Ideal Husband' - the best and literary merit, and the strength of social denunciation. The heroes of the play in a burst of frankness make exposing the social fabric of England recognition: 'Weapons of our time - the money. Idol of our time - the money. In order to take our time to achieve anything through-position, power, need the money '. 'In our time, all you can buy. Only some very expensive '. Particularly ridiculous in connection with the frankness seems aspiration heroes, and through them - all of those in power hide their true face mask of high morality. Although Wilde punish at the end of 'villain' - adventuress Mrs. Chivli, he supported its attack on the Puritan hypocrisy: 'To what you have come here with your Puritanism! In the old days no one was trying to be better than their neighbors. It was even considered bad manners, a middle. But now you are all obsessed with morality. Everyone should be a model of purity, integrity, and the other seven deadly virtues. And the result? All you valites as pins, one after another '. The most horrible, . bigotry that has become a state policy: 'In England, . If a person can not at least twice a week to hold forth on morality to a vast audience and it is immoral, . political arena closed to him ',
. Bernard Shaw, who described the scene in which Chiltern 'contrasts the scope and audacity of his crimes miserable and twisted idealism of his stupid and good wife', very modern, stressed the typicality of what is happening. Wilde turned the final comedy in a happy ending, not devoid of sentimentality. But this does not weaken its satire, though, if only because Chilterp caught as if in reward for their 'virtues' curtain gets the portfolio of. 'Do you have what we need now in public life, an impeccable reputation and high moral standard, solid principles', in these words addressed to Chiltern, lies the irony of the charge of immense power. It is no accident Bitter noticed that after Wilde and Shaw in the English literature 'can be no room for complacency'.

Wilde believed that his life was 'the two great turning points' - Oxford and prison. Refined aesthetic person, priest of the cult of pleasure, Oscar Wilde in recent years, renounced his former life and her ideals and acknowledge the suffering of the only truth, the ultimate reality. The reasons for this moral revolution, not only in mental and physical agony, . experienced by the writer, . but in, . he, . before turning to flee at the sight of ugliness of life, . Now look in the face of suffering people and recognized, . that even in these terrible conditions, they retain the goodness, . love of life and human dignity,
. In the confession, which he gave the Latin name 'Out of the abyss' (written in prison), Wilde said that the system and laws, which he was a victim, false and unjust. The idea of social injustice born writer is not in jail, but much earlier. In 1891, Mr.. He wrote a treatise 'The soul of man under socialism', in which he argued that 'man is made for a better purpose than digging in the dirt'. He dreamed of a time when 'will not be more people living in fetid dens, dressed in filthy rags ... When hundreds of thousands of unemployed have been brought to the most appalling poverty, will not stall on the streets ... when every member of society will be a party to the general contentment and well-being '... Anarchist Socialism Wilde was far from scientific, but this treatise, as well as some of his other works, help to understand that radical change in the views of the writer is not a complete surprise. 'To me going to learn the joys of life and the joys of art. But - who knows? - Maybe I was chosen in order to teach people a great-meaning and beauty of suffering '. Wilde is ready to serve the new god. Only one he is immutable: can not contradict himself. Exposing everything that makes the suffering humanity, he was ready to bow to the most suffering, seeing it as 'the only path to perfection'.

. 'Ballad Redingskoj prison'.

. This work, written in the classical, chased, by a simple verse, shook his desperate tragedy
. New individualist Wilde poured their

'I' with anonymous 'we', knowing the depth of another's suffering. Having made a hero of ballads, a young man, who was executed for killing infidels ^ lover, Oscar Wilde for the first time spoke of the desecration of love in the world where there is cruelty, lies, gold and meanness.

. After all, everyone who lived on earth,
. Loved killed,
. One of cruelty, the other --
. > Poison of praise,
. Treacherous kiss - a coward
. A bold - on the spot.
. One killed in his declining years,
. At the dawn of forces - the other
. Who is the power of gold throat,
. Who lust blind
. A merciful pity:
. Struck his hand.
. Who too devotedly loved,
. Who quickly fell out of love,
. Who bought, who sold,
. Who lied, who shed tears,
. But not everyone took the death
. For the fact that he had killed.
. (In lane
. V. Bryusov)

'Ballad Redingskoj prison' - the supreme and final poetic off Oscar Wilde. Baited hated public opinion, Wilde died, did not realize all the possibilities of their original and brilliant talents.