Oscar Wilde
Life
He was born in 1854 in Dublin in a quite influential Anglo-Irish family. After graduating, he settled
in London and became a spokesman for English Aestheticism. He later married Constance Lloyd
and had two children with her. In this period (1892 – 1895) he achieved great popularity due to his
witty comedies which gathered large crowds in theatres. However, he was arrested in Reading
Gaol in 1895 for homosexual offences. During his two years in prison, Wilde wrote two of the pillars
of his literary production: The Ballad of Reading Gaol and De Profundis. After spending the last
years of his life struggling for economic stability, he died in Paris in 1900.
Literary production
• Poems (1881)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
• Comedies (1892 – 1895) – Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal
Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest.
• The Ballad of Reading Gaol, De Profundis (1895 – 1896).
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray is to be considered a manifesto of the Aesthetic
movement. Some of its main principles are:
• To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.
• There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written or badly written.
That is all.
• Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for art.
• Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.
The novel begins with a playful dialogue on Nature as usual in Wilde’s comedies, but it soon turns
into a real Gothic novel as Dorian exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty.
The split between appearance and reality forms the central core of the novel. Being strongly
influenced in every side of his personality by the book that Henry suggested him, Dorian seems to
fully share Wilde's ideals of beauty and art, legitimating cruel and evil actions for allowing him to
live an exotic, hedonistic, life. The connection between truth and beauty is also extremely relevant
in the novel, as Henry says “Beauty cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty” .
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the Comedies written by Oscar Wilde in 1895. The main
feature of this funny comedy is that the characters mainly speak through paradoxes, which enables
Wilde to mock the flaws and hypocrisy of Victorian society in a subtle, playful tone. It is a
farce which plays on mistaken identities and misunderstandings. The comedy is also a
parody of romantic love as the two women in the story fall in love with a name, rather than a
person. Wilde desires to criticise the world mad of false appearances (Victorian compromise) he lives
in.
Emblematic is Lady Bracknell’s interview, in which she makes Jack absurd questions on his income,
possessions, education and origins, regardless about whether he genuinely loves her daughter
or not. Furthermore, for Lady Bracknell not having a parent equals not being socially acceptable.
As Jack answers her question by saying that he knows nothing, Lady Bracknell is relieved because she
considers knowledge a virtue that can lead to negative consequences. It is a text full of puns such
as “lost and found” or “produce a parent”, and paradoxes.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
The Ballad of Reading Gaol” by Oscar Wilde tells of Wilde’s experiences in prison and his
observations of another prisoner condemned to die.
The poem begins with the story of Charles Thomas Wooldridge who murdered his wife. The
man has been sentenced to hang and goes about his life in prison wistfully. Wilde, and the other
men, are jealous of his attitude as he has accepted his fate and is the better for it. In the second
section Wooldridge is hanged. He meets his death bravely while the other men cower from even the
idea. Wilde spends time describing how the monotony of jail is only broken by the terror of it.
In the third section Wilde describes the daily activities of the prisoners and the way they spend their
nights. They are haunted by phantoms that seem to be very much alive. The rest of the poem
describes the funeral of Wooldridge and how his body was covered in lime. It also speaks on Wilde’s
general ideas about the justice system and that one must come to God to find happiness.
The poem concludes with Wilde restating his original refrain regarding the fact that all men “kill the
thing they love,” in one way or another.
Stanza Seven
“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!”
In what is going to be a refrain, Wilde expands his comprehension of Wooldridge’s situation, and
relates it to all men. All men, “each man,” destroys what he loves most in one way or another.
Some of these men ruin relationships and possibilities “with a bitter look,” others, through a
misplaced “flattering word.” There is a portion of the male population that, in their fear, betray the
ones they love and never own up to it, others, like Wooldridge are “brave” in their choices.
While Wilde is not condoning what Wooldridge did, he sees it as being “braver” than slinking away,
taking no responsibility.
