Oscar Wilde

Question 1

quote on power and ambition

Answer 1

‘individualism is the goal of Wilde’s socialist vision’ (Wendy McElroy)

Question 2

quote on love

Answer 2

‘You are the incarnation of all lovely things’ (Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas)

+

‘Wilde exhibited a deep sense of compassion for the victims of society’ (William Terpening)

Question 3

quote on natural vs artificial

Answer 3

‘man thought that the important thing was to have, and did not know that the important thing was to be’ (Oscar Wilde on the effects of private property)

Question 4

quote on natural vs artificial

Answer 4

‘man thought that the important thing was to have, and did not know that the important thing was to be’ (Oscar Wilde on the effects of private property)

+

‘I should like very submissively to follow nature-which is within myself and must be true’ (Oscar Wilde)

Question 5

quote on trivial vs serious

Answer 5

‘he declared pleasure to be the purpose of life’ (Wendy McElroy)

+

‘he apparently proposes beauty over soul’ (William Terpening)

Question 6

quote on women in society

Answer 6

‘heavy moral undertones that indicate Wilde’s strong condemnation of prostitution’ (Etienne Ma)

Question 7

quote on men in society

Answer 7

‘artists have sex but art has none’ (Oscar Wilde)

+

Wilde’s editorship was no less than ‘the right of woman to equality of treatment with man’ (Arthur Fish)