Oscar Wilde Research Paper

Born October 16, 1854 as Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet, and novelist. His mother, Jane Francesca Elgee, was also a poet who had a part of the 1848 Irelander Rebellion, while his father was a doctor who was knighted and eventually went on to found a hospital to treat the city’s poor population, all out of his own pocket.

As a kid, Wilde went to Portora Royal School, where he won a prize for top student in the classic studies. In 1871, when Wilde graduated, he received a scholarship to Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where he went on to receive first place in the classics examination, getting him the Foundation Scholarship to boot. Three years later, after graduating, he gained the Berkeley

This time period is where most of his works were produced. In that first year, he wrote a collection of stories for children, titled The Happy Prince and Other Tales. A few years past that, he wrote an essay about aestheticism, titled Intentions, and later wrote his famous, and only, novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Picture of Dorian Gray was a story about Dorian Gray, a man who has his wish fulfilled to have a painting of him age instead of himself. He uses this as an opportunity to indulge in whatever crime and sin he desired, as all aging and consequence fell upon the painting. However, this success and indulgence came with the fear his painting would be found out. After the love of his life dies, and he kills his friend, he tries to turn his life around, to no avail. He grows angry and attempts to destroy the painting for staying a grumpy, crude old man. This kills him instead. It received backlash at the time for being wildly immoral, to which Wilde responded, "an ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style" and "vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art." The story of The Picture of Dorian Gray seems to predict Wilde’s own life in some fashion. The following year, 1892, his first play Lady Windermere’s Fan came into the metaphorical spotlight, and was received with critical acclaim and popularity. This gave Wilde the drive to continue writing plays, and

That insinuates the entire play is one large pun. The Importance of being Earnest enjoyed massive success, as did its author. However, good things cannot last, and his downfall soon followed.

During these years, WIlde had met someone named Lord Alfred Douglas, with whom he had an affair. The Marquis of Queensberry, Douglas’s father, heard of this forbidden relationship, and responded with a letter to Wilde, which accused him of being a homosexual. While this was known, and truthfully so, Wilde was still angry over it. This anger lead him to sue for libel. The trial began in March, and his opposition started presenting evidence of flagrant homosexuality, which was considered criminal at the time due to a social stigma against it. They had claimed Wilde seduced 12 young men into sodomy, and soon after Wilde’s lawyer dropped the case. However, Wilde went on trial for indecency, and instead of running away, he stayed. Many quotes of his in his various works from years prior were used as evidence against him, and many witnesses testified to seeing men in Wilde’s bed. The first trial ended because one juror refused to vote entirely, however the second trial ended in the maximum sentence possible; two years labor. The judge