Waterloo Essays - France, Waterloo Campaign, Battle Of Waterloo

Waterloo BATTLE OF WATERLOO The Battle of Waterloo was the final and decisive action of the Napoleonic Wars, the wars that effectively ended French domination of the European continent and brought about drastic changes in the political boundaries and the power balance of Europe. Fought on June 18, 1815, near Waterloo, in modern Belgium, the battle ranks as a great turning point in European history. After raising France to a position of preeminence in Europe , Napoleon met defeat in 1814 by a coalition of major powers, notably Prussia, Russia, Britain, and Austria. Napoleon was then deposed and exiled to the island of Elba1, and Louis XVIII was made ruler of France. In September 1814, the Congress of Vienna convened to discuss problems arising from the defeat of France. On February 26, 1815 while the congress was in session, Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to France. Many veterans of his former campaigns flocked to his side, and on March 20, 1815, he again took the throne. The Congress of Vienna, alarmed by Napoleon's return to power, had reacted quickly to the crisis. On March 17 Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia each agreed to contribute 150,000 troops to an invasion force to be assembled in Belgium near the French border.2 A majority of other nations present at the congress also pledged troops for the invasion of France, which was to be launched on July 1, 1815. Napoleon, learning of the invasion plan, was determined to attack the allies on their own ground before their army could form. He mobilized an army of 360,000 trained soldiers within two months. He deployed half of these troops within France as a security force and sent the remainder into attack units. On June 14, 1815, Napoleon, moving with speed and secrecy, reached the Franco-Belgian border with 124,000 of his troops. Another 56,000 men were left behind in supporting positions. On June 15, 1815, Napoleon moved across the border of Belgium, and his sudden arrival caught the allied command unprepared. Napoleon ordered his left wing, under Marshal Michel Ney, to attack a brigade of Wellington's cavalry at Quatre-Bras, north of Charleroi. He next ordered the right wing, to move eastward against a Prussian brigade stationed in the town of Gilly. By nightfall on that first day of fighting, Napoleon's armies held the strategic advantage. The emperor had succeeded in placing his army between the advance elements of the armies of both Wellington and Bl?cher, and his main force was in a position to swing either left against the Anglo-Dutch army or right to fight the Prussian forces. On June 16 Napoleon moved with his reserve from Charleroi to Fleurus. There he assumed command of General Grouchy's army and easily defeated the Prussian forces. He then drove north to the Ligny area to engage Bl?cher, who with his army had hastened west from Namur hoping to intercept the French. Early in the afternoon of June 16, Napoleon heard the sound of Ney's artillery at Quatre-Bras. He then brought his force of 71,000 into action against Bl?cher's army of 83,000. After an hour of inconclusive fighting, Napoleon dispatched an urgent message to Marshal Ney ordering him to send his First Corps, a force totaling 30,000 men, to the battlefield at Ligny.3 Instead of delivering the order through Marshal Ney's headquarters, Napoleon's courier took it directly to General D'Erlon, the First Corps commander. D'Erlon left immediately for Ligny. When Ney later learned of D'Erlon's departure, however, he dispatched a message ordering the corps back to Quatre-Bras. The message was delivered to D'Erlon just as he reached the Ligny battlefield. Again D'Erlon obeyed instructions, taking part in neither of the battles. Napoleon was able to defeat Bl?cher after an action lasting three hours. That evening the Prussians withdrew, leaving 12,000 troops dead or wounded. Because of D'Erlon's failure to enter the fighting the main body of Bl?cher's army, about 70,000 men, were able to retreat. Meanwhile, at Quatre-Bras, Ney had waited several hours to begin his attack on the Anglo-Dutch force, this delay enabled Wellington to reinforce Quatre-Bras with several divisions of cavalry and infantry. Ney finally attacked at 2 PM but was firmly held. Successive attempts on the Anglo-Dutch position were similarly unsuccessful, Ney was severely handicapped by the absence of D'Erlon's troops. At about 7 PM Wellington counterattacked strongly and drove Ney back to the town of Frasnes, a few miles south of Quatre-Bras. Ney lost 4,300 troops and Wellington lost 4,700 troops in the action. D'Erlon, however, joined Ney in Frasnes at

Account for the political stability of the Weimar between 1924-29 Essay Example

Account for the political stability of the Weimar between 1924 Account for the political stability of the Weimar between 1924-29 Essay Account for the political stability of the Weimar between 1924-29 Essay In answering this question I propose to examine the key areas of leadership, the economy, then see how this affected politics and follow this up by looking at foreign relations. 1924 saw the emergence of two figures in key posts that were to contribute to Weimar stability between these years: Stresemann and Hindenburg. Both had militarist and nationalist backgrounds but similarly both were intelligent enough to realise that co-operation and discourse were preferable to civil war and economic suffering. Stresemann masterminded Germanys period of diplomatic tension and isolation whilst Hindenburg offered a presidency that was balanced and tactfully administered. Both men were acceptable as leaders to the majority of German people for the time being. These men seemed acceptable to the allies whose goodwill was of paramount importance for German to recover between 24-29. Economically, the country re-gained some stability immediately when H. Luther changed the Mark over to the Rentenmark in 24. This was achieved without gold reserves but industry and agriculture offered some security and this was accepted as international currency. Unemployment began to subside and industrial output returned to levels not seen since 1913. Trading agreements (such as the Rappallo with the USSR) offered further investment opportunities abroad. A full return to the gold standard was enabled by the Dawes Plan (loans were also provided) and it also gave the economy breathing space as reparations were scaled down to fit in with economic output. Politically, this was a quieter time for the Weimar. Why? Simply because the republic seemed to be gaining success. Middle ground parties dominated the Reichstag and the three main nationalist parties (DNVP, NSDAP and KPD) only received 30% of votes cast in the 1927? election. The D. N. V. P was traditionally supported by industrialists, but given the economic upturn most were quite happy to allow the republic run freely. A referendum called for by the NSDAP and others to pillory the government for treason only received 14% of votes cast in favour. 1924 also saw Germany move away from the policy of obstruction and non-co-operation that had dogged the republics early years. Beginning with J. Wirth, a co-operative policy of fulfilment or Erfsfullpolitick was pursued. Stresemann continued this policy with three aims in mind: to modify Versailles; to end German diplomatic isolation and finally to restore sovereignty. By 1931, all three had been more or less achieved. The expressions of the Erfsfullpolitick were a series of pacts and treaties that bore foreign success. As mentioned above, the Rappallo Pact gave the economy a nudge but may also have nudged the allies into a desire to involve Germany more in world affairs in preference to Soviet dominance. The Dawes plan was the first expression and the Young Plan further supported this in 29 (both scaled down reparations). The Locarno Pact ratified Germanys western borders whilst still allowing her to pursue claims in the east. A return to League of Nations membership in 26? Saw the French foreign minister Briand, welcome Stresemann as an equal. The reparations were legally curtailed in 31 after Brunigs application for a Moratorium to the U. S. In conclusion, Weimar political stability between 24-29 can be explained by a combination of inspired leadership, supported by foreign goodwill and input which in turn promoted economic buoyancy which led to political calm.

Stewart’s Calculus 8th Edition Section 1.1 Question 1

Stewart’s Calculus 8th Edition Section 1.1 Question 1 SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips This posts contains aTeaching Explanation. You can buyCalculus by Stewarthere. Why You Should Trust Me:I’m Dr. Fred Zhang, and I have a bachelor’s degree in math from Harvard. I’ve racked up hundreds and hundreds of hours of experienceworking withstudents from 5thgradethroughgraduate school, and I’m passionate about teaching. I’ve read the whole chapter of the text beforehand and spent a good amount of time thinking about what the best explanation is and what sort of solutions I would have wanted to see in the problem sets I assigned myself when I taught. Question:If$f(z) = z -√(2-z)$ and$g(u) = u -√(2-u)$is it true that f =g?Page in 8th Edition:19 Short Answer: Yes, it is true that f=g because the equation for g is exactly the same as that for f, except with x replaced by u. Homework Answer: Because the equation for f(x) and g(u) are the same, this means that for all valid inputs for function f, the function f and g give the same output. In other words, for all valid z, $f(z) = z - √(2-z) = g(z)$. Motivated Answer: This question is asking if f = g. What does it mean for two functions to be equal? We know that 2 = 2, and if someone asks, does 2=3? We know the answer is â€Å"no†, but does f = g? Remember, functions take in inputs, and spit out outputs. Two functions f and g are only equal if they always give you the same output no matter what the input is. Let’s see what happens if we put in any valid input z into f. We get$f(z) = z - √(2-z)$. Now let’s put that same z into g, and we get$g(z) = z - √(2-z)$. These two are the same, and so f and g are the same. This question is a bit of a trick. The textbook writes$g(u) = u - √(2-u)$, but they could have just written$g(x) = x - √(2-x)$. This would have made it much more clear that f = g. There are two key learning points to take away: Two functions can be the same even if the equations look different written out. The above point is NOT true in reverse: If you substitute the same variable z into two functions’ equations, and can get the equations to look the same, then the functions are the same. Video Solution: Get full textbook solutions for just $5/month. PrepScholar Solutions has step-by-step solutions that teach you critical concepts and help you ace your tests. With 1000+ top texts for math, science, physics, engineering, economics, and more, we cover all popular courses in the country, including Stewart's Calculus. Try a 7-day free trial to check it out.

