Today we will talk about the biography of Oscar Wilde, one of the great figures of the lyrics whose works are known internationally, had a brilliant talent and an extravagant personality that earned him successes and problems.
Portrait of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Careful are some of his most acclaimed works today, although they have provoked moralistic criticism of the Victorian era against its author. Wilde’s point of view and style may not correspond at all to the conventions of his time.
- He is now well known.
