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Meaning
This is a cutting little reversal, where politeness is exposed as vanity or control. It can be read as someone mocking a supposedly caring visitor who is less interested in comfort than in being reassured that their own role is noble. It lands in a scene of social performance, where sympathy is revealed as self-regard rather than genuine concern.
When It Was Said
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Who It Was Said To
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Historical Context
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Source
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Original Language & Translation
Originally said in English.
Did They Really Say It?
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Did You Know?
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About Oscar Wilde
Irish author, poet and playwright
Oscar Wilde was an Irish author, poet and playwright of the late 19th century. He became one of London’s most popular and influential dramatists in the early 1890s, and is closely associated with the Aestheticism movement. He is best known for The Picture of Dorian Gray, his epigrams, plays and children’s stories. His writing often combines wit, style and pointed observation, and his reputation is also shaped by his 1895 criminal conviction for gross indecency and for practising homosexual acts.
More from Oscar Wilde (646 quotes) →Keep reading Oscar Wilde
- “There should be a law that no ordinary newspaper should be allowed to write about art. The harm they do by th…”Oscar Wilde
- “The gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. You have only a few years in w…”Oscar Wilde
- “Every one is worthy of love, except him who thinks that he is. Love is asacrament that should be taken kneeli…”Oscar Wilde
- “Now art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.”Oscar Wilde
Sympathy: more sayings
- “I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the cha…”George Saunders
- “I prefer not to use my past to gain sympathy or people,I believe in present and try to stay in it for a bette…”Neetesh Dixit
- “Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do…”Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Morality: more sayings
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Books by Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray
His only novel, full of quotable lines.