Morality and Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Morality and Religion - Essay Example For example, offering animal and human sacrifices would comprise of such acts of appeasing the Gods. It these early days of religion, Gods were sought after as a matter of survival of the tribe or clan; and religious beliefs as they existed had little to do with morality. Irrespective of whether there was a cause-effect relationship between religious rituals and natural events, it is fair to say that primitive religious practices were done as a matter of survival and morality found no consideration. (Taliaferro, 2006) In wasnt until the rise of organized religion around two thousand years ago that the importance of morality to human lives got more attention. Seen from a theoretical viewpoint, all the major monotheistic religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism – seem to fall under the non-consequentialist framework. The primary tenets of these religions ordain followers to act, think and behave in certain ways, not on the basis of rationality and logic but for the sake of virtues inherent in them. The immutability of religious commandments have made them controversial throughout history. Given that there is never any unanimous agreement about the validity and applicability of a certain principle under all contexts, it then follows that the non-consequentialist basis of most religions make them inadequate in dealing with social, interpersonal and individual problems. A good example of this point is the raging debate going on about stem-cell research in the United States. While stat istics clearly show that scientific advancement in this area would generally benefit humankind, these projects have been thwarted or hampered by fundamentalist Christian believers who take the word of the bible rather too literally. The same contingency is vehemently opposing the practice of abortion, irrespective of the consequences to baby and mother in the future. In contemporary times, fervent atheist

EC Policy on VAT Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

EC Policy on VAT Assessment - Essay Example Nonetheless, the players in the financial services sector have emerged in recent years as among the largest groups of companies in the world and, despite this fragmentation, financial service companies as a group have become by far the most profitable in the world. For example, the UK-based financial services conglomerate HSBC and Barclays are among the world's largest corporations. For this reason, the European Commission in the 1990s took up a plan to include financial services and insurances in the value added tax (VAT) system for all member states, with the primary purpose of making the markets for financial services efficient. The plan was embodied in the Sixth VAT Directive of EC, part of the Financial Services Action Plan which was issued in 1977. Under the EC Treaty, all member states are obliged to adopt EC Directives into their own statutes although they can choose the forms or methods by which to implement them1. The 1977 VAT directive, however, was met with hostility by m ember states, which were reluctant to implement the tax measure. This paper tracks the difficulty of modernizing the VAT system for financial and insurance services for EU that would be acceptable to all and would advance the EC policy of promoting integration and competition in this industry for Europe's future growth in prosperity and employment. A critical evaluation of the compromise measure proposed by EC is in order as a way of contributing to the consultation process being conducted by the Commission to craft a more realistic and more acceptable VAT system for financial and insurance services. Thus, the paper attempts to present an opinion on whether the new VAT system proposed by EC will be more successful than the first. Problems & Issues Financial markets have developed in such a way that even interpretation of classic terms like credit gives rise to difficulties. The Commission services have been confronted with an increasing number of cases where economic operators and member states had problems in interpreting the definitions of exempt services under the Sixth VAT Directive. These cases often reflect the complexity of financial and insurance products, extending to questions such as whether there is a taxable supply and where the place of supply is located. The most serious objections to the imposition of VAT on financial services and insurance firms were the absence of a readily identifable mechanism for efficiently implementing the tax proposal, and the increase in consumer credit that it is expected to generate. Another issue raised against the imposition of VAT on customers of financial and insurance services was the way it offends political sensibilities2. The financial services industry, being engaged in the management of money, involves public interest because a bank run, for example, can harm a national economy. Thus, governments of EU member states carefully regulate the operation of these companies, such that in UK, the Financial Services Authority has been clothed with greater powers to go after financial services firms that mishandle their affairs and funds3. The difficulty for EC consisted mainly in the impossibility of establishing taxable amounts and the amounts of deductible VAT without

Queer Theory Reading of a Picture of Dorian Gray

Queer Theory Reading of a Picture of Dorian Gray Aestheticism dictates that life should be lived by an ideal of beauty and a movement embodied by the phrase of art for arts sake. There is perhaps no greater advocate of such beliefs as Oscar Wilde, and the characteristics of aestheticism run through much of his work, both plays and stories, particularly in the character of the dandy. It would be difficult to analyse any of Wildes work without considering his own personal life and consequently, almost impossible to analyse his use of aesthetics without tackling the elements of homoeroticism. Living in a society largely intolerant to homosexuality, Wilde was obviously restricted to some extent with regard to what he could write about explicitly and as a result secrecy becomes an important influence over Wildes work. This makes for an extremely interesting relationship between aestheticism and homoeroticism, and it is this relationship that will form the main focus of this essay. What are the forms and techniques that Wilde uses to aestheticise homosexuality, and why? And how by doing this his literary works reveal aspects of his own life and sexuality, ultimately creating the figure of Wilde the aesthete, dandy, and campy witticist who has become a public icon forhomosexual men in Britain and America. It will focus primarily on The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Happy Prince and Other Stories. The Portrait of Mr. W.H portrays Shakespeare as being a slave to beauty – that is the condition of the artist! This concept of theartist as worshipper of beauty is a recurring characteristic of Wildes literature and will be dealt with later in this chapter. Firstly, itis necessary to look at the ideal of beauty that Wilde presents as worthy of worship. There is an overwhelming resemblance between Wildes portrayal ofbeauty and the concept of beauty in the Greek era. As Summers observesin his book Gay Fictions: Studies in a Male Homosexual Literary Tradition, both The Portrait of Dorian Gray and The Portrait of Mr.W.H focus heavily on portraits of androgynous young men bothstories allude to famous homosexual artists and lovers in history andthey both assume a significant connection between homosexual Eros andart. Same-sex desire is referenced heavily throughout Greek literature, for example, during the sixth century, the poet Sappho wrote numerous homoerotic verses concerning young women, with the term lesbian derived from the name of her island home of Lesbos. Platoalso referred to same-sex desires and relations, even forming his own theory on the pre-determined nature of different sexualities. In words taken from The Portrait of Mr. W.H, the ideal of beauty is a beauty that seemed to combine the charm of both sexes, and to have we dded, as the Sonnets tell us, the grace of Adonis and the loveliness ofHelen. Wilde uses this Greek ideal of beauty as a means of adding authority to his allusions to homoeroticism, to make the content of the two aforementioned works more acceptable to a Victorian audience. Itis important to note that there is a marked difference of public attitude towards homosexuality and homoeroticism between Greek and Victorian society. Donald Hall observes that during the Greek eraadult male sexuality, had much more to do with power status and social positioning than it did with any expression of identity-determining desire for the same or other sex. Wildes ideal of beauty also overlaps with the Greek concept of the muse. The Portrait of Dorian Gray presents us with Dorian, the muse topainter Basil Hallward, and The Portrait of Mr. W.H provides us withan insight into the life of one of the most famous muses of all, the young man who Shakespeare addressed many of his sonnets to Who was he whose physical beauty was such that it became the very corner-stone of Shakespeares art; the very source of Shakespeares inspiration; the very incarnation of Shakespeares dreams. The muse, defined as asource of inspiration especially for a creative artist succeeds in objectifying the subject, transforming a human presence into aesthetic fodder to fuel the creative mind, as well as something far superior tothe person beholding the muse. With regard to The Picture of Dorian Gray, Summers suggests that, the implied link between homosexual Erosand creativity is clear in Dorians effect on Basils art. Dorians beauty and the ideal that he represents ca use Basil to see the world afresh and inspire him to his greatest work as an artist. This is where the idea of worshipping beauty comes into play. TheHappy Prince, for example, is distinctly removed from everyday lifeand is admired from afar in a quite literal sense. However, Dorian isperhaps the best illustration of Wildes fascination with the worshipof beauty. The novel suggests that to other young men Dorian seemedto be of the company of those whom Dante describes as having sought toâ€Å"make themselves perfect by the worship of beauty.