Oscar wilde video biography

Beginning inwhile he was still serving as editor of Lady's WorldWilde entered a seven-year period of furious creativity, during which he produced nearly all of his great literary works. Inhe published Intentionsan essay collection arguing the tenets of aestheticism, and that same year, he published his first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The novel is a cautionary tale about a beautiful young man, Dorian Gray, who wishes and receives his wish that his portrait ages while he remains youthful and lives a life of sin and pleasure. Though the novel is now revered as a great and classic work, at the time critics were outraged by the book's apparent lack of morality. Wilde vehemently defended himself in a preface to the novel, considered one of the great testaments to aestheticism, in which he wrote, "an ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style" and "vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.

Wilde's first play, Lady Windermere's Fanopened in February to widespread popularity and critical acclaim, encouraging Wilde to adopt playwriting as his primary literary form. Over the next few years, Wilde produced several great plays—witty, highly satirical comedies of manners that nevertheless contained dark and serious undertones.

Around the same time that he was enjoying his greatest literary success, Wilde commenced an affair with a young man named Lord Alfred Douglas. On February 18,Douglas's father, the Marquis of Queensberry, who had gotten wind of the affair, left a calling card at Wilde's home addressed to "Oscar Wilde: Posing Somdomite," a misspelling of sodomite.

Although Wilde's homosexuality was something of an open secret, he was so outraged by Queensberry's note that he sued him for libel. The decision ruined his life. When the trial began in March, Queensberry and his lawyers presented evidence of Wilde's homosexuality—homoerotic passages from his literary works, as well as his love letters to Douglas—that quickly resulted in the dismissal of Wilde's libel case and his arrest on charges of "gross indecency.

Wilde emerged from prison inphysically depleted, emotionally exhausted and flat broke. He went into exile in France, where, living in cheap hotels and friends' apartments, he briefly reunited with Douglas. Wilde wrote very little during these last years; his only notable work was a poem he completed in about his experiences in prison, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

As we showcase rare archival materials, expert commentary, and insightful analysis, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the man behind the iconic wit. Oscar Wilde's legacy as a literary icon and cultural provocateur remains as relevant today as it was during his time. Hit the notification bell to stay updated on our latest videos.

Thank you for joining us on this incredible journey into the life of Oscar Wilde! Oscar Wilde Quotations. Texts Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses.

Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape "Donate to the archive" User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. To Ransome it confirmed what he had said in his book on Wilde: that Douglas's rivalry for Wilde with Robbie Ross and his arguments with his father had resulted in Wilde's public disaster, as Wilde wrote in De Profundis. Douglas lost his case.

A team of private detectives had directed Queensberry's lawyers, led by Edward Carson QCto the world of the Victorian underground. Wilde's association with blackmailers and male prostitutes, cross-dressers and homosexual brothels was recorded, and various persons involved were interviewed, some being coerced to appear as witnesses since they too were accomplices to the crimes of which Wilde was accused.

The trial opened at the Old Bailey in central London on 3 April before Justice Richard Henn Collinsa oscar wilde video biography Dubliner, amid scenes of near hysteria both in the press and the public galleries. The extent of the evidence massed against Wilde forced him to declare meekly, "I am the prosecutor in this case". He characterised the first as a "prose sonnet" and admitted that the "poetical language" might seem strange to the court but claimed its intent was innocent.

He claimed to regard the letters as works of art rather than something of which to be ashamed. Carson, who was also a Dubliner who had attended Trinity College Dublinat the same time as Wilde, cross-examined Wilde on how he perceived the moral content of his works. Wilde replied with characteristic wit and flippancy, claiming that works of art are not capable of being moral or immoral but only well or poorly made, and that only "brutes and illiterates", whose views on art "are incalculably stupid", would make such judgements about art.

Carson, a leading barrister, diverged from the normal practice of asking closed questions. Carson pressed Wilde on each topic from every angle, squeezing out nuances of meaning from Wilde's answers, removing them from their aesthetic context and portraying Wilde as evasive and decadent. While Wilde won the most laughs, Carson scored the most legal points.

Carson then moved to the factual evidence and questioned Wilde about his friendships with lower-class males, some of whom were as young as sixteen when Wilde had met them. Carson repeatedly pointed out the unusual nature of these relationships and insinuated that the men were prostitutes. Wilde replied that he did not believe in social barriers, and simply enjoyed the society of young men.

Then Carson asked Wilde directly whether he had ever kissed a certain servant boy, Wilde responded, "Oh, dear no. He was a particularly plain boy — unfortunately ugly — I pitied him for it. Wilde hesitated, then for the first time became flustered: "You sting me and insult me and try to unnerve me; and at times one says things flippantly when one ought to speak more seriously".

