It’s fun to imagine Oscar
Wilde at a university today. Dandified
in a lavender jacket with a green
carnation in the buttonhole, he might hang out with the Art History or
English majors. He would surely be disdainful of any on-campus PC movements which emphasized political
art over beauty, and he would certainly dismiss as ugly the confessional poetry with which such poets as Sylvia Plath garnered fame.
Oscar Wilde believed in the supremacy of aesthetics
in art, in concealing the artist, and in art free from heavy-handed morality.
After all, he declared that "a little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal." Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest, A Woman of No Importance, and The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which he deployed a refined (and at times
savage) wit to expose the contradictions and behavior of modern manners. He
considered himself a living representation of beauty in art: "I put all my
genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works." In the spirit of
sensuality and outrageousness, he played the provocateur to society's so-called
moral watchdogs.
Stuffy Victorian England put up with him for a time, until he pissed off the wrong person in
power. He had a scandalous affair with Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, whose father, the Marquis
of Queensbury, made sure that Wilde was brought to trial, defamed, and
convicted on charges of "gross
indecency."
Wilde spent two years at hard labor imprisoned in Reading Gaol. After he was released, he spent the last three years of his life in
Paris, where he tried to recapture his former decadent lifestyle, but incarceration
had snuffed his artistic spirit.
Despite a deathbed burst of wit ("My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or
the other of us has to go"), he died penniless on November 30, 1900, and
was interred in Paris's Pere-Lachaise
Cemetery.
Suggested Sites...
- Oscar Wilde - official site of a genius of brevity and wit.
- Aesthetic Movement - an overview of the history and philosophy of a influential movement.
- Oscar Wilde Quotes - quotes from the master.
- Britannica.com: Victorian England - what Wilde was up against.
- The Ballad of Reading Gaol - Wilde's poem about the effect prison had upon him.
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