† Like Gautier, hewas one for whom the visible world existed. At the same time,Dorian is presented to us as the worshipped, with regard to hisrelationship with Basil Hallward. The experience of the muse in the manner of Basil and Shakespeare (asportrayed by Wilde) seems to present something of a double-edged sword,producing feelings of such passion that joy and despair becomeintertwined. The narrator of The Portrait of Mr. W.H suggests thatShakespeares muse was a particular young man whose personality forsome reason seems to have filled the soul of Shakespeare with terriblejoy and no less terrible despair. In a similar vein, Basil hasominous feelings on meeting Dorian for the first time, I knew that Ihad come face to face with someone whose mere personality was sofascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my wholenature, my whole soul, my very art itself. The effect of beauty canbe seen as both gift and curse – in the same way that Wilde perhapsregarded homosexuality in Victorian society. The importance that Wilde places on the worship of beauty is closelyrelated to his strong beliefs in aestheticism. The distance that Wildeseeks to construct between the observer and the object of beauty can beread as a mechanism of aestheticism whereby he aims to eliminate anyattachment to moral and wider societal concerns. The following chapterwill analyse the relation of aesthetics to Wildes literary works, andhow far he is able to separate the appreciation of art from moralvalues. Mary Blanchard, in Oscar Wildes America suggests that the personaof the invert or male homosexual was an emerging concept during the1880s, and the connections between aesthetic style and a homosexualsubculture cannot be overlooked. And with other critics referring toWilde as the high priest of aestheticism, its clear that Oscar is noexception to this rule. He lived a hedonistic lifestyle, flitting as asocial butterfly from one experience of art and beauty to the next. InVictorian times the male dandy soon became a symbol of this aestheticage, with no finer literary examples than Dorian and Lord Henry of ThePortrait of Dorian Gray, and Algernon and Jack of The Importance ofBeing Earnest. Lord Henry declares that pleasure is the only thingworth having a theory about and it is this preoccupation withmaterial things and surface-level emotions that characterises thedandy, a choice of style over substance. As a result Dorian becomesfascinated with acquiring commodities such as perfumes, je wels andmusic. Wilde dedicates pages of description to this search forsensations that would be at once new and possess that element ofstrangeness that is so essential to romance. The concept of dandyism is closely linked to that of Victoriandecadence. Goldfarb, in his essay on Late Victorian Decadenceprovides us with a useful definition of decadence, highlighting itsresemblance to aestheticism – the value to be gained from experienceof all sorts and from indulgence in a life of sensation. Because ofthis emphasis, decadent literature is animated by the exploration ofimmoral and evil experiences; never does it preach morality, nor doesit strongly insist upon ethical responsibilities. This separationbetween decadence and morality is also a characteristic common toaestheticism. Glick studies the concepts of dandyism at length in her essay onThe Dialectics of Dandyism, identifying an opposition betweencritical thought on dandyism and arguing that two different modelslocate dandyism at the opposite poles of modernity, simultaneouslypositioning the queer subject as a privileged emblem of the modern andas a dissident in revolt against society. Therefore, on the one handthe reader can accept the dandy as person who embraces the aestheticsof culture and celebrates beauty – as a preoccupation with surfacetrends to conceive of gay identity solely or primarily in terms ofartifice, aesthetics, commodity fetishism and style. Or, beneath thesurface, we can read a protest against the commodification of modernlife and a rejection of common values and aspirations. Goldfarb note asimilar contempt for modern society in the movement of decadence, aself-conscious contempt for social conventions such as truth andmarriage, by an acceptance of Beauty as a basis for life. Bothaestheticism and decadence seek to remove beauty from the confines ofmodern society and use it to their own ends in a self-created sensualand fantastical lifestyle. Wildes use of aestheticism can be read as an attempt to showhomosexuality as a sign of refined culture, as a means to his desiredend where such a topic becomes more acceptable. In the same way thatWilde alludes to the Greek ideal of beauty to disguise what couldotherwise be seen as a direct and possibly offensive portrayal ofhomosexual desire, by adhering to the rules of aestheticism Wilde isable to divert attention from any moral attack on his writing. Themovement of aestheticism shuns any notion that art can be connectedwith morality and passionately encourages individual freedom and socialtheatricality. Ironically, whilst it can largely be seen as arebellion against Victorian sensibilities, it is simultaneously amethod of retaining a covert nature to the expression of homoeroticdesire. In the case of Basil Hallward, he finds art an outlet for suchdesires, there is nothing that Art cannot express. Through Dorian,Basil is able to discover a new manner in art, an entirely new mode of style not just when he is painting Dorian, but when he is merelypresent. It allows him a new way of looking at life, having realisedthe power of homoeroticism In presenting homosexuality through the lens of aestheticism andconsequently presenting it as a refined culture with close links to theidealised and romantic image of the Greek age, Wilde also separates thelifestyle of the homosexual man from the classes of heterosexualsociety. As Elisa Glick suggests in her essay on the dialectics ofdandyism, Wilde depicts Dorians seemingly endless appetite forexotic, luxury objects as the exterior manifestation of his innerintellectual and artistic superiority. This presents Doriansdesires and those of other aetheticism advocates as elitist andultimately superior to other classes. Through the use of aestheticism,it can be argued that Wilde attempts to give homoeroticism the power totranscend class. By describing such episodes in this romantic andfantastical manner, he places homosexuality in a highly refined classof its own, in a position out of reach from the realities of theworking class and bourgeoisie. To take this concept one step further, Wilde can also be seen toreject the realities of common society entirely, as an aesthetepreferring to lose himself in sensual experiences and ultimatelydreaming of an escape from reality to a place where such experience canbe fully realised. Glick goes on to note that Dorians acquisition ofluxuries and curios not only seems to affirm his â€Å"aristocratic†distinction, but also aims to build a self-created world byaestheticizing experience itself. Gray yearns not so much for theenjoyment provided by an individual object, but for the aestheticpleasure provided by its reincarnation of part of his collection.Indeed, Dorian does become obsessed with creating his own desiredversion of reality, in which worshipping beauty and living by thesenses is the priority. Having embarked on this aesthetic journey-largely instigated by Lord Henry –Dorians passion to adhere to theseideals becomes clear, It was the creation of such worlds as these th atseemed to Dorian Gray to be the true object, or amongst the trueobjects of life. Early in the novel Wilde even goes so far as toassociate reality directly with the lower classes and as therefore,something ranked below the aspirations and lifestyle of those likeDorian; in this extract no sooner is Dorian overcome by fascinationwith Lord Henry than he is brought down to earth by the entrance of aservant: Dorian Gray never took his gaze off him, but sat like one under aspell, smiles chasing each other over his lips, and wonder growinggrave in his darkening eyes. At last, liveried in the costume of the age, Reality entered the roomin the shape of a servant to tell the Duchess that her carriage waswaiting. By personifying Reality Wilde presents it as something that can bedefeated, beaten by those who have enough desire and strength of mindto do so. In the same way Wilde often capitalises and personifiesArt to add character to the subject and emphasise his position onthat subject. Although in one respect this separation of the dandy or aesthetefrom reality may seem to alienate him from others in society, thecontent of Wildes narration does not necessarily isolate him from amoral standpoint. It is interesting to note that we are given verylittle information on the uglier types of experience that Dorianseeks. As readers, we understand the influences and transition thatthe protagonist is going through as his soul darkens, but we are noteducated in the exact nature of the experiences. This allows lessopportunity for concentrating on the moral aspects of his lifestylechoices, and more opportunity for pondering on the nature ofaestheticism; we focus more on the influences on Dorian and theconsequences, rather than on judging his actions and decisions. Whenone delves deeper to find a moral standpoint on Wildes part, it isdifficult to do so, and consequently, easier to assume that the absenceof analysis in this area suggests ambiguity on his part. Summer seeks to find an answer to this moral ambiguity in the worldof Oscar Wilde himself, and in relation to The Portrait of Dorian Grayfound that Wilde summarised the moral as â€Å"all excess, as well as allrenunciation, brings its own punishment. The painter, Basil Hallward,worshipping physical beauty far too much, as most painters do, dies bythe hand of one in whose soul he has created a monstrous and absurdvanity. Dorian Gray, having led a life of mere sensation and pleasure,tries to kill conscience, and at that moment kills himself. Thiscomment of Wildes confirms the notion that becoming a slave to beautyis a condition of art, illustrated by the tone of the inevitable thataccompanies the phrase as most painters do, an observation that wecan easily transfer to the experience of other artists as well. Wildegoes on to explain that Lord Henry Wotton seeks to be merely thespectator of life. He finds that those who reject the battle are moredeeply wounded than those who take part i n it. In this respect bothBasil and Henry are ultimately doomed, thus suggesting no clear moralpath that the reader need follow for salvation. Moral ambivalenceoccurs frequently as a result of the narrators attitude; the narratoris sympathetic towards whichever character he is describing, and