Wilde ironically points out that his age is one of ideals, but to this Gwendolyn gives her commentary about the importance of names:
We live, as I hope you know, Mr. Worthing, in an age of ideals. The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines, and has reached the provincial pulpits, I am told; and my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence. The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you."(Wilde, 2000, p. 516)
In Wilde's view, moral depravity in the modern age has to do with superficiality rather than with actual sins and crimes. The laxity of moral principles is the cause behind the many problems of society, as it obstructs the delimitation between good and evil.
The plays also meet in another point regarding the moral depravity of society: the duality between truth and fact, between appearance and reality. In Hamlet, the appearances are very deceitful and are soon unmasked by the ghost. All the characters seem to have moral standards but in fact they are immoral. As Shakespeare contends, the purpose of playing and of art is to "hold a mirror up to nature," to show the reality behind the appearance:
the purpose of playing & is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure."(III. ii. 21-25)
This is why the plot is resolved in Hamlet with another play. The difference between appearance and reality is what determines Hamlet's melancholy and sadness:
so shall my anticipation / prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king / and queen moult no feather. I have of late -- but / wherefore I know not -- lost all my mirth, forgone all / custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily /...
Strategic Hamlet Program Flow of Information Construction of Program Positive and Negative Program Aspects Significance of Program Introduction onduring the Vietnam War, focusing on how the hamlets were constructed and the effect the implementation and construction had on the overall Strategic Hamlet Program. The paper must contain a clear connection between the implementation and construction efforts of the Strategic Hamlet Program to the significance of the Vietnam War. The paper is not an effort to
The hyena hoodlums sound like stereotypical jive-talking, urban blacks (racist). Despite all this, however, the movie remains popular with children and adults (Twomey 120) who continue to ignore or remain unaware of these negative messages. What does it teach then? Mainly, that Simba must accept responsibility. His mission is to be King and rule wisely so that the kingdom can prosper. He has to accept this responsibility in order to
The Oedipus complex suggests that every son wants to marry his mother and kill his father -- and that is precisely what Claudius does. "Sex and the life instincts in general are, of course, represented somewhere in Jung's system. They are a part of an archetype called the shadow. It derives from our prehuman, animal past, when our concerns were limited to survival and reproduction, and when we weren't
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Prince Hamlet is supported by loyal followers such as Prufrock, himself happy "to start a scene or two" (116) and to remain "Deferential, glad to be of use" (118). Women are presented in a series of stereotypes of the social set -- they sip tea, talk about art, eat marmalade, and live among porcelain as they pretend that they are more influential than they are. For Prufrock, the singing
Simultaneously, he forces a man long upheld as honest in the highest Venetian circles into scheming and manipulations; these are roles which Iago takes on too readily, suggesting a certain familiarity, but it must be preserved that no earlier instance is ever presented to suggest that the notables of Venice were in any way wrong to uphold Iago as honest and true. In fact, those same notables are those
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