Historic Contextual Essay of T essays

Historic Contextual Essay of T essays The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, takes place in late 19th century England. The Picture of Dorian Gray incorporates a lot of the culture of the time period into it making it, for the most part, a believable and realistic story. He talks about how the rich lived in large homes with gardens and servants, he talks about the opium dens, and he also talks about the playhouses where Dorian meets Sibyl Vane who he gets engaged to before driving her to suicide. He also incorporates a lot of the ideas of the time period about art and beauty in general into the story. Overall Oscar Wilde gives an accurate representation of the life and ambiance of late 19th century England. In the story, the upper class English society lived rich, comfortable lives and squandered away there time at social gatherings, in the theatre, and as a rule, not doing any work at all. The few people that are upper class and the book tells us how they got there, inherited their land and riches from distant relatives. That is pretty much what happened in the real England. The upper class people of that time period got there land and money from there relatives in the medieval era. The people who had lots of land became the kings during the medieval ages and got their riches from using and abusing the people without any land. They would pretty much just sit around and eat all day while their servants did all the work in the fields for them. The kings later transformed into the upper class citizens of England. The story also talks about Dorian Gray running off to an Opium Den after he kills Basil. He is so distraught over what he had done that he got Opium out of his house and took it with him to an opium den to try and numb the pain. He remembered Lord Henrys thoughts on how Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul. In late 19th century England there were lots and lots of Opium Den...