Wildes Importance of Being Earnest and Weschlers Boggs Essay

Wildes sizeableness of being Earnest and Weschlers BoggsAt first glance, Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest and Lawrence Weschlers Boggs A Comedy of determine treat the issue of blinds function in converse ways. Wilde, the quintessential Aesthete, asserts that art should exist for the sake of debaucher alone. Boggs, on the other hand, contends that art should serve a practical function it should wake individuals from their sleepwalking by highlighting essential, overlooked aspects of society. Fascinatingly, neither Wilde nor Boggs firmly adheres to his ostensible artistic purpose. Wildes Importance of Being Earnest, although it showcases certain Aesthetic elements, incisively critiques Victorian society. The play is not a functionless clip of pure beauty. Conversely, Boggs project clearly serves an instructional function enchantment it simultaneously revels in its own beauty. Moreover, Boggs himself is often uncertain of what his art represents and does. When placed side-by-side, The Importance of Being Earnest and Boggs queer the division between Aestheticism and Functionalism, suggesting that both schools be unattainable ideals. In doing so, the two texts elucidate a holistic conception of art that fuses aesthetic value to social critique. Aesthetic beauty coalesces with function. Historically, Wilde was a stauncheven notoriousadvocate of Aestheticism a doctrine popular throughout Europe in the late nineteenth century which held that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone, and that it need serve no political, didactic, or other purpose (Britannica). Indeed, David Cooper in his Companion to Aesthetics argues that the doctrine asserts not merely that a work of art should be judged only on ... ... pleasure, beauty (GP 799) were most valued in the fourteenth century, and as we have seen, they still are today. Art must be beautiful and purposefully inspire thought. Works CitedAestheticism. Encyclopdia Britannica. 2005. Encyc lopdia Britannica Online. 30 Nov. 2005 .Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Ed. Larry D. Benson. 3rd ed. Boston Houghton, 1987.Cooper, David, ed. A Companion to Aesthetics. Oxford Blackwell, 1995.Foster, Richard. Wilde as Parodist A Second tonus at The Importance of Being Earnest. College English 18.1 (1956) 18-23.Functionalism. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. 2000.Weschler, Lawrence. Boggs A Comedy of Values. Chicago Chicago UP, 1987.Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays. Ed. Richard Allen Cave. New York Penguin, 2000.