Oscar Wilde Research Paper

Oscar Wilde was born October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, Sir William Wilde, was an eye and ear surgeon. He also wrote many books about medicine as well as historical books about Ireland. His mother, Jane Elgee, was an Irish poet. She wrote under the name “Speranza”, which means “hope” in Italian, and wrote mostly about Irish folktales. It is said that his mother had the largest impact on Wilde’s decision to become a writer. She would frequently read poetry to him and his brother, William Wilde, which caused her sons to love poetry as much as she did. While it is debated when Wilde originally began writing and publishing works, many agree that it started around when his younger sister, Isola, died. He was twelve years old at the

He studied with various famous scholars, including Arthur Palmer, R.Y. Tyrell, and Edward Dowden. He was tutored by J.P. Mahaffy. It is from Mahaffy that Wilde became interested in Greek literature. Wilde claimed that Mahaffy was “my first and best teacher” and that he was “the scholar who showed me how to love Greek things”. Wilde’s abilities as an author were noticed early on at Trinity as he was first in his class, won scholarships through competitive writing, and won the Berkeley Gold Medal, which was Trinity’s highest academic award for Greek literature. He then won a scholarship to attend Magdalen College, where he became obsessed with Aestheticism and the Decadent movement. These were artistic movements that stressed aesthetic values over social or political themes. This influenced his life heavily at the time as he began going against social norms, such as by wearing his hair long and decorating his room with small decorative pieces of art, like peacock feathers and china. He even claimed, “I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china.” This line became very famous and was even used as a slogan by other followers of the aesthetic

He attempted to make a submission for the Chancellor’s Essay, but was not able to write to his standards. This was very unusual for him due to his background in writing and ancient literature. It was because of this that he began travelling around England, France, and the United States to give lectures and learn as much as he could about writing. Throughout all of this, he was publishing poems in magazines, which were eventually put into one book that was received well by the public. This inspired a new confidence in Wilde, which made him want to write as much as he could. He began writing shorter fictions, including The Happy Prince and Other Tales and Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and Other Stories. More and more stories were published and adored by the public. He became critically acclaimed as his works became more and more popular. In 1890, The Picture of Dorian Gray was published as a story in a magazine, but was heavily criticised for its decadence, which Wilde still followed due to his beliefs in Aestheticism. He responded harshly, saying that they were just misinterpreting the novel. He says, “...those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly will see its moral lesson.” To him, the story perfectly encapsulated the aesthetic movement. Despite this, he heavily revised the book to appeal more to the critics before it was published