Oscar wilde as a prolific writer

CHAPTER 1 EARLY LIFE AND WORKS
1.1. The Victorian period of English literature.
The beginning of Victorian period in England is dated in 1837 when the throne was surpassed by queen Victoria. She was only 18years then, and her government lasted 63 years. In the reign of the queen Victoria Great Britain has met an enormous number of changes and development in different spheres as well. For instance, industrial revolution was the main reason and effect for enlarging the number of factories, stores and shops. Was marked rapid growth of population that led to growth of cities in numbers. In 1850s Great Britain was mostly covered with railways, which made it easy for industries to move, export and import their products and raw materials for a long distance. Britain became the most high-efficient country in than the other European ones. The country was regarded as a “Workshop of the world”. But there was the dark side of the moon. Children from their early ages had to work but work conditions and payments for all workers, not depending on their gender and age, were inadmissible and insufficient. Work time was quite long. ¹
Religion played an essential role in development of the country despite the fact that majority of population were not religious. In contrast, an advanced stage of development of science was fully disagreeing the religious thought. Especially Charles Darwin’s work of art about the origin of humankind from monkey was contrasting the belief that all creatures in the world were created by God.
Based on these facts and thoughts, growth of interests in science in Britain was a great reason for enormous investigations, scientific inventions, however despite these changes England kept on staying conservative. Turning into industrial country from agricultural one increased the number of new cities and new work spaces, but work conditions of employees were as before.
30s of nineteenth century in historical development of English literature are characterized with advent of new traits in genre structure of novel that was determined with historical-political, social-economic development of England during the inner wars. 40-50s are years of great achievements in history of English social novelistic sphere.
The term “Victorianism” is related precisely with Victorian period mean particular ideology, image of thoughts and life, spiritual atmosphere, complex of moral and ethical settings, that gives information about successful progressive development of society in common. In 20th century the term “Victorianism” gained its widest explanation. Since 1948, the Victorian era, Victorian literature has been actively analyzed by critics and literary historians, which is reflected in a huge number of dissertations and monographs on various aspects of Victorianism. However, if we take into account the activities of the writers of the "brilliant galaxy", it becomes clear how illusory were the ideas of the golden age of the readers of the 20th century, who did not really delve into the dialectics of a complex and contradictory time, when they peacefully coexisted
• serious and deep criticism,
• condemnation of the selfishness of the ruling classes with the preaching of self-improvement and altruism;
• when, along with bourgeois practicality and calculation, personal decency and honesty, high responsibility and hard work were cultivated;
• when the issue of universal suffrage was being decided and the workers, for the first time in history, acted as a united political force capable of defending their demands not spontaneously, but in an organized, conscious and purposeful manner.
At the same time, in a country where traditions have always been honored and the connection of times has been felt, the ideas of the previous century - the Age of Enlightenment, this kind of cradle of various genre varieties of the novel - played a huge role in literature. The novel of the 18th century is a stable typological concept that carries important structure-forming principles. They are characterized by quite definite properties inherited from the 19th century. Didactism and moral categories that formed in the Victorian era in the general course of the development of sciences, especially political economy, sociology, philosophy, leave a certain imprint on the works of Dickens and S. Bronte, Thackeray and D. Eliot, but their place in the novel at different periods of the evolution of this genre is determined by the general development of the structure of a work of art, which was largely facilitated by an increase in the readership and the publication of the novel in separate issues in magazines, as well as the formation of mass culture. Developing the traditions of the educational realistic novel, the literature of the XIX century. not only expanded and deepened them, but also enriched them with new trends emerging in the spiritual life of society. The development of English literature was accompanied by a sharp ideological struggle - between Christian and feudal socialists, Chartists and Young Torians. This is the peculiarity of English literature, which was enriched by the experience of social upheavals associated with the development of revolutionary events on the continent. A brilliant galaxy of English novelists with the greatest completeness and persuasiveness not only showed in their works the real state of affairs, revealing the largest contradictions and discovering the diseases of modern society (snobbery, excessive selfishness, vanity), but also put forward noble humanistic ideals - the ideals of people who are morally healthy and clean capable of self-sacrifice.²
Having unleashed their merciless criticism on all aspects of modern life, showing the social struggle as an inevitable result of the imperfection of social orders, the British realists relied on the rich traditions of the everyday-descriptive and moral-descriptive educational novel, journalism fighting in tone, materials of newspapers and magazines of their time, awakened public opinion, attracting it attention to the darkest, negative aspects of life. They enriched the novel, bringing into it an element of journalism, posterity, direct polemics with existing ideas and philosophical concepts, and were able to defend high moral ideals and criteria of truth and humanism in the literature and spiritual life of the nation. Dickens and Thackeray, sisters Bronte and E. Gaskell were able to enrich the artistic palette of their work by introducing symbolism and metaphor, elements of theater, parody, satire, burlesque and pantomime into the realistic structure of the narrative. They significantly expanded the functionality of the artistic image and the importance of character independence, greatly diversified the narrative line and enriched the dialogue.
The Victorian period in England can rightfully be considered a “golden
century "of the English literary tale, which, as an independent
the genre was formed there by the middle of the 19th century - relatively late
compared to other European countries. until the middle of the 19th century in England at all was no literature for children. According to the modern English researcher H. Carpenter, by the beginning of the 19th century in England
there was "... a huge number of children's books, intended solely for entertainment, and a huge number of children's books, which were of a moral and edifying nature, however, both were practically not found under the same cover".
The writer and scientist William Roscoe is rightfully considered the founder of the animalistic tale in England, and its traditions were continued and developed in his work by R. Southey, who processed the folk tale of the three bears (The Story of the Three Bears, 1837).³
Until the second half of the 19th century, when truly fictional literature appeared in England, specially intended for
children, we can only talk about the books included in children's reading,
but initially oriented towards an adult. Swiss Pastor JD Wyss Wrote Adventure Story "The Swiss Robinson Family".
English literary tales carried the social problems of society at that time. The authors of the fairy tales made it their task not only to entertain the public and excite the imagination of both children and adults, but also to teach the reader a lesson in Victorian
morality. English children's writer of the XX century. I. Valley in the book
"A web for catching flies" notes: "Until the middle of the 19th century, all
literature was written for either religious or moral
topics - more often on both. Every aspect of these didactic aids could be encapsulated in these two words — religion and morality; Thus, the basic principle on which children's literature in England was built was the principle of didactism. The most popular fairy tales for children of the first half of the 19th century were the children's story The History of Sandford and Merton, 1783-1789) T. Day and the collection of fairy tales "Early lessons" M. Edgeworth. Sandford & Merton is a story about two boys and how they were taught by their mentor, the esteemed Mr. Barlow. The "good" boy, Harry Sandford, is always encouraged, and the "bad", Tommy Merton, punished.⁴