Surface and Symbol: risks of criticism

Abstract

The Oscar Wilde literary work was an intellectual and moral revolution on English Victorian society, in the late 19th century. The author was misunderstood by contemporary people, but he knew understand the close society mentality and he suggested audacious alternatives that were changes in a full of prejudices value system. The Wilde’s essays are less famous that his fictional works, but they are a fresh, modern and clever way of looking about criticism or art. In “Intentions” , the author includes a dialogue, a reflexion about the criticism and the relation between critics and creation. It is a document that shows the beginning of the intellectual change to the modern thinking.