Oscar Wilde from “The Decay of Lying”

I find Wilde’s premises for this play to be a bit off. If I am not mistaken the real reason for Plato’s banishing of poetry from his republic was because it was imitation and therefore dangerous. Plato wanted to teach the youth though the truest forms available. This is why you get the famous allegory of the cave. The idea was to take someone out from being shown shadows of figures, figuratively this would have been the poets, and show the true source of light, that is truth. But the key in that was to make those who had seen the truth go back down in the cave to retrieve more people. The idea for Wilde is presented by a man named Vivian, who hates nature. This gives off the idea that he would not have liked Plato’s respect for the elements and nature as the ultimate goal. Plato’s educational system ridded falsehoods so that the guardians of the city, who were described as being made of gold, could rule most effectively. Yet for Vivian find that poetry and art, what Plato would refer to as imitations, is comforting due to our want to lie. Because of this want humans have a need for lying and therefore poetry is needed. Vivian believes that art can express ideas better then the cold hard facts of the current days writers would show. If by using art and poetry to achieve better results than pure facts, then according to Wilde, art should be used. This play I feel is an attempt to get back to the Romantic style literature. It is quite noticeable that in the Victorian era there is a call for simplicity. The ideals of splurging seem to be at a wayside. Instead the industrial age brought forward streamlining of everything, including art. Perhaps Wilde is a person trying to stick to nature and return to the ways of the romantics.