Dandies and aesthetes: Revising gender roles in literature of the fin de siecle

This thesis explores Oscar Wilde's society comedies, a collection of plays written and produced during the fin de siecle, which illustrate changing sex role stereotypes. Examining these plays and juxtaposing them to stories written by women writers of the same era reveals a revision of traditional stereotypes. Wilde's plays are grounded in traditional French melodrama, appropriating the farce and folly-driven plot lines to promote Wilde's Decadent agenda. By creating the Dandy as a significant archetype and focusing on bipolar extremes in his treatment of women, Wilde uses humor and folly to effect aesthetic transformation and effectively argue an "art for art's sake" agenda.