Oscar Wilde Satire

Oscar Wilde, world renowned author and playwright, had much darker roots than one might expect. Born on October 16th, 1854, in Dublin, Ireland, Oscar was an acclaimed figure in Victorian literature and culture. Known for his brilliance, and boldness in his homosexuality, Wilde faced the arduous task of escaping society’s feeling of an ignominious punishment upon himself. Despite being mostly known as a poet and playwright, he has a published book, which is the only novel he ever wrote, that is now considered a classic, The Picture of Dorian Gray. At it’s time of being published, it had gained copious negative critical views, due to its considered “lack of morality.” Despite it’s past of vehement hatred, the book has since been raised in

Gwendolen had came to see Ernest, and talks of engagement, which causes an instantaneous discord throughout the group, for both women believed they were engaged to “Ernest”. When told the truth, the women had united in a shared abominable view upon the two men, but had later reconciled because the men said they were only under a fake identity to spend more time with their hopefully soon-to-be mistresses. The play is filled with the wit and satirical humor Oscar is recognized for. An Ideal Husband is seen to have themes representative of Oscar’s life. With similar situations, such as remorse of past sins, and ruining great lives through a societal hypocrisy, Oscar was almost certainly reflecting on his life, and focusing on repentance. An Ideal Husband is his secondly most popular produced show, following The Importance of Being Earnest. The show’s opening night was January 3, 1895, after which Wilde was arrested for “gross indecency” and had caused his name to be publicly omitted from the

Little did he know, the consequences of that decision were what he expected, simply reversed. Yes, Oscar suffered from his suing, and during the trial, multiple lawyers provided evidence of his sodomism. The lawyers showed parts of his literature with homoerotic messages, and love letters he had sent to Douglas. The libel case was only a brief trial, for Oscar had been taken into custody. He was arrested shortly after for gross indecency. He served two years in prison, and was released in 1897. Drained in ways more than one, Wilde went into expulsion in France. He lived in and out of cheap hotels, and ephemerally reunited with his pre-jail lover, Alfred Douglas. Oscar did not write much in his last years, for his only remembered work from the period is, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” which told of his life in the