Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on 16 October 1854, in Dublin, Ireland, the second of three children born to writer Jane Francesca Agnes  Elgee (1821-1896) and surgeon Sir William Robert Wills Wilde (1815-1876).

Wilde’s mother was a prominent poet and nationalist; his father a successful ear and eye surgeon and noted philanthropist. In 1884, he married wealthy heiress Constance Lloyd. Thanks to her father’s fortune, Wilde was freed from economic concerns, and he focused more on his creative endeavours. By 1886 Oscar and Constance had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan.

‘Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.’

Oscar Wilde was a Novelist, dramatist, poet, and author. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. After his initial years of schooling at home, in 1871 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, then went on to study the classics at Magdalen College, Oxford, England from 1874-1878. It was here that he came under the influence of writer and critic Walter Pater and John Ruskin helped found the Aesthetic Movement, “art for art’s sake”. Wilde excelled in his studies, winning many prizes and awards including Oxford’s Newdigate Prize for his poem “Ravenna’.

‘Only the shallow know themselves.’
(Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young)

He proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States of America and Canada on the new “English Renaissance in Art”, and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde had become one of the most well-known personalities of his days.
‘Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.’
(An Ideal Husband)

Wilde himself was profoundly affected by beauty and lived and dressed flamboyantly compared to the typical Victorian styles and mores of the time. He was often publicly caricatured and the target of much moral outrage in Europe and America. His writings such as Dorian Gray with homoerotic themes also brought much controversy for him but he was part of the ever-growing movement of ‘decadents’ who advocated pacifism, social reform, and libertarianism. While many vilified him, he was making his mark with style and wit and enjoyed much success with many of his plays.

“An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them. We live in an age when men treat art as if it were meant to be a form of autobiography. We have lost the abstract sense of beauty. Some day I will show the world what it is;  and for that reason the world shall never see my portrait of Dorian Gray.” (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Wilde was lauded by and acquainted with many influential figures of the day including fellow playwright George Bernard Shaw, American poets Walt Whitman and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and English author and social critic John Ruskin. His works have inspired countless fellow authors, have been translated to numerous languages, and have been adapted to the stage and screen many times over.

The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”
(Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime)

Sadly, Wilde’s life did not end in the manner of his ‘drawing room comedies.’ In 1891 Wilde met English poet Lord Alfred Douglas “Bosie” (1870-1945), son of John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry (1844-1900). It was the beginning of a tumultuous relationship that caused many problems for Oscar and eventually led to his downfall. Alfred had a tempestuous relationship with his father which did not help matters. He disapproved of his son’s lifestyle and when he learned of his openly living with Wilde, he set out to defame Wilde. For the opening performance of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895 at St. James’s Theatre in London the Marquess planned to publicly expose and humiliate Wilde. Oscar took legal steps to protect himself against the ‘brute’. During the course of the trial, Wilde’s various sexual relationships were exposed. These details, and the defense’s threat of bringing male prostitutes to the stand, and they ultimately won a case whereby Wilde was charged with “gross indecency” for homosexual acts. The outcome of the sensational trial was a sentence of two years hard labour which Wilde served most of at the Reading Gaol outside of London.

‘The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.’

(The Critic as Artist)
After Wilde was imprisoned Constance had her and her sons’ last names changed to Holland. Now Wilde turned to his pen and wrote many essays, poems, and letters including one to Alfred, “De Profundis” (a heavily edited version was first published in 1905; the complete version in 1962). After his release from prison in May of 1897, Wilde wrote “Ballad of Reading Gaol” (1898) about the injustice of the death penalty and the hanging of Charles Thomas Wooldridge;
‘Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!’