Innocence Versus Corruption

We only need to hear the great name of Oscar Wilde to anticipate what will be quoted as his witty epigrams both surprise and delight us. As a great dramatist in the nineteenth century, Wilde is one of the few whom everyone still reads. This thesis, focusing on his three main social comedies, namely Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband, is intended to study the two types of women --- the innocent young ladies and the corrupt women --- in order to show the common theme in Wilde's main comedies.The thesis consists of five parts. Part one is the historical comment on the drama of Oscar Wilde as well as the general introduction of the topic. Part two discusses the direct confrontation between the first group of contrastive female characters respectively representing innocence and corruption in Lady Windermere's Fan. In the third part, the emphasis is laid on the analysis of latent hostility between the second group of opposite characters in A Woman of No Importance, demonstrating that Wilde continues his theme of the contrast between an innocent puritan and a woman with"tainted past", with the direct face-to-face confrontation shifting to the latent hostility under calm surface. The following part is mainly a discussion of the open antagonism between the last contrasting characters that respectively stand for totally different types of women with great discrepancy in An Ideal Husband. Here, the direct confrontation between women of innocence and corruption prevails in even more intense atmosphere. It is not until this work of art that Wilde finally finishes his trial on the theme of conflict between the women of innocence and corruption. The last part is the conclusion of the whole thesis.