Stylistic Features of Oscar Wilde’s Wrightings

Both are disappointed.” (p.138).11

“Nothing spoils a romance so much as

a sense of humour in the woman”. (p.108).

“Ideals are dangerous things,

realities are better. They wound,

but they are better.” (p.85).

“Women are pictures,

Men are problems.” (p.138).

In Wilde’s paradoxes and epigrams the verb “to be” is widely used. This verb intensifies the genetic function and makes aphorisms and paradoxes humorous. It makes also the ironical definition of phenomena of life.

e.g. “Curious thing, plain women are always jealous

of their husbands,

beautiful women never are.”(p.108).

“The men are all dowdies and the women

are all dandies.” (p.186).

“A man who moralises is usually a hypocrite,

and a woman who moralises is invariably

plain.” (p.69).

Another means which helps to create the generalisation is the choice of words. Wilde often resorts to the use of some abstract notions, concrete notions are rare.

e.g. “Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit ;

touch it and the bloom is gone.” (p.296).

“Duty is what one expects from others,

it is not what one does himself.” (p.131).

“Life is terrible. It rules us,

we do not rule it.” (p.75).

“Experience is a question of instinct