Oscar Wilde: The Happy Prince

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 21 December 2018 > Ready to Use


The new biopic about Oscar Wilde’s final years after leaving prison takes its ironic title from one of the children’s stories he wrote for his sons. The film, written, directed and starring Rupert Everett has a wonderful supporting cast (Colin Firth, Colin Morgan, Emily Watson.) This B2 downloadable resource includes work on an article about the film and the trailer.

Irish poet, playwright, novelist, editor, dandy and wit Oscar Wilde was a major figure of the nineteenth century literary scene, and his work is still widely read and performed today.

His life, and his work, were divided into two distinct categories. The (relatively) conventional: marriage, fatherhood and his immensely popular comic plays like The Importance of Being Earnest, and modern fairytales like “The Happy Prince”. And the scandalous, at least in Victorian times: his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas and imprisonment, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Salomé.

The biopic by and starring Rupert Everett focuses on the last years of his life which can help and understand Wilde’s art and life.

This article will give pupils an overview of Wilde’s life after being jailed. We recommend it with older classes because of the subject matter. It is a useful accompaniment if your students are studying The Importance of Being Earnest in 1re LLCE.

Vocabulary and Structures

  • literature
  • biography
  • narrative present
  • simple past
  • passive
  • adjectives

 



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> Oscar Wilde
Notion(s) culturelle(s) : "LLCER" "Mythes et héros"