Appearance and BeautyOscar Wilde lived a very extravagant lifestyle and that shows in his writing. The characters in his work are heavily focused on their own appearance, along with the appearance of others.
In "Model Millionaire", the beggar-man is dressed up in rags and looks very dirty, but in reality we find out that he is not poor after all - he was just dressing the part. In "The Picture of Dorian Gray", Dorian is so concerned with staying young and beautiful that he loses touch with everyone and everything around him. |
Money = SuccessIn order to support his fancy lifestyle, Wilde had to be very successful in his writing and make enough money to pay for all his luxuries.
In "Model Millionaire", Hughie feels bad for the beggar-man because he is poor, but then finds out he is actually a millionaire. In "The Importance of Being Earnest", Lady Bracknell won't give her consent to Jack to marry Gwendolyn because his family history isn't strong enough, which means he doesn't have any kind of money or inheritance set up. |
HomosexualityThis is something that Oscar Wilde struggled with his entire life. It was not something that was accepted during his time, so he had to keep all his affairs to himself.
Oscar Wilde doesn't write about homosexuality directly so much, but he makes his characters have very close relationships with each other. In "The Importance of Being Earnest", Jack and Algernon are best friends and they are very close - almost family (ironically!) The characters in "Model Millionaire" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" are obsessed with the beauty of other men. So much so that some of them even paint portraits that display their beautiful perfection. |
Oscar Wilde writes his stories and plays in such a way that the reader can see how important money and social standing was to him. All of his characters deal with money as success or family standing as success.
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