Biography of Oscar Wilde
journalist. His father was Sir William Wilde, an Irish antiquarian, gifted writer, and specialist in diseases of the eye and ear.
Oscar Wilde inherited all his grace and intelligence from his parents, especially his mother. His gifts and grace distinguish him among his
contemporaries Sherard, 1911: 26. ‘Oscar Wilde is known for his amiable personality, glitering wit and audacious showmanship’ Laver, 1954: 1.
Oscar Fingal OFlahertie Wills Wilde was born at No. I, Merrion Square , in the city of Dublin, on the 16 October 1854. Oscar Wilde adored youth. He
stated that he was not born in 1856, but two years earlier. This inaccuracy arouse from his misstatement. He used the term “the usual age” commented on his birth
date that made him appears two years younger Sherard, 1911: 3-4. At the age of 13, Wildes tastes in clothes were already dandys. The
flannel shirts you sent in the hamper are both Willies mine are one quite scarlet and the other lilac but it is too hot to wear them yet, he wrote in a letter to his
mother. Willie, whom he mentioned, was his elder brother as retrieved from http:www.online-literature.comwilde. Wilde statement in De Profundis shows
this. The Gods had given me almost everything. But I let myself be lured into
long spells of senseless and sensual ease. I amused myself with being a flaneur, a dandy, a man of fashion. I surrounded myself with the smaller
natures and the meaner minds. I became the spendthrift of my own genius, and to waste an eternal youth gave me a curious joy Wilde, 1905: 25.
Lady Wildes third and last child was a daughter, named Isola Francesca,
who died young. It has been said that Lady Wilde insisted on dressing Oscar in girls clothes because she had longed for a girl. As cited from The Life of Oscar
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Wilde it is said that for months before Wilde was born his mother had earnestly desired that the child should be a girl. She often expressed her conviction that a
daughter was going to be born to her. She used to tell friends of the things she was going to do “after my little girl is born”. When Oscar was born, her
disappointment was great. She refused to admit that her new child was a boy. She used to treat him, to speak to him as if he was a girl and as long as it was possible
to do so, she dressed him like a girl Sherard, 1911: 5. In De Profundis Wilde stated his regret to his mother
Three months go over and my mother dies. No one knew how deeply I loved and honoured her. Her death was terrible to me; but I, once a lord of
language, have no words in which to express my anguish and shame. She and father had bequeathed a name they had made noble and honoured not
merely in literature, art, archaeology, and science, but in the public history of my own country, in its evolution as a nation. I had disgraced that name
eternally Wilde, 1905: 18. Few years afterward, at Oxford Wilde shocked the pious dons with his
irreverent attitude towards religion and was jeered at his eccentric clothes. He collected blue china and peacock’s feathers and later his velvet knee-breeches
drew much attention. His lifestyle and humorous wit made him soon spokesman for Aestheticism. He worked as art reviewer 1881, lectured in the United States
and Canada 1882, and lived in Paris 1883 as retrieved from http:www.online-literature.comwilde.
In 1884 Wilde married Constance Lloyd who died in 1898 and to support his family Wilde edited Woman’s World Magazine in1887-1889. In 1888 he
published The Happy Prince and Other Tales, fairy-stories written for his two sons. Although married and the father of two children, Wildes personal life was
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open to rumors. At Oxford he became a close friend of Frank Miles, a painter, and the homosexual aesthete Lord Ronald Gower. Wilde’s marriage ended in 1893.
Wilde had met a few years earlier Lord Alfred Douglas, an athlete and a poet, who became both the love of the authors life and his downfall. In 1891 Wilde began
his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas who has a nickname Bosie. His years of triumph ended dramatically, when his intimate association with Alfred Douglas
led to his trial on charges of homosexuality then illegal in Britain.The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it, Wilde once said. Bosies uncle, Lord
Jim, caused a scandal when he filled in the 1891 census describing his wife as a lunatic and his stepson as a shoeblack born in darkest Africa Laver, 1954:
21. I deliberately went to the depths in the search for new sensation. What the
paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became to me in the sphere of passion. Desire, at the end, was a malady, or a madness, or both.
I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure where it pleased me, and passed on. That something hidden away in my nature, like a treasure
in a field is Humility Wilde, 1905: 25-27. It has been denied that Wilde was born as a complete homosexual. His
marriage and the birth of two sons is sufficient evidence that he is not a complete homosexual. He is more appropriate to be considered as bi-sexual. He himself is
not aware of this state, not until he was in Oxford Laver, 1954: 21. Wilde was sentenced to two years hard labor for the crime of sodomy.
Wilde was first in Wandsworth prison, London, and then in Reading Gaol. During this time he wrote De Profundis 1905, a dramatic monologue and
autobiography, which was addressed to Alfred Douglas. During his first trial Wilde defended himself, that the Love that dare not speak its name in this
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century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was
between David and Jonathan”.
During the trial and while he served his sentence, Bosie stood by Wilde, although the author felt himself betrayed. Later they met in Naples. Wilde’s wife
took their children to Switzerland and adopted the name ‘Holland’. Wilde died of cerebral meningitis on November 30, 1900, penniless, in a cheap Paris hotel at the
age of 46 http:www.online-literature.comwilde. Wilde’s conflict was best
stated in his autobiography. I must say to myself that I ruined myself, and that nobody great or small
can be ruined except by his own hand. I am quite ready to say so. Morality does not help me. I am one of those who are made for
exceptions, not for laws. I see that there is nothing wrong in what one does, I see that there is something wrong in what one becomes. Religion
does not help me. The faith that others give to what is unseen, I give to what one can touch, and look at Wilde, 1905: 23, 33.