Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde is undoubtedly one of the most famous writers Ireland has ever produced. He was a successful playwright, poet and novelist. However, he is as much remembered for his colourful life and flouting of Victorian conventions as he is for his writing.

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16th, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. His was one of six, his siblings being William, Isola, Henry, Emily and Mary. His mother, Lady Jane Francesca Wilde, was a poet and journalist, and his father, Sir William Wilde, was an eye and ear specialist and also a writer.

Wilde’s upbringing was anything but conventional. Henry, Emily and Mary were all fathered by William before he was married, yet he treated them as he did his legitimate children. However, Emily died of a fever in 1867, which affected young Oscar so profoundly that he bore the scar for years.

Wilde’s education was in keeping with his upper class status. He was educated at home until he was nine and then attended Portora Royal School until 1871. He studied the classics and excelled there, winning numerous prizes for his academic ability, including a scholarship to Trinity College in Dublin.
There, Wilde’s academic success continued. In 1872, he won the highest honour available to an undergraduate, a Foundation Scholarship, and won further honours in 1874, including the Demyship scholarship. This then allowed him to attend Magdalene College at Oxford University.

Following his graduation, Wilde moved to London and, in 1881, published his first collection of poetry. Poems was greeted with a mixed reception, but it effectively began Wilde’s literary career. He had already begun to move in the artistic social circles London had to offer and thus his fame began to grow.

Wilde made his international reputation in 1882 when he toured the United States. His lecture tour on aesthetics was so successful that he extended his stay from four months to almost a year and gave 140 lectures. As a result, Vera, one of his early plays, was staged in New York the following year.

Upon his return to Britain, Wilde continued his tour. His continued success during the mid-1880s left him inundated with work. He wrote for the Pall Mall Gazette and edited The Woman’s World. However, it was the plays, stories and the novel he wrote during this period that earned him notoriety.

On May 29th, 1884, Wilde married Constance Lloyd, the daughter of a wealthy QC. She was four years younger than him and was very intelligent and outspoken. The Wildes had two sons within two years of their marriage, Cyril being born in 1885 and Vyvyan in 1886.

With his life seemingly complete, Wilde’s creativity flourished. His fairy tales, The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and The House of Pomegranates (1892), were well received but his one and only novel was not. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) was heavily criticised for its homoerotic content, which played a part in his downfall a few years later, and branded immoral.

It was in the world of theatre that Wilde really established a reputation as a great writer. Wilde’s plays all satirised the upper classes and examined issues relevant to the Victorian era. However, despite this, Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were all huge critical successes.

In the last few years of his life, Wilde’s personal life was gossiped about as much as, if not more, than his work. He had become lovers with Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas by the end of 1891, effectively putting an end to Wilde’s marriage. When accused of homosexuality by Bosie’s father in 1895, Wilde sued him for libel, thus bringing about his own downfall when it backfired.

On May 25th, 1895 Wilde was convicted of gross indecency. He was sent to Wandsworth prison initially and then on to Reading prison to serve two years hard labour. At first he was not permitted to write, but then wrote De Profundis, a letter to Douglas which was published in 1904. He was released in 1897.

The last three years of Wilde’s life were spent in Europe, travelling from place to place under the assumed name of Sebastian Melmoth. His health had severely deteriorated owing to his time in prison. Although he did publish the poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol, which was based on his experiences in prison, he wrote little during this period having lost his creativity.

Oscar Wilde died of meningitis in a Paris hotel on November 30th, 1900. He was aged 46.

Oscar Wilde Quotes

The Ballad of Reading Gaol Quotes

He did not wear his scarlet coat,
For blood and wine are red,
And blood and wine were on his hands
When they found him with the dead.

Part 1, Stanza 1

I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky.

Part 1, Stanza 3

When a voice behind me whispered low,
‘That fellow’s got to swing.’

Part 1, Stanza 4

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!

Part 1, Stanza 7

Like two doomed ships that pass in storm
We had crossed each other’s way:
But we made no sign, we said no word,
We had no word to say.

Part 2, Stanza 12

The Governor was strong upon
The Regulations Act:
The Doctor said that Death was but
A scientific fact:
And twice a day the Chaplain called,
And left a little tract.

Part 3, Stanza 3

Something was dead in each of us,
And what was dead was Hope.

Part 3, Stanza 31

And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats,
None knew so well as I:
For he who lives more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.

Part 3, Stanza 37

I know not whether Laws be right,
Or whether Laws be wrong;
All that we know who lie in gaol
Is that the wall is strong;
And that each day is like a year,
A year whose days are long.

Part 5, Stanza 1

How else but through a broken heart
May Lord Christ enter in?

Part 5, Stanza 14

Born:

Born
Died