inparticular, often seems just as seduced by the strong and influentialcharacter of Lord Henry as Dorian is. With this in mind, Summersconcludes that notwithstanding the retributive ending of the book, theFaustian dream of an escape from human limitation and moral stricturesultimately triumphs over the condemnation of excess and therebysubverts the apparent moralism. To summarise, he argues that theFaustian dream is rendered more appealingly than the superimposedlesson of dangers of narcissism. However, if we accept Summersreading, it still remains impossible to read the novel withoutquestioning the relationship between aestheticism and morality.Whether we believe Wilde to subvert or strengthen common moral values,their presence within the narration is undeniable and invites furtherthought from the reader. To conclude this chapter on aestheticism, we can see that Wildesliterature aestheticism and homosexuality exist co dependently. Thisobviously has an effect on the publics reading of his works, and howreadily and comfortably they associate these two aspects. As Summerssuggests it is interesting to note that The Picture of Dorian Gray wasamong the first novels in the language to feature (though blurred andinexactly) a homosexual subculture Summers wrote that homosexualreaders would certainly have responded to the books undercurrent ofgay feeling, and may have found the very name â€Å"Dorian† suggestive ofGreek homosexuality, since it was Dorian tribesmen who allegedlyintroduced homosexuality into Greece as part of their militaryregimen. In contrast, Mary Blanchard notes a negative consequenceconcerning heterosexual readers during the Victorian era – Allyingaesthetic style with the masculine self provoked attacks from someVictorian men unsure of their own gender orientati on. This raisesthe issue of how a heterosexual readership can be seen to react to theundertone of homosexuality, and how a readers interpretation canchange when fuelled by more knowledge of Oscar Wildes personal life.Before looking at the effect of the writer on what is ultimately afictional narrator, this essay will look at the importance of secrecyin the life of the homosexual man. Todays society is obviously more accepting of Wildes sexuality andits effect on his art, Summers illustrates this point by suggestingthat Wildes demise meant that he ultimately functioned as Saint Oscar,the homosexual martyr. But of course it was not until some timeafter the late nineteenth century that Wilde was fully appreciated by awider audience. Miller and Adams in Sexualities in Victorian Britainobserve that the Victorians were notorious as the great enemies ofsexuality: indeed in Freuds representative account, sexualitysometimes seems to be whatever it was that the middle-class Victorianmind attempted to hide, evade, repress, deny. In this respect thehomosexual man had a double secrecy to adhere to – that of sexuality,as well as homosexuality. In Victorian society there was very much aclear-cut idea of what was natural and unnatural, of what was normaland abnormal. Consequently, Wilde set himself up as a figure to beattacked by the press as unnatural and abnormal the V ictorian presspublicized in wildly inflammatory ways Wildes eccentric dress,effeminate, and haughty demeanour, all held up as important signifiersof his unnatural sexuality and the threat he posed to â€Å"normal,†middle-class values. Being such an extravagant and extrovertedcharacter, Wildes sexuality was not particularly covert and eventuallyprovided Victorian society with a case by which to lay down the law asto what was acceptable in terms of sexuality. As Ed Cohen suggests inhis essay, Writing Gone Wild: Homoerotic Desire in the Closet ofRepresentation, the court proceedings against Wilde provided aperfect opportunity to define publicly the authorized and legal limitswithin which a man could â€Å"naturally† enjoy the pleasures of his bodywith another man. Despite the fact that it was Wildes indiscrete homosexual behaviourand demeanour that led to his downfall, aspects of secrecy featureheavily in his literary works and certain narrative techniques aid tothe covert nature in which homoeroticism is often presented. To recap,by relating same-sex friendships to aestheticism and ideals of beauty,Wilde is able to divert attention from aspects of homosexuality thatwould be otherwise be interpreted as immoral by Victorian society.Also, Wilde omits any direct reference or description of same-sexphysical relations and hardly even alludes to such activities. Thecontent of the narration and emphasis on aestheticism means that ahomoerotic reading of Dorian Gray is not immediately obvious – at leastnot to a heterosexual readership. Therefore, homosexual love becomesthe love that cannot be spoken of and is fundamentally secretive. The secret language of homosexuality is particularly evident in TheImportance of Being Earnest, a play riddled with code words alluding tohomosexual behaviour. Karl Beckson argues that the title of the playis not only a pun on the name of Earnest, but is also a representationof same-sex love since the term Urning (a variant of the more commonlyused Uranian) referred to same-sex desire in fin-de-siecle London.Beckson also argues that Wildes use of the term bunburying as ameans for Algernon to escape responsibility also has Uranianimplications. With the action of bunburying being such a focal pointof The Importance of Being Earnest, this reading of the play suggest aserious preoccupation with the secret world of the homosexual. It isalso interesting to note that an unnamed critic in Time suggests thatâ€Å"Bunburying was shorthand for a visit to a fashionable London malewhorehouse† (2 February 1979, 73), an opinion reaffirmed by JoelFineman in 1980. Understandably, after the suc cess of play thephrase bunburying became a commonly used term as same-sex slang.John Franceschina notes other code words used in the play as musical,effeminate, and aunty, all of them Victorian expressions for same-sexactivity. Yet, again Wilde diverts attention from a moral reading bywriting in a style that is based on farce and euphemism, a style thatrejects an immediate analytical reading. In her essay Dialectics of Dandyism, Elisa Glick observes theissue of secrecy within both modern and Victorian society and suggeststhat modern gay identity is pervaded by the trope of the secret.She pays particular interest to the dichotomy of appearance and whatlies beneath, in her words the opposition between outward appearanceand inner essence. This split between appearance and essence of apersons character and desires is central to Wildes portrayal ofhomosexuality, as illustrated by the character of Dorian Gray. Dorianis a contradiction of appearance and essence, with the portrait beingan omnipresent reminder of this. And to return to The Importance ofBeing Earnest, the very act of bunburying on Algernon Moncrieffs partsuggests a web of deceit where appearances are never compatible withreality. One might think that such a heavy reliance on secrecy might lead tosome resentment by those forced to hide their sexuality from anintolerant society, but in the case of Wildes dandies, this does notseem to be the case. In fact, such characters appear to activelyembrace a world of secrecy. If we equate Dorians portrait withhomosexuality, then we can read his response to the secrecy that isforced upon him as something of a guilty pleasure pride ofindividualism that is half fascination of sin, and smiling with secretpleasure at the misshapen shadow that had to bear the burden thatshould have been his own. This seems to suggest that throughsecrecy, a homosexual man can avoid all the negative consequences thatwould be thrust upon him by an offended Victorian society. Glickobserves that it the portrait is not just related to the secret worldof Dorian, but that it also functions on a wider scale, Wilde makes itclear that the portrait does not exhibit a single secret; rather it isthe site f or a circulation of secrecy in which all these characters –Basil, Dorian, and Lord Henry – are implicated. The portraittherefore, becomes a symbol of the secrecy of the homosexual man, whichis simultaneously associated with issues of aestheticism. Glick goeson to suggest that Basil expresses the sense of homosexuality as bothknown and unknowable – the double bind of gay identity – when hedeclares, â€Å"I have come to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thingthat can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us. Thecommonest thing is delightful if only one hides it. But just how realistically can homosexuality exist by these secretcodes of conduct? Just as Wilde suffers at the hands of an intolerantsociety, so does Dorian Gray struggle to live a life of doubleidentity. By the end of the novel it becomes clear that he issuspended between two worlds, with no lasting way of marrying the two.To return to the essay of Elisa Glick, Dorian must die when he stabsthe portrait because he can only exist in the relation between thepublic and the private, a relation that Wilde literalizes in theportrait and its subject. Right from the outset of The Picture ofDorian Gray we are presented with the concept of that part of anartists inspiration that remains secret and personal to them.Therefore, the portrait of Dorian Gray does not merely conceal thesecrets of Dorian, but also the secrets of the painter of the subject -the portrait is a â€Å"mysterious form† because its outward appearanceconceals its inner essence. – it reveals the essence of both painterand painted. The secret desire hidden within the painting is broughtto our attention by Henrys shallow comment that the painting looksnothing like Basil; the fact that his retort misses the point entirelymerely succeeds in enhancing our understanding that there is much moreof Basils desires and passion in the painting than is immediatelyobvious from its surface attributes. Interestingly, this revelationcontradicts the concept of appreciating art purely for its appearanceand with no relation to moral values. In many cases living by thesenses reveals much about the person, and experiences cannot be soeasily detached from emotion and personal feeling. For example, whenDorian falls in love with Sibyl Vane, Henry observes that out of itssecret hiding place had crept his Soul, and Desire had come to meet iton the way. Within the stereotypical lifestyles of the aesthetes,inner feeling will inevitably show its face and with it, bring at leasta fleeting ponder on moral values. Having analysed