On Wilde’s Feminist Thoughts

As a famous writer in Britain in the nineteenth century, Wilde is known for his fairytales, plays and novels which are beautiful and reflect the reality as well. Wilde is nodoubt the frontrunner of the movement of aestheticism. And the studies of Wilde aremostly focusing on his ideas of aestheticism. However, in a series of works of Wilde,there are also many female figures. Although the plots and images of the characters arewell known for aestheticism, ideas of feminism of the author should also be noticed. Inhis masterpieces, female images are never the symbols as they are in traditional works,nor the images created by male authors that are used to satisfy the ideas of men. Instead,women in the works of Wilde are aware clearly of themselves, and are positively seekingthe value of themselves. Wilde thinks that if women are totally obedient to their husbands,they will never attain respect and appreciation of men, so he tends to consider thatauthors should create female images that are thoughtful and strongly determined. Inaddition, Wilde approves the important roles that women play in keeping happy andsteady families.The academic world focuses on his contribution to aestheticism and the aestheticimages in his works as well as the aesthetic feelings he conveys to readers. Otherresearchers study how his aestheticism influences modernism and the modern society.In modern society, although the status of women is improving steadily, there is stilla long way to go to improve it comparing with men. Women get much less chances thanmen in the labor market. Therefore, it is very necessary to pay attention to the status andconditions of women. Wilde called on the improvement of women’s living conditions,which is still enlightening today.To analyze the embodiment of feminist thought of Wilde in his works, this paper isdivided into five parts.The first part is the introduction, which introduces the theoretical foundation andarticle review of this paper and also expounds the theoretical and realistic meaning of thispaper.The first chapter focuses on explaining the generation and development of trend ofthought in feminism, analyzes general branches of feminism and theories and ideas offeminism, laying foundation on the following study. The second chapter analyzes Salome portrayed by Wilde. The figure of Salome is afigure in the old Bible, and Wilde chooses to describe the figure and make her a bettergirl than the original who is not afraid of her step father’s power. She is brave enough topursue her love, and never wants to quit because of the refusal of Jokannan. This paperdiscusses the radical feminist thoughts of Wilde through analyzing the figure of Salome.The third chapter analyzes several female figures in Lady Windermere’s Fan and AWoman of No Importance, and in this chapter, Mrs. Erlynne and Mrs. Arbuthnot are paidmuch attention to. Through the two fallen women who are of different characters buthave similar experience, Wilde expresses that in a society which is ruled by men, womenwho have made mistakes have less chance of obtaining forgiveness than men who havemade similar mistakes. Although many of these fallen women change themselves aftermaking mistakes and become independent, they still find it hard to get rid of the bias ofthe society. This paper analyzes the liberal feminism of Wilde through discussing theexperiences and character of the two women.The fourth chapter discusses several female figures in novels and fairy tales writtenby Wilde, stating that the feminist thoughts of Wilde can embody the thoughts ofMarxism which contend that the housework of women should get paid and that Wildedoes not respect women blindly, and there are female figures who are not nice in hisworks.The last chapter is the conclusion, generally stating that Wilde expresses andadvocates his feminist thoughts by creating strong and independent female characters.Female images including Salome, Mrs. Erlynne in plays and Sibyl in the novel allhave ideas of feminism that cannot be seen from women in other works. Even littleVirginia who is outwardly weak knows that she should not attach herself to the opinionsof her family and shows her sympathy to the ghost and her firm determination. Thispaper studies the feminism of Wilde through approaching the female figures created byWilde, giving the proof that Wilde thinks highly of women instead of regarding them assecond-rate gender, which embodies Wilde’s feminist thoughts.