perspectivehistorical
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To Victorian readers in the 1890s, the book was a shocking attack on traditional values. Victorian culture highly valued clean living, hard work, and moral responsibility. Wilde's story, which featured characters who openly mocked these values and lived secret, indulgent lives, felt highly dangerous. It acts as a mirror to the double lives many Victorian gentlemen actually lived.
controversy
Supporting arguments
- It exposed the hypocrisy of polite Victorian society.
- It challenged the strict moral rules of the era.
- It brought taboo topics like secret indulgence into mainstream discussion.
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