Concetti Chiave
- Oscar Wilde was a scholar-wit and aesthete influenced by Ruskin and Pater during his studies at Oxford.
- He published his first volume of poems in 1881 after traveling in Italy and Greece.
- Wilde's literary period began with fairy tales and culminated in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which critiques societal norms.
- His reputation as a dramatist is secured by four comedies of manners, notably The Importance of Being Earnest.
- Wilde's life was marked by scandal and imprisonment, leading to works like The Ballad of Reading Gaol before his death in France.
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he felt the influence of Ruskin and Pater.
He distinguished himself as a scholar-wit and an aesthete immediately upon his arrival at Oxford in 1874. He travelled in Italy and Greece and published his first volume of poems in 1881.
In 1884 Wilde married Constance Lloyd, and a period of intensive literary production ensued, beginning with his fairy tales The Happy Prince and Other Tales for children, rich in ironical comment on the selfishness and hypocrisy.
In his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his aestheticism is to be found with all its aspects: the superiority of the artist over the rules of society and morality.
It is as a dramatist, however, that Wilde still holds his place in literature. His reputation rests on four “comedies of manners”: Lady Windermere’s Fan; A Woman of no importance; An ideal Husband; The importance of Being Earnest, his masterpiece.
All of them provide an elegant – and ironical – picture of the upper classes of Wilde’s Time.
Wilde was a man who needed a life ostentation; his vanity landed him into disaster. The father of Lord Alfred Douglas accused him of homosexual dealings. The writer was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard labour. In his misery the poet wrote The Ballad of reading Gaol and De Profundis.
After his release form lived in France rejected by most of his friends, he died in France in 1900.
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