In his opening speech for the defence, Carson announced that he had located several male prostitutes who were to testify that they had had sex with Wilde. On the advice of his "oscars wilde video biography," Wilde dropped the prosecution. Queensberry was found not guilty, as the court declared that his accusation that Wilde was "posing as a Somdomite [ sic ]" was justified, "true in substance and in fact".

After Wilde left the court, a warrant for his arrest was applied for on charges of sodomy and gross indecency. Both men advised Wilde to go at once to Dover and try to get a boat to France; his mother advised him to stay and fight. Wilde, lapsing into inaction, could only say, "The train has gone. It's too late. Events moved quickly and his prosecution opened on 26 Aprilbefore Mr Justice Charles.

Wilde pleaded not guilty. He had already begged Douglas to leave London for Paris, but Douglas complained bitterly, even wanting to give evidence; he was pressed to go and soon fled to the Hotel du Monde. Fearing persecution, Ross and many others also left the United Kingdom during this time. Under cross-examination, Wilde was at first hesitant, then spoke eloquently:.

Charles Gill prosecuting : What is " the love that dare not speak its name "? Wilde: "The love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man as there was between David and Jonathansuch as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare.

It is that deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect.

Oscar wilde video biography: The story of how

It dictates and pervades great works of art, like those of Shakespeare and Michelangelo, and those two letters of mine, such as they are. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as "the love that dare not speak its name", and on that account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection.

There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him.

Oscar wilde video biography: In this week's by graphics

That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it, and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it. Loud applause, mingled with some hisses. This response was counter-productive in a legal sense, for it only served to reinforce the charges of homosexual behaviour. The trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict.

Wilde's counsel, Sir Edward Clarke, was finally able to get a magistrate to allow Wilde and his friends to post bail. The final trial was presided over by Mr Justice Wills. On 25 MayWilde and Alfred Taylor were convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour. May I say nothing, my Lord? Although it is widely believed that the charges were related to Wilde's consensual activities, The Trials of Oscar Wildewhich includes an original transcript of the libel trial which came to light insuggests that he took advantage of teenagers.

But even if his activities had led only to exposure and not to arrest, he would have been savagely pilloried in the media. Wilde was 39 when he seduced Alphonse Conway, and Conway was an inexperienced boy of 16". Another teenager who said he had engaged in sex acts with Wilde, Walter Grainger, who was 16 at the time, said Wilde had threatened him with "very serious trouble" if he told anyone about their relationship.

When first I was put into prison some people advised me to try and forget who I was. It was ruinous advice. It is only by realising what I am that I have found comfort of any kind. Now I am advised by others to try on my release to forget that I have ever been in a prison at all. I know that would be equally fatal. It would mean that I would always be haunted by an intolerable sense of disgrace, and that those things that are meant for me as much as for anybody else — the beauty of the sun and moon, the pageant of the seasons, the music of daybreak and the silence of great nights, the rain falling through the leaves, or the dew creeping over the grass and making it silver — would all be tainted for me, and lose their healing power, and their power of communicating joy.

To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the oscar wilde video biography. Having been convicted in "one of the first celebrity trials", Wilde was incarcerated from 25 May to 18 May He first entered Newgate Prison in London for processing, then was moved to Pentonville Prisonwhere the "hard labour" to which he had been sentenced consisted of many hours of walking a treadmill and picking oakum separating the fibres in scraps of old navy ropes[ ] and where prisoners were allowed to read only the Bible and The Pilgrim's Progress.

A few months later he was moved to Wandsworth Prison in London. Inmates there also followed the regimen of "hard labour, hard fare and a hard bed", which wore harshly on Wilde's delicate health. His right ear drum was ruptured in the fall, an injury that later contributed to his death. Richard B. About five months after Wilde arrived at Reading Gaol, Charles Thomas Wooldridgea trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, was brought to Reading to await his trial for murdering his wife on 29 March ; on 17 June Wooldridge was sentenced to death and returned to Reading for his execution, which took place on Tuesday, 7 July — the first hanging at Reading in 18 years.

Wilde was not, at first, even allowed paper and oscar wilde video biography, but Haldane eventually succeeded in allowing access to books and writing materials. Between January and March Wilde wrote a 50,word letter to Douglas. He was not allowed to send it but was permitted to take it with him when released from prison. His estimation of himself was: one who "stood in symbolic relations to the art and culture of my age".

The second half of the letter traces Wilde's spiritual journey of redemption and fulfilment through his prison reading. He realised that his ordeal had filled his soul with the fruit of experience, however bitter it tasted at the time. I wanted to eat of the fruit of all the trees in the garden of the world And so, indeed, I went out, and so I lived.

