TPODG: AO3 (Biographical)

general

A fashionable and intellectual playwright and poet that enjoyed great success and fame in the mid-1890s however he was prosecuted for 'gross indecency' after it emerged Wilde had been the lover of the Marquis' son Lord Alfred Douglas (1870-1945). They started their close but stormy relationship when Wilde was 37 and Alfred was 21.

 

Wilde was held with contempt by a lot of people, a cartoon was created of him where he is shown as Narcissus, adoringly gazing at himself.

 

He had quite a literary reputation for the wit of his language and tightly wrought themes and plots of his stories. His personal life also attracted attention - his homosexuality and controversial views were targeted by his detractors and in 1985 he was imprisoned for many years, writing his most tragic poems. After his release he moved to France and died there.

the first celebrity

• Wilde's mother was the one who taught him the importance of creating one's self, and that the most important act of creativity is the creation of one's own image.

• At Oxford University John Ruskin, a professor of fine art, became Wilde's mentor, focusing on "the power and meaning of beauty" and the aesthetic movement, which placed beauty above the pragmatic. Beauty was "evidence of God's presence on Earth."

• A mocking opera was made about him (‘Patience’ Gilbert & Sullivan, premiering in 1881)

Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas

• Oscar Wilde’s lover

• responsible for Wilde being put on trial: Bosie encouraged Wilde to sue his father Marquess of Queensbury for libel

• however Wilde had no case and his homosexuality (what Queensbury was saying) was provably true

• Wilde went from accuser, to accused, to convict

• Bosie fled to France after Wilde’s arrest and was never put on trial for it

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