The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture ofDorian Gray with regard to elements of secrecy, both positive andnegative consequences of such an influence on homosexual lifestyle areapparent. But it is the story of The Happy Prince that puts Wildesfinal and definitive seal of opinion on the issue of secrecy. Once theswallow has sacrificed his life for the statue of the Prince, the twoTown Councillors far from understand the relationship between theswallow and prince, becoming preoccupied with the trivial matter of whoshould be the subject of the next statue. However, there is ultimatelya happy ending with the swallow and Prince receiving recognition andacceptance from God, for in my garden of Paradise this little birdshall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shallpraise me. The relationship between Prince and Swallow does havehomoerotic undertones, with the Swallow often read as the dandycharacter, in this case fascinated by the beauty of the statue. Thehomoerotic aspect of the tale culminates in a kiss between the two,but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you. If we are toaccept a homoerotic reading of The Happy Prince then accordingly wecan read the ending as Wilde voicing his opinion of homosexuality asnatural and literally giving such a lifestyle the blessing of God. InThe Portrait of Dorian Gray, Wilde uses a similar technique whereby hepresents the character who can most easily be classified as homosexual,as the very character who is the most morally sensitive. However, a homoerotic reading of The Happy Prince, indeed of anyof Wildes literary works, relies on and is substantially influenced byour knowledge of Oscar Wildes personal life. This brings us to thefinal chapter of this dissertation, a chapter that will analyse therelationship between the writer and the narrator, and the effect ofthis relationship on aesthetic and homoerotic readings of Wildesfiction. Chapter 5 -Wilde the storyteller So far we have looked mainly at The Importance of Being Earnest andThe Picture of Dorian Gray and we have touched upon the fact that it isoften difficult to read such works without considering the personallife of Oscar Wilde. A Victorian audience would have held someknowledge of Wilde, considering that he was an extremely sociablecharacter with social critiques often published in Reviews of thetime. And of course, his two years imprisonment would have beenwidely publicised and consequently common knowledge. There is no doubtthat it was around this time that heterosexual readers would havestruggled to accept the links that Wilde makes between aestheticism andhomosexuality, fearing a similar fate merely for sharing thecharacteristics of aestheticism. Reading in the twenty-first centurywe now have the privilege of even further information on Wildesprivate life. The nineteenth century novel largely focused on the third person,omnipresent narrator, and in doing so inevitably drew attention to thepersona of the narrator and subsequently to the author himself. Wildeis no exception to this rule and it is difficult not to see his owncharacter or what we believe to be his own character shinethrough. As suggested in the previous chapter, it is not just thecondition of the artist to worship beauty, but also to allow his owncharacter and desires to become a part of his art. In the case of ThePortrait of Dorian Gray, our knowledge of Wilde as a dandy and aesthetecolours our interpretation of characters such as Lord Henry andDorian. Knowing what we do about Wildes extravagant social life andturbulent relationship with the press, lines such as You dont wantpeople to talk of you as something vile and degraded spoken to Dorianby Basil, begin to take on more significant meaning. With this quotein mind, it is possible to read between the lines and observ e a feelingin Wilde that he wishes somehow, outside of his literature not to belooked upon as vile and degraded. This desire for acceptance isoffset by the more typical tongue in cheek wit of Wilde, the use ofwhich diverts attention from serious emotions. This type of humour canbe seen in Dorians retort to Basil on hearing gossip, I love scandalsabout other people, but scandals about myself dont interest me. Theyhave not got the charm of novelty. It seems that Wilde isdeliberately poking fun at himself and joining in with the popularridicule that was present in Victorian society about the life of theaesthetic gentleman. Many cartoons and caricatures were in circulationat the time that sought to make fun of the extravagances of theaesthetic lifestyle. Numerous satirical works were also released,worth particular mention is Robert Hitchens Green Carnation, asatirical novel on decadence influenced by the authors beliefs inaestheticism as unconventional and exhibitionist. The Importance ofBeing Earnest also has a farcical tone throughout, which often servesto allow the reader to question Wildes authority, whilst also allyingthe comments of certain characters with Oscar himself. For example, aline of Gwendolen appears to point directly at Wildes personal life,And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties hebecomes painfully effeminate, does he not? And I dont like that. Itmakes men so very attractive. However, many critics would argue that the very definition of fictiondictates that the reader should accept that there need not necessarilybe a connection between narrator and author. In the same way that anactor does not need to have experienced a similar history and lifestyleto the character they play, so too should we allow the writer to assumedifferent characters. This very point crops up in the story of ThePortrait of Mr W.H whereby the narrator argues that To say that only awoman can portray the passions of a woman, and that therefore no boycan play Rosalind, is to rob the Queer Theory Reading of a Picture of Dorian Gray Queer Theory Reading of a Picture of Dorian Gray Aestheticism dictates that life should be lived by an ideal of beauty and a movement embodied by the phrase of art for arts sake. There is perhaps no greater advocate of such beliefs as Oscar Wilde, and the characteristics of aestheticism run through much of his work, both plays and stories, particularly in the character of the dandy. It would be difficult to analyse any of Wildes work without considering his own personal life and consequently, almost impossible to analyse his use of aesthetics without tackling the elements of homoeroticism. Living in a society largely intolerant to homosexuality, Wilde was obviously restricted to some extent with regard to what he could write about explicitly and as a result secrecy becomes an important influence over Wildes work. This makes for an extremely interesting relationship between aestheticism and homoeroticism, and it is this relationship that will form the main focus of this essay. What are the forms and techniques that Wilde uses to aestheticise homosexuality, and why? And how by doing this his literary works reveal aspects of his own life and sexuality, ultimately creating the figure of Wilde the aesthete, dandy, and campy witticist who has become a public icon forhomosexual men in Britain and America. It will focus primarily on The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Happy Prince and Other Stories. The Portrait of Mr. W.H portrays Shakespeare as being a slave to beauty – that is the condition of the artist! This concept of theartist as worshipper of beauty is a recurring characteristic of Wildes literature and will be dealt with later in this chapter. Firstly, itis necessary to look at the ideal of beauty that Wilde presents as worthy of worship. There is an overwhelming resemblance between Wildes portrayal ofbeauty and the concept of beauty in the Greek era. As Summers observesin his book Gay Fictions: Studies in a Male Homosexual Literary Tradition, both The Portrait of Dorian Gray and The Portrait of Mr.W.H focus heavily on portraits of androgynous young men bothstories allude to famous homosexual artists and lovers in history andthey both assume a significant connection between homosexual Eros andart. Same-sex desire is referenced heavily throughout Greek literature, for example, during the sixth century, the poet Sappho wrote numerous homoerotic verses concerning young women, with the term lesbian derived from the name of her island home of Lesbos. Platoalso referred to same-sex desires and relations, even forming his own theory on the pre-determined nature of different sexualities. In words taken from The Portrait of Mr. W.H, the ideal of beauty is a beauty that seemed to combine the charm of both sexes, and to have we dded, as the Sonnets tell us, the grace of Adonis and the loveliness ofHelen. Wilde uses this Greek ideal of beauty as a means of adding authority to his allusions to homoeroticism, to make the content of the two aforementioned works more acceptable to a Victorian audience. Itis important to note that there is a marked difference of public attitude towards homosexuality and homoeroticism between Greek and Victorian society. Donald Hall observes that during the Greek eraadult male sexuality, had much more to do with power status and social positioning than it did with any expression of identity-determining desire for the same or other sex. Wildes ideal of beauty also overlaps with the Greek concept of the muse. The Portrait of Dorian Gray presents us with Dorian, the muse topainter Basil Hallward, and The Portrait of Mr. W.H provides us withan insight into the life of one of the most famous muses of all, the young man who Shakespeare addressed many of his sonnets to Who was he whose physical beauty was such that it became the very corner-stone of Shakespeares art; the very source of Shakespeares inspiration; the very incarnation of Shakespeares dreams. The muse, defined as asource of inspiration especially for a creative artist succeeds in objectifying the subject, transforming a human presence into aesthetic fodder to fuel the creative mind, as well as something far superior tothe person beholding the muse. With regard to The Picture of Dorian Gray, Summers suggests that, the implied link between homosexual Erosand creativity is clear in Dorians effect on Basils art. Dorians beauty and the ideal that he represents ca use Basil to see the world afresh and inspire him to his greatest work as an artist. This is where the idea of worshipping beauty comes into play. TheHappy Prince, for example, is distinctly removed from everyday lifeand is admired from afar in a quite literal sense. However, Dorian isperhaps the best illustration of Wildes fascination with the worshipof beauty. The novel suggests that to other young men Dorian seemedto be of the company of those whom Dante describes as having sought toâ€Å"make themselves perfect by the worship of beauty.