My only mistake was that I confined myself so exclusively to the trees of what seemed to me the sun-lit side of the garden, and shunned the other side for its shadow and its gloom. Wilde was released from prison on 19 May [ ] and sailed that evening for DieppeFrance. On his release, he gave the manuscript to Ross, who may or may not have carried out Wilde's instructions to send a copy to Douglas who later denied having received it.

The letter was partially published in as De Profundis ; its complete and correct publication first occurred in in The Letters of Oscar Wilde. Though Wilde's health had suffered greatly from the harshness and diet of prison, he had a feeling of spiritual renewal. He immediately wrote to the Society of Jesus requesting a six-month Catholic retreat; when the request was denied, Wilde wept.

He spent his last three years impoverished and in exile. His discussion of the dismissal of Warder Martin for giving biscuits to an anaemic child prisoner repeated the themes of the corruption and degeneration of punishment that he had earlier outlined in The Soul of Man under Socialism. Wilde spent mid with Robert Ross in the seaside village of Berneval-le-Grand in northern France, where he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaolnarrating the execution of Charles Thomas Wooldridgewho murdered his wife in a rage at her infidelity.

It moves from an objective story-telling to symbolic identification with the prisoners. Wilde juxtaposes the executed man and himself with the line "Yet each man kills the thing he loves". He suggested that it be published in Reynolds' Magazine"because it circulates widely among the criminal classes — to which I now belong — for once I will be read by my peers — a new experience for me".

Although Douglas had been the cause of his misfortunes, he and Wilde were reunited in August at Rouen. This meeting was disapproved of by the friends and families of both men.

Oscar wilde video biography: Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills

Constance Wilde was already refusing to meet Wilde or allow him to see their sons, though she sent him money — oscar wilde video biography pounds a week. During the latter part ofWilde and Douglas lived together near Naples for a few months until they were separated by their families under the threat of cutting off all funds. Pray do what you can" he wrote to his publisher.

He wandered the boulevards alone and spent what little money he had on alcohol. Soon Wilde was sufficiently confined to his hotel to joke, on one of his final trips outside, "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go". Please come". By 25 NovemberWilde had developed meningitisthen called "cerebral meningitis".

Robbie Ross arrived on 29 November, sent for a priest, and Wilde was conditionally baptised into the Catholic Church by Fr Cuthbert Dunne, a Passionist priest from Dublin, [ ] [ ] 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 ContritionFaith, 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 meningitis on 30 November The modernist angel depicted as a relief on the tomb was originally complete with male genitalia, which were initially censored by French authorities with a golden leaf. The genitals have since been vandalised; their current whereabouts are unknown. InLeon Johnson, a multimedia artist, installed a silver prosthesis to replace them.

The epitaph is a verse from The Ballad of Reading Gaol. And alien tears will fill for him Pity's long-broken urn, For his mourners will be outcast men, And outcasts always mourn. InWilde was among an estimated 50, men who were pardoned for homosexual acts that were no longer considered offences under the Policing and Crime Act homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales in The Act implements what is known informally as the Alan Turing law.

Wilde's life has been the subject of numerous biographies since his death. The earliest were memoirs by those who knew him: often they are personal or impressionistic accounts which can be good character sketches but are sometimes factually unreliable. Oscar Wilde and Myselflargely ghost-written by T. Croslandvindictively reacted to Douglas's discovery that De Profundis was addressed to him and defensively tried to distance him from Wilde's scandalous reputation.

Both authors later regretted their work. Of Wilde's other close friends, Robert Sherard ; Robert Rosshis literary executor; and Charles Ricketts variously published biographies, reminiscences or correspondence. Later on, I think everyone will recognise his achievements; his plays and essays will endure. Of course, you may think with others that his personality and conversation were far more wonderful than anything he wrote, so that his written works give only a pale reflection of his power.

Perhaps that is so, and of course, it will be impossible to reproduce what is gone forever. Often speculative in nature, it was widely criticised for its pure conjecture and lack of scholarly rigour. The book incorporates rediscovered letters and other documents and is the most extensively researched biography of Wilde to appear since Parisian literati also produced several biographies and monographs on him.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Irish poet and playwright — This article is about the Irish poet and playwright. For other uses, see Oscar Wilde disambiguation. Aesthetic movement Decadent movement. Constance Lloyd. Cyril Holland Vyvyan Holland.

Willie Wilde brother Merlin Holland grandson. University education: s. Magdalen College, Oxford. Apprenticeship of an aesthete: s. Left: No. Right: close up of the commemorative blue plaque on the outer wall. In Wilde's time this was No. Prose writing: — Journalism and editorship: — Essays and dialogues. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Main article: The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Theatrical career: — Main article: Salome play. The Importance of Being Earnest. Main article: The Importance of Being Earnest. De Profundis.