第7單元　奧斯卡?王爾德

Oscar Wilde (1856-1900) （奧斯卡·王爾德）

1Life（生平）

Oscar Wilde is a British aesthetic playwright, poet, novelist and literary critic. He was born in Dublin, Ireland. After graduation from Oxford university, Wilde went to London to begin his literature career. From 1882 to 1883, he went to America twice to disseminate his aesthetic view and returned to Britain to write and edit articles for magazine. In 1895, Wilde was sentenced to a two-year corvee for his immoral action. After he was set free, he went to France. Down and out, he finally died of disease in Paris. Wilde is an active advocator of aestheticism. He holds that it is not art that reflects reality but vice versa. Art should not be utilitarian. Only “art for art’s sake” has a permanent value. Wilde’s main achievement is his plays and they play a transitional role in the history of British plays.

奧斯卡·王爾德，十九世紀英國唯美派劇作家、詩人、小說家和文學批評家。王爾德生于愛爾蘭都柏林。牛津大學畢業后，王爾德到倫敦從事文學活動。1882年到1883年，王爾德曾兩次到美國宣傳自己的美學觀點，回國后為雜志撰稿并編輯雜志。1895年，王爾德因不道德行為被判處兩年勞役，出獄后去法國，窮途潦倒，最后病死在巴黎。王爾德極力主張唯美主義，認為不是藝術反映現實，而是現實反映藝術。藝術不應帶有任何功利主義，只有“為藝術而藝術”才有永恒的價值。王爾德的主要成就是戲劇創作，在英國戲劇的發展史上起了某種承先啟后的作用。

2Major Works（主要作品）

The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1889) 《快樂王子集》

Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) 《溫德米爾夫人的扇子》

A Woman of No Importance (1893) 《一個無足輕重的婦女》

An Ideal Husband (1895) 《理想丈夫》

The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) 《埃耐斯特的重要性》

3Selected Work（選讀作品）

◆An Ideal Husband《理想丈夫》

Sir Robert Chiltern is a hypocritical politician, but an ideal husband in his wife’s eye. In 1875, the British government decided to buy Suez Canal stocks. Chiltern predicts that anyone that buys large amounts of stocks will make a fortune. Then he sells this government secret to a foreign banker and receives a huge amount of rewards. However, the letter he writes to the banker is left in a swindler Mrs. Cheveley. She threatens him to leak his secret, and Chiltern is extremely anxious. His friend Lord Goring finds that Mrs. Cheveley once stolen a bracelet. Goring asks her to destroy the letter, or he will make her scandal public. Mrs. Cheveley has to give in. Chiltern is not punished but appointed Home Secretary.

Wilde criticizes the hypocritical moral view in the Victorian era. His satire to politics, revelation of fake moral of upper class, especially political nature once again shows this talent’s incisive style of writing.

奇爾頓是個道貌岸然的政客，是他太太心目中十全十美的理想丈夫。1875年，英國政府決定購買蘇伊士運河股票。奇爾頓意料到買下大量股票者一定能賺到一筆巨款，于是他將英國政府的這一機密賣給了一個外國銀行家，得到了巨額酬金，從此一躍為富翁。然而，他寫給銀行家的信落到了女騙子謝維利夫人手里。她威脅他要泄露他的秘密，弄得他焦頭爛額。奇爾頓的朋友戈林發現謝維利夫人曾偷過一只手鐲。戈林要她銷毀奇爾頓的信，不然的話，就將她的丑事張揚出去，謝維利夫人只好屈從結果，奇爾頓不但沒受到懲處，反而被任命為內閣大臣。

王爾德批判了維多利亞時代虛偽的道德觀，對政治的諷刺，其對倫敦上流社會偽道德的揭露，尤其是對政治本質揭露，再次表現了這位風流才子的犀利文筆。