† Like Gautier, hewas one for whom the visible world existed. At the same time,Dorian is presented to us as the worshipped, with regard to hisrelationship with Basil Hallward. The experience of the muse in the manner of Basil and Shakespeare (asportrayed by Wilde) seems to present something of a double-edged sword,producing feelings of such passion that joy and despair becomeintertwined. The narrator of The Portrait of Mr. W.H suggests thatShakespeares muse was a particular young man whose personality forsome reason seems to have filled the soul of Shakespeare with terriblejoy and no less terrible despair. In a similar vein, Basil hasominous feelings on meeting Dorian for the first time, I knew that Ihad come face to face with someone whose mere personality was sofascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my wholenature, my whole soul, my very art itself. The effect of beauty canbe seen as both gift and curse – in the same way that Wilde perhapsregarded homosexuality in Victorian society. The importance that Wilde places on the worship of beauty is closelyrelated to his strong beliefs in aestheticism. The distance that Wildeseeks to construct between the observer and the object of beauty can beread as a mechanism of aestheticism whereby he aims to eliminate anyattachment to moral and wider societal concerns. The following chapterwill analyse the relation of aesthetics to Wildes literary works, andhow far he is able to separate the appreciation of art from moralvalues. Mary Blanchard, in Oscar Wildes America suggests that the personaof the invert or male homosexual was an emerging concept during the1880s, and the connections between aesthetic style and a homosexualsubculture cannot be overlooked. And with other critics referring toWilde as the high priest of aestheticism, its clear that Oscar is noexception to this rule. He lived a hedonistic lifestyle, flitting as asocial butterfly from one experience of art and beauty to the next. InVictorian times the male dandy soon became a symbol of this aestheticage, with no finer literary examples than Dorian and Lord Henry of ThePortrait of Dorian Gray, and Algernon and Jack of The Importance ofBeing Earnest. Lord Henry declares that pleasure is the only thingworth having a theory about and it is this preoccupation withmaterial things and surface-level emotions that characterises thedandy, a choice of style over substance. As a result Dorian becomesfascinated with acquiring commodities such as perfumes, je wels andmusic. Wilde dedicates pages of description to this search forsensations that would be at once new and possess that element ofstrangeness that is so essential to romance. The concept of dandyism is closely linked to that of Victoriandecadence. Goldfarb, in his essay on Late Victorian Decadenceprovides us with a useful definition of decadence, highlighting itsresemblance to aestheticism – the value to be gained from experienceof all sorts and from indulgence in a life of sensation. Because ofthis emphasis, decadent literature is animated by the exploration ofimmoral and evil experiences; never does it preach morality, nor doesit strongly insist upon ethical responsibilities. This separationbetween decadence and morality is also a characteristic common toaestheticism. Glick studies the concepts of dandyism at length in her essay onThe Dialectics of Dandyism, identifying an opposition betweencritical thought on dandyism and arguing that two different modelslocate dandyism at the opposite poles of modernity, simultaneouslypositioning the queer subject as a privileged emblem of the modern andas a dissident in revolt against society. Therefore, on the one handthe reader can accept the dandy as person who embraces the aestheticsof culture and celebrates beauty – as a preoccupation with surfacetrends to conceive of gay identity solely or primarily in terms ofartifice, aesthetics, commodity fetishism and style. Or, beneath thesurface, we can read a protest against the commodification of modernlife and a rejection of common values and aspirations. Goldfarb note asimilar contempt for modern society in the movement of decadence, aself-conscious contempt for social conventions such as truth andmarriage, by an acceptance of Beauty as a basis for life. Bothaestheticism and decadence seek to remove beauty from the confines ofmodern society and use it to their own ends in a self-created sensualand fantastical lifestyle. Wildes use of aestheticism can be read as an attempt to showhomosexuality as a sign of refined culture, as a means to his desiredend where such a topic becomes more acceptable. In the same way thatWilde alludes to the Greek ideal of beauty to disguise what couldotherwise be seen as a direct and possibly offensive portrayal ofhomosexual desire, by adhering to the rules of aestheticism Wilde isable to divert attention from any moral attack on his writing. Themovement of aestheticism shuns any notion that art can be connectedwith morality and passionately encourages individual freedom and socialtheatricality. Ironically, whilst it can largely be seen as arebellion against Victorian sensibilities, it is simultaneously amethod of retaining a covert nature to the expression of homoeroticdesire. In the case of Basil Hallward, he finds art an outlet for suchdesires, there is nothing that Art cannot express. Through Dorian,Basil is able to discover a new manner in art, an entirely new mode of style not just when he is painting Dorian, but when he is merelypresent. It allows him a new way of looking at life, having realisedthe power of homoeroticism In presenting homosexuality through the lens of aestheticism andconsequently presenting it as a refined culture with close links to theidealised and romantic image of the Greek age, Wilde also separates thelifestyle of the homosexual man from the classes of heterosexualsociety. As Elisa Glick suggests in her essay on the dialectics ofdandyism, Wilde depicts Dorians seemingly endless appetite forexotic, luxury objects as the exterior manifestation of his innerintellectual and artistic superiority. This presents Doriansdesires and those of other aetheticism advocates as elitist andultimately superior to other classes. Through the use of aestheticism,it can be argued that Wilde attempts to give homoeroticism the power totranscend class. By describing such episodes in this romantic andfantastical manner, he places homosexuality in a highly refined classof its own, in a position out of reach from the realities of theworking class and bourgeoisie. To take this concept one step further, Wilde can also be seen toreject the realities of common society entirely, as an aesthetepreferring to lose himself in sensual experiences and ultimatelydreaming of an escape from reality to a place where such experience canbe fully realised. Glick goes on to note that Dorians acquisition ofluxuries and curios not only seems to affirm his â€Å"aristocratic†distinction, but also aims to build a self-created world byaestheticizing experience itself. Gray yearns not so much for theenjoyment provided by an individual object, but for the aestheticpleasure provided by its reincarnation of part of his collection.Indeed, Dorian does become obsessed with creating his own desiredversion of reality, in which worshipping beauty and living by thesenses is the priority. Having embarked on this aesthetic journey-largely instigated by Lord Henry –Dorians passion to adhere to theseideals becomes clear, It was the creation of such worlds as these th atseemed to Dorian Gray to be the true object, or amongst the trueobjects of life. Early in the novel Wilde even goes so far as toassociate reality directly with the lower classes and as therefore,something ranked below the aspirations and lifestyle of those likeDorian; in this extract no sooner is Dorian overcome by fascinationwith Lord Henry than he is brought down to earth by the entrance of aservant: Dorian Gray never took his gaze off him, but sat like one under aspell, smiles chasing each other over his lips, and wonder growinggrave in his darkening eyes. At last, liveried in the costume of the age, Reality entered the roomin the shape of a servant to tell the Duchess that her carriage waswaiting. By personifying Reality Wilde presents it as something that can bedefeated, beaten by those who have enough desire and strength of mindto do so. In the same way Wilde often capitalises and personifiesArt to add character to the subject and emphasise his position onthat subject. Although in one respect this separation of the dandy or aesthetefrom reality may seem to alienate him from others in society, thecontent of Wildes narration does not necessarily isolate him from amoral standpoint. It is interesting to note that we are given verylittle information on the uglier types of experience that Dorianseeks. As readers, we understand the influences and transition thatthe protagonist is going through as his soul darkens, but we are noteducated in the exact nature of the experiences. This allows lessopportunity for concentrating on the moral aspects of his lifestylechoices, and more opportunity for pondering on the nature ofaestheticism; we focus more on the influences on Dorian and theconsequences, rather than on judging his actions and decisions. Whenone delves deeper to find a moral standpoint on Wildes part, it isdifficult to do so, and consequently, easier to assume that the absenceof analysis in this area suggests ambiguity on his part. Summer seeks to find an answer to this moral ambiguity in the worldof Oscar Wilde himself, and in relation to The Portrait of Dorian Grayfound that Wilde summarised the moral as â€Å"all excess, as well as allrenunciation, brings its own punishment. The painter, Basil Hallward,worshipping physical beauty far too much, as most painters do, dies bythe hand of one in whose soul he has created a monstrous and absurdvanity. Dorian Gray, having led a life of mere sensation and pleasure,tries to kill conscience, and at that moment kills himself. Thiscomment of Wildes confirms the notion that becoming a slave to beautyis a condition of art, illustrated by the tone of the inevitable thataccompanies the phrase as most painters do, an observation that wecan easily transfer to the experience of other artists as well. Wildegoes on to explain that Lord