Prejudice is just ignorance

Prejudice is just ignorance

Erica Tricarico IIIA Classico

1. Inglese: De profundis, Oscar Wilde

First of all, the title isn’t of the author himself, but the editor Robert Ross, who was one of Wilde's beloved friends that gave this title. We can consider it probably one of the longest letters ever written (50.000 words), and it was read by the addressee, Alfred Douglas, also known as Bosie, only in a court.

In fact, Oscar Wilde wrote it during his long period of imprisonment. On the 25 May 1895, he was condemned to two years of penal servitude because he was judged guilty of gross indecency. After that, the judge Wills gave him the maximum penalty, but he felt it insufficient about it, because the law was recently modified to make it much more humanitarian, while the previous one punished the homosexuality crime with the capital punishment.

This work anyway became a symbol in many senses: it’s the symbol of an artist imprisoned by a narrow-minded society closed in its respectability; symbol of an unappreciated and a trampled love; symbol of desperation for a relationship which brought to ruin; symbol of a pure soul dirtied by narrow prejudices.

In this intimate letter, Wilde dedicates to his lover Bosie both tough scolding and loving words. In fact, the author could never separate from his profound love, a love which brought him to be condemned for indecency.

This homosexual relationship will cost Wilde the freedom and credibility in front of the society that first adored and praised him and then humiliated him without any care for his literary and poetic talent.

2. Italiano: L’esclusa, Luigi Pirandello

Originariamente intitolato Marta Ajala, è il primo romanzo di Luigi Pirandello. L’opera affonda le sue radici in una cittadina della provincia siciliana durante gli ultimi anni dell’Ottocento. L’autore, infatti, lavora sullo sfondo tipico della letteratura verista, ricca di dinamiche sociali ben descritte nei loro pregiudizi e nelle loro sanzioni; a questo aggiunge una vicenda che anticipa i paradossi del dramma esistenziale, del contrasto fra sostanza e apparenza, che saranno caratteristici della sua produzione successiva.

Nell’Esclusa, la protagonista della vicenda, la giovane Marta, sposata con Rocco Pentagora e in attesa di un figlio, viene scacciata dal marito perché ritenuta colpevole di adulterio. Il fondamento di questa pesante accusa è la corrispondenza di carattere filosofico-letteraria e non amorosa, che la giovane ha avuto con un suo ammiratore, l’avvocato Gregorio Alvignani.

Per questo motivo, è disprezzata da tutti e nemmeno in famiglia riesce a trovare comprensione per la sua sfortunata condizione.