Bruna Cardoso Gravem

A Game of Appearances: the Masks of Oscar Wilde Bruna Cardoso Gravem

In the oppressing Victorian society Oscar Wilde was a breath of fresh air. His eccentric and at times polemic lifestyle transformed his life into a roller coaster with many highs and lows. This book examines how three strings tangle together in Wilde's art: the person, the author and his literary works. It also studies the concepts of mask and shadow by Jung to analyze how both Wilde and his characters used these concepts to play their roles in society. Finally, it tries to better understand how these three strings influenced one another throughout Wilde's life, leading to both extreme success as well as his exile and ruin.