Henry Wotton seeks to be merely thespectator of life. He finds that those who reject the battle are moredeeply wounded than those who take part i n it. In this respect bothBasil and Henry are ultimately doomed, thus suggesting no clear moralpath that the reader need follow for salvation. Moral ambivalenceoccurs frequently as a result of the narrators attitude; the narratoris sympathetic towards whichever character he is describing, and inparticular, often seems just as seduced by the strong and influentialcharacter of Lord Henry as Dorian is. With this in mind, Summersconcludes that notwithstanding the retributive ending of the book, theFaustian dream of an escape from human limitation and moral stricturesultimately triumphs over the condemnation of excess and therebysubverts the apparent moralism. To summarise, he argues that theFaustian dream is rendered more appealingly than the superimposedlesson of dangers of narcissism. However, if we accept Summersreading, it still remains impossible to read the novel withoutquestioning the relationship between aestheticism and morality.Whether we believe Wilde to subvert or strengthen common moral values,their presence within the narration is undeniable and invites furtherthought from the reader. To conclude this chapter on aestheticism, we can see that Wildesliterature aestheticism and homosexuality exist co dependently. Thisobviously has an effect on the publics reading of his works, and howreadily and comfortably they associate these two aspects. As Summerssuggests it is interesting to note that The Picture of Dorian Gray wasamong the first novels in the language to feature (though blurred andinexactly) a homosexual subculture Summers wrote that homosexualreaders would certainly have responded to the books undercurrent ofgay feeling, and may have found the very name â€Å"Dorian† suggestive ofGreek homosexuality, since it was Dorian tribesmen who allegedlyintroduced homosexuality into Greece as part of their militaryregimen. In contrast, Mary Blanchard notes a negative consequenceconcerning heterosexual readers during the Victorian era – Allyingaesthetic style with the masculine self provoked attacks from someVictorian men unsure of their own gender orientati on. This raisesthe issue of how a heterosexual readership can be seen to react to theundertone of homosexuality, and how a readers interpretation canchange when fuelled by more knowledge of Oscar Wildes personal life.Before looking at the effect of the writer on what is ultimately afictional narrator, this essay will look at the importance of secrecyin the life of the homosexual man. Todays society is obviously more accepting of Wildes sexuality andits effect on his art, Summers illustrates this point by suggestingthat Wildes demise meant that he ultimately functioned as Saint Oscar,the homosexual martyr. But of course it was not until some timeafter the late nineteenth century that Wilde was fully appreciated by awider audience. Miller and Adams in Sexualities in Victorian Britainobserve that the Victorians were notorious as the great enemies ofsexuality: indeed in Freuds representative account, sexualitysometimes seems to be whatever it was that the middle-class Victorianmind attempted to hide, evade, repress, deny. In this respect thehomosexual man had a double secrecy to adhere to – that of sexuality,as well as homosexuality. In Victorian society there was very much aclear-cut idea of what was natural and unnatural, of what was normaland abnormal. Consequently, Wilde set himself up as a figure to beattacked by the press as unnatural and abnormal the V ictorian presspublicized in wildly inflammatory ways Wildes eccentric dress,effeminate, and haughty demeanour, all held up as important signifiersof his unnatural sexuality and the threat he posed to â€Å"normal,†middle-class values. Being such an extravagant and extrovertedcharacter, Wildes sexuality was not particularly covert and eventuallyprovided Victorian society with a case by which to lay down the law asto what was acceptable in terms of sexuality. As Ed Cohen suggests inhis essay, Writing Gone Wild: Homoerotic Desire in the Closet ofRepresentation, the court proceedings against Wilde provided aperfect opportunity to define publicly the authorized and legal limitswithin which a man could â€Å"naturally† enjoy the pleasures of his bodywith another man. Despite the fact that it was Wildes indiscrete homosexual behaviourand demeanour that led to his downfall, aspects of secrecy featureheavily in his literary works and certain narrative techniques aid tothe covert nature in which homoeroticism is often presented. To recap,by relating same-sex friendships to aestheticism and ideals of beauty,Wilde is able to divert attention from aspects of homosexuality thatwould be otherwise be interpreted as immoral by Victorian society.Also, Wilde omits any direct reference or description of same-sexphysical relations and hardly even alludes to such activities. Thecontent of the narration and emphasis on aestheticism means that ahomoerotic reading of Dorian Gray is not immediately obvious – at leastnot to a heterosexual readership. Therefore, homosexual love becomesthe love that cannot be spoken of and is fundamentally secretive. The secret language of homosexuality is particularly evident in TheImportance of Being Earnest, a play riddled with code words alluding tohomosexual behaviour. Karl Beckson argues that the title of the playis not only a pun on the name of Earnest, but is also a representationof same-sex love since the term Urning (a variant of the more commonlyused Uranian) referred to same-sex desire in fin-de-siecle London.Beckson also argues that Wildes use of the term bunburying as ameans for Algernon to escape responsibility also has Uranianimplications. With the action of bunburying being such a focal pointof The Importance of Being Earnest, this reading of the play suggest aserious preoccupation with the secret world of the homosexual. It isalso interesting to note that an unnamed critic in Time suggests thatâ€Å"Bunburying was shorthand for a visit to a fashionable London malewhorehouse† (2 February 1979, 73), an opinion reaffirmed by JoelFineman in 1980. Understandably, after the suc cess of play thephrase bunburying became a commonly used term as same-sex slang.John Franceschina notes other code words used in the play as musical,effeminate, and aunty, all of them Victorian expressions for same-sexactivity. Yet, again Wilde diverts attention from a moral reading bywriting in a style that is based on farce and euphemism, a style thatrejects an immediate analytical reading. In her essay Dialectics of Dandyism, Elisa Glick observes theissue of secrecy within both modern and Victorian society and suggeststhat modern gay identity is pervaded by the trope of the secret.She pays particular interest to the dichotomy of appearance and whatlies beneath, in her words the opposition between outward appearanceand inner essence. This split between appearance and essence of apersons character and desires is central to Wildes portrayal ofhomosexuality, as illustrated by the character of Dorian Gray. Dorianis a contradiction of appearance and essence, with the portrait beingan omnipresent reminder of this. And to return to The Importance ofBeing Earnest, the very act of bunburying on Algernon Moncrieffs partsuggests a web of deceit where appearances are never compatible withreality. One might think that such a heavy reliance on secrecy might lead tosome resentment by those forced to hide their sexuality from anintolerant society, but in the case of Wildes dandies, this does notseem to be the case. In fact, such characters appear to activelyembrace a world of secrecy. If we equate Dorians portrait withhomosexuality, then we can read his response to the secrecy that isforced upon him as something of a guilty pleasure pride ofindividualism that is half fascination of sin, and smiling with secretpleasure at the misshapen shadow that had to bear the burden thatshould have been his own. This seems to suggest that throughsecrecy, a homosexual man can avoid all the negative consequences thatwould be thrust upon him by an offended Victorian society. Glickobserves that it the portrait is not just related to the secret worldof Dorian, but that it also functions on a wider scale, Wilde makes itclear that the portrait does not exhibit a single secret; rather it isthe site f or a circulation of secrecy in which all these characters –Basil, Dorian, and Lord Henry – are implicated. The portraittherefore, becomes a symbol of the secrecy of the homosexual man, whichis simultaneously associated with issues of aestheticism. Glick goeson to suggest that Basil expresses the sense of homosexuality as bothknown and unknowable – the double bind of gay identity – when hedeclares, â€Å"I have come to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thingthat can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us. Thecommonest thing is delightful if only one hides it. But just how realistically can homosexuality exist by these secretcodes of conduct? Just as Wilde suffers at the hands of an intolerantsociety, so does Dorian Gray struggle to live a life of doubleidentity. By the end of the novel it becomes clear that he issuspended between two worlds, with no lasting way of marrying the two.To return to the essay of Elisa Glick, Dorian must die when he stabsthe portrait because he can only exist in the relation between thepublic and the private, a relation that Wilde literalizes in theportrait and its subject. Right from the outset of The Picture ofDorian Gray we are presented with the concept of that part of anartists inspiration that remains secret and personal to them.Therefore, the portrait of Dorian Gray does not merely conceal thesecrets of Dorian, but also the secrets of the painter of the subject -the portrait is a â€Å"mysterious form† because its outward appearanceconceals its inner essence. – it reveals the essence of both painterand painted. The secret desire hidden within the painting is broughtto our attention by Henrys shallow comment that the painting looksnothing like Basil; the fact that his retort misses the point entirelymerely succeeds in enhancing our understanding that there is much moreof Basils desires and passion in the painting than is immediatelyobvious from its surface attributes. Interestingly, this revelationcontradicts the concept of appreciating art purely for its appearanceand with no relation to moral values. In many cases living by thesenses reveals much about the person, and