Histiry of English Literarure

Unlike the London production, the New-York production at The Empire Theatre, launched on April 22, 1895, two days before Wilde's trial, was not well received by the critics. William Winter, the well-known critic for the "New-York Daily Tribune" who usually disapproved Wilde's works, did not even review the play. Despite the generally unfavourable reception, from most of the critics, the play ran for a few weeks, but its closing marked the beginning of a period of oblivion for Wilde in America, that would last for ten years.

The reputation of Oscar Wilde as a writer and a critic was doubtful for many critics, but almost all of them considered him a brilliant dramatist of his time. Wilde's fame rests chiefly on his comedies of fashionable life: "Lady Windermere's Fan", "An Ideal Husband", "A Woman of No Importance" and "The Importance of Being Earnest". The sparkling wit and vivacity, characteristic of these plays, helped them to keep the stage for more than half a century. In spite of their superficial drawing-room treatment of human problems, they are still attractive to numerous theatregoers because of their brilliancy of dialogue and entertaining plot.

The basis of the moral conflict is usually the idea that the past of his heroes has the greatest influence on their present and future, and, thus, it defines their actions and directs their soul development. In his play "An Ideal Husband" Wilde says: "One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged". And this idea is very productive in his plays. Wilde shows that justice does not exist in the society of the upper class (Mrs. Arbuthnot - "A Woman of No Importance", and Mrs. Erlynne - "Lady Windermere's Fan", are the real victims of this "moral justice" of the English society).

Oscar Wilde's characters are the people of high society. He gives some typical features to his characters, but refuses the most famous way of that time to settle accounts with the enemies through the literary characters. Wilde's heroes have no prototypes in real life. He named them by places' titles where he worked writing these comedies. The moral conflict structure of Wilde's plays is usually presented by means of action suspense. The first act of "Lady Windermere's Fan" is almost all consisting of the saloon talks. But Wilde considers it to be the perfect act. These talks are full of witty fights with the help of wonderful epigrams. "The Importance of Being Earnest" - his masterpiece - was written without any pretension to the psychological depth. It is the light and merry farce - comedy. All its intrigues are based on the homonyms (for example: "Earnest" - adjective means "serious"; and the personal name - Ernest). The delicate humour and comical situation provide it for the