Oscar Fingal
O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November
1900) was an Irish and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one
of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered
for his epigrams, his only novel (The Picture
of Dorian Gray),
his plays, and the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death.
Wilde's parents were successful Anglo-Irish Dublin intellectuals. Their son
became fluent in French and German early in life. At university, Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to be an
outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his
involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into
fashionable cultural and social circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he
tried his hand at various literary activities: he published a book of poems,
lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance
in Art", and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a
journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation,
Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day.
At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas
about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and
incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into his only novel, The Picture
of Dorian Gray (1890). The opportunity to construct
aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew
Wilde to write drama. He wrote Salome (1891) in French in Paris but it was
refused a license for England due to the absolute prohibition of Biblical
subjects on the English stage. Unperturbed, Wilde produced four society
comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful
playwrights of late Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while
his masterpiece, The
Importance of Being Earnest (1895), was still on stage in
London, Wilde had Queensberry
prosecuted for libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred
Douglas. The charge
carried a penalty of up to two years in prison. The trial unearthed evidence
that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for indecency with other men. After two
more trials he was convicted and imprisoned for two years' hard labour. In 1897, in prison, he wrote De Profundis, which was published in 1905, a
long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his trials, forming a
dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. Upon his release he
left immediately for France, never to return to Ireland or Britain. There he
wrote his last work, The Ballad of
Reading Gaol(1898),
a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life. He died destitute
in Paris at the age of forty-six.
EARLY LIFE
Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin (now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College), the second of
three children born to Sir William Wilde and Jane Francesca Wilde, two years behind William ("Willie"). Jane Wilde, under the pseudonym "Speranza"(the
Italian word for 'Hope'), wrote poetry for the revolutionary Young Irelanders in 1848 and was a lifelong Irish nationalist. She
read the Young Irelanders' poetry to Oscar and Willie, inculcating a love of
these poets in her sons. Lady
Wilde's interest in the neo-classical revival showed in the paintings and busts
of ancient Greece and Rome in her home. William Wilde was Ireland's leading
oto-ophthalmologic (ear and eye) surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his
services as medical adviser and assistant commissioner to the censuses of
Ireland. He also wrote books about Irish
archaeology and peasant folklore. A renowned philanthropist, his dispensary for
the care of the city's poor at the rear of Trinity College, Dublin, was the
forerunner of the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital, now located at Adelaide Road. Wilde was baptized as an infant in St. Mark's
Church, Dublin, the
local Church of Ireland (Anglican) church. When the church was closed, the records were moved to the
nearby St. Ann's
Church, Dawson Street.
In addition to his children with his wife, Sir
William Wilde was the father of three children born out of wedlock before his
marriage: Henry Wilson, born in 1838, and Emily and Mary Wilde, born in 1847
and 1849, respectively, of different maternity to Henry. Sir William acknowledged
paternity of his illegitimate children and provided for their education, but
they were reared by his relatives rather than with his wife and legitimate
children.
In 1855, the family moved to No. 1 Merrion Square, where Wilde's sister, Isola, was born in
1857. The Wildes' new home was larger and, with both his parents' sociality and
success soon became a "unique medical and cultural milieu"; guests at
their salon included Sheridan Le Fanu, Charles Lever, George Petrie, Isaac Butt, William Rowan
Hamilton and Samuel Ferguson.[3]
Until he was nine, Oscar Wilde was educated at
home, where a French bonne and a German governess taught him their languages.
He then attended Portora Royal
School in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. Until his early twenties, Wilde
summered at the villa, Moytura House, his father built in Cong County Mayo. There
the young Wilde and his brother Willie played with George Moore.
Death
By 25 November Wilde had developed cerebral meningitis. Robbie Ross arrived on 29 November and sent
for a priest, and Wilde was conditionally into
the Catholic Church by Fr Cuthbert Dunne, a Passionist priest from Dublin (the sacrament being conditional
because of the doctrine that one may only be baptized once – Wilde having
a recollection of Catholic baptism as a child, a fact later attested to by the
minister of the sacrament, Fr Lawrence Fox). Fr Dunne recorded the baptism:
As the voiture rolled through the dark streets that
wintry night, the sad story of Oscar Wilde was in part repeated to me....Robert
Ross knelt by the bedside, assisting me as best he could while I administered
conditional baptism, and afterwards answering the responses while I gave Extreme Unction to the prostrate man and recited the
prayers for the dying. As the man was in a semi-comatose condition, I did not
venture to administer the Holy Viaticum; still I must add that he could be roused and
was roused from this state in my presence. When roused, he gave signs of being
inwardly conscious... Indeed I was fully satisfied that he understood me when
told that I was about to receive him into the Catholic Church and gave him the Last Sacraments... And when I repeated close to his ear the
Holy Names, the Acts of Contrition, Faith, Hope and Charity, with acts of humble
resignation to the Will of God, he tried all through to say the words after me.
Wilde died of cerebral meningitis on 30 November 1900. Different
opinions are given as to the cause of the meningitis: Richard Ellmann claimed
it was syphilitic; Merlin Holland, Wilde's grandson, thought this to be a
misconception, noting that Wilde's meningitis followed a surgical intervention,
perhaps a mastoidectomy; Wilde's physicians, Dr. Paul Cleiss and
A'Court Tucker, reported that the condition stemmed from an old suppuration of the right ear (une ancienne
suppuration de l'oreille droite d'ailleurs en traitement depuis plusieurs
années) and did not allude to syphilis.
Personal thought:
I think that this book is very interesting, and fill
this with values that easily can apply to him to our lives, such as the
amiability, the service, the fondness, to share and the love. These are values
that they distinguish from this book. For my it is a book very recommended to
small and young children, since it has a very good and very entertaining history. Also it reflects and makes alike us to the Christian
part, since the small child is Jesus, to whom as always they say we must
receive and have always presents, as it was done by the giant, who changed his
way of being on having seen Jesus, Then one invites to see Jesus, and to
changing as the giant did it. Very recommended.