experiences cannot be soeasily detached from emotion and personal feeling. For example, whenDorian falls in love with Sibyl Vane, Henry observes that out of itssecret hiding place had crept his Soul, and Desire had come to meet iton the way. Within the stereotypical lifestyles of the aesthetes,inner feeling will inevitably show its face and with it, bring at leasta fleeting ponder on moral values. Having analysed The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture ofDorian Gray with regard to elements of secrecy, both positive andnegative consequences of such an influence on homosexual lifestyle areapparent. But it is the story of The Happy Prince that puts Wildesfinal and definitive seal of opinion on the issue of secrecy. Once theswallow has sacrificed his life for the statue of the Prince, the twoTown Councillors far from understand the relationship between theswallow and prince, becoming preoccupied with the trivial matter of whoshould be the subject of the next statue. However, there is ultimatelya happy ending with the swallow and Prince receiving recognition andacceptance from God, for in my garden of Paradise this little birdshall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shallpraise me. The relationship between Prince and Swallow does havehomoerotic undertones, with the Swallow often read as the dandycharacter, in this case fascinated by the beauty of the statue. Thehomoerotic aspect of the tale culminates in a kiss between the two,but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you. If we are toaccept a homoerotic reading of The Happy Prince then accordingly wecan read the ending as Wilde voicing his opinion of homosexuality asnatural and literally giving such a lifestyle the blessing of God. InThe Portrait of Dorian Gray, Wilde uses a similar technique whereby hepresents the character who can most easily be classified as homosexual,as the very character who is the most morally sensitive. However, a homoerotic reading of The Happy Prince, indeed of anyof Wildes literary works, relies on and is substantially influenced byour knowledge of Oscar Wildes personal life. This brings us to thefinal chapter of this dissertation, a chapter that will analyse therelationship between the writer and the narrator, and the effect ofthis relationship on aesthetic and homoerotic readings of Wildesfiction. Chapter 5 -Wilde the storyteller So far we have looked mainly at The Importance of Being Earnest andThe Picture of Dorian Gray and we have touched upon the fact that it isoften difficult to read such works without considering the personallife of Oscar Wilde. A Victorian audience would have held someknowledge of Wilde, considering that he was an extremely sociablecharacter with social critiques often published in Reviews of thetime. And of course, his two years imprisonment would have beenwidely publicised and consequently common knowledge. There is no doubtthat it was around this time that heterosexual readers would havestruggled to accept the links that Wilde makes between aestheticism andhomosexuality, fearing a similar fate merely for sharing thecharacteristics of aestheticism. Reading in the twenty-first centurywe now have the privilege of even further information on Wildesprivate life. The nineteenth century novel largely focused on the third person,omnipresent narrator, and in doing so inevitably drew attention to thepersona of the narrator and subsequently to the author himself. Wildeis no exception to this rule and it is difficult not to see his owncharacter or what we believe to be his own character shinethrough. As suggested in the previous chapter, it is not just thecondition of the artist to worship beauty, but also to allow his owncharacter and desires to become a part of his art. In the case of ThePortrait of Dorian Gray, our knowledge of Wilde as a dandy and aesthetecolours our interpretation of characters such as Lord Henry andDorian. Knowing what we do about Wildes extravagant social life andturbulent relationship with the press, lines such as You dont wantpeople to talk of you as something vile and degraded spoken to Dorianby Basil, begin to take on more significant meaning. With this quotein mind, it is possible to read between the lines and observ e a feelingin Wilde that he wishes somehow, outside of his literature not to belooked upon as vile and degraded. This desire for acceptance isoffset by the more typical tongue in cheek wit of Wilde, the use ofwhich diverts attention from serious emotions. This type of humour canbe seen in Dorians retort to Basil on hearing gossip, I love scandalsabout other people, but scandals about myself dont interest me. Theyhave not got the charm of novelty. It seems that Wilde isdeliberately poking fun at himself and joining in with the popularridicule that was present in Victorian society about the life of theaesthetic gentleman. Many cartoons and caricatures were in circulationat the time that sought to make fun of the extravagances of theaesthetic lifestyle. Numerous satirical works were also released,worth particular mention is Robert Hitchens Green Carnation, asatirical novel on decadence influenced by the authors beliefs inaestheticism as unconventional and exhibitionist. The Importance ofBeing Earnest also has a farcical tone throughout, which often servesto allow the reader to question Wildes authority, whilst also allyingthe comments of certain characters with Oscar himself. For example, aline of Gwendolen appears to point directly at Wildes personal life,And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties hebecomes painfully effeminate, does he not? And I dont like that. Itmakes men so very attractive. However, many critics would argue that the very definition of fictiondictates that the reader should accept that there need not necessarilybe a connection between narrator and author. In the same way that anactor does not need to have experienced a similar history and lifestyleto the character they play, so too should we allow the writer to assumedifferent characters. This very point crops up in the story of ThePortrait of Mr W.H whereby the narrator argues that To say that only awoman can portray the passions of a woman, and that therefore no boycan play Rosalind, is to rob the

Germans children Essay

The children of the Jewish Holocaust during the Nazi era were placed under very unjust, cruel, and exacting circumstances. Education, a basic right of children in developed nations of that era, was denied to Jews in areas of Europe where Hitler’s rule and influence were adopted. During the time of transition during which the exclusion of Jewish children from schools was being implemented, non-Jewish children were formally taught that their Jewish counterparts were inferior. In order to do this, Jewish youth were used to demonstrate the appearance of inferiority by placing them in front of the class and pointing out their characteristic phenotypes as being undesirable. Occurrences like this placed severe limitations on the ability of Jews to learn in these schools, as they were constantly mistreated, neglected, and abused because of their race. Growing restrictions were also placed upon these children’s accessibility to the resources within the schools, until finally they were prevented altogether from attending schools, which were open now only to Germans children (FCIT). Fred Spiegel describes his first weeks of school (shul) in Dinslaken, Germany, where he had to attend a Jewish shul, as the German schools were no longer open to Jewish children (Spiegel 27, 29). The alternative Jewish schools were understaffed and unsupported by the state. Spiegel himself recalls his school’s having only one teacher (29). Later, Arnold Blum recalls an even more frightening occurrence in which his school was being burned before his very eyes (Blum, 20). He immortalizes this event in his memoir â€Å"Kristallnacht† (20). More than just restricting these Jewish children’s ability to attend state schools, they were being stripped of their right to any education at all in the burning of their Jewish school. The parks were also an area in which Jewish children felt the abuse of Nazism. German children, who were armed with the idea that Jews were inferior, played in the parks and discriminated against the Jews they found there. The Jewish children were called names, spat upon, and otherwise abused by non-Jewish children. Spiegel also describes his time spent in the park behind his house in Dinslaken. The last time he remembers going there, he was cursed and called a â€Å"Dirty Jew† by the other children (Spiegel, 28). His grandfather too was cursed by his friends. Kristallnacht, which occurred on November 9-10, 1938, ushered in the destruction of all that was Jewish. Beyond the burning of schools came the burning and destruction of Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues (Blum, 20). Fred Spiegel recalls the night he was forced to leave his home and the abuses even he as a child faced. He was already emotionally crippled by the sight of his community being gutted by fires. He further recalls being cursed and spit upon by the non-Jews as he and his family were being forced from their homes. Some Jews were evicted to concentration camps and ghettos. Others were turned out of the country altogether. Spiegel writes about the events he witnessed upon entering his home, which had been destroyed, for the last time as a child: â€Å"My mother, sister, and my Aunt Klara were standing on the balcony crying. My grandfather had been arrested and taken away by two policemen. [†¦] Soon the two policemen returned. We were told we could not stay in our apartment and had to go with them. On the way out we passed by the downstairs apartment that was empty because the Abosch-family, a Jewish family who had rented it from my mother, had been expelled to Poland a few weeks earlier. Their apartment too was totally destroyed† (Spiegel, 30). Children were also abused through the mandate that they live in the ghettos. Because the ghettos were sequestered from the rest of the German civilization and restrictions were placed on items that could be brought into the area, children often suffered hunger. Many of them were reduced to smuggling food into the ghettos in order to aid in the support of their families. While these were very risky actions, some Jewish children were left even more vulnerable as their parents were killed or taken away to concentration camps. These orphaned children were left alone in the ghettos to make a living under doubly cruel circumstances.