What are some examples of how Oscar Wilde was decadent?

Question

Im studying The importance of being Earnest in English and part of our homework is to find out about how he was an important part of the decadence movement. Ive googled it but everything's too long and generally irrelevant.

So yeah uhh please answer this and help me? :)

Answer 1

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Oscar Wilde was sent to prison following his trial for lewd, homosexual behavior during the Victorian era.

Source(s):

http://www.azcentral.com/ent/arts/articl…

Answer 2

Well I don't know much about the decadence movement, but I know that one of Wilde's other works, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, seems to have some of the characteristics in it. If all else fails, you might be able to find some examples in there. (It's a very good book, I promise!)

Answer 3

yeh. he was sent to jail for being a nancy boy...

Answer 4

A decadent person assumes that the usual values of family, religion, and morality are wrong or irrelevant.

1. Algy tells Jack that a man who marries without having an outside interest (e. g., Bunbury) "has a very tedious time of it." Marriage is not fulfilling, and indeed a few mibnutes after he has met Cecily, to whom he proposes, he tells her about Bunbury.

2. Lady Bracknell, a hypocritical representative of the morality, explains to Algy thet feeling well and acting well rarely go together.

3. Jack is not immune from decadence. Rather than stay at his dull country estate he pretends to have a dissolute elder brother who gets into "scrapes." So he too finds moral life, no matter how much money attends it, stultifying. Assuming a high moral tone does not "conduce to happiness."

4. Cecily is supposed to study German--a language that Lady Bracknell connects with correctness--but finds it hateful. She really wants to meet her Uncle Jack's "wicked elder brother." Lessons are less fun that romance: a decadent choice.

5. Gwendolyn only wants a sham marriage. She asks Jack to look at her loving "especially when other people are present." She says she may "marry often," though she will always love Jack. (Will she?)

There are many other instances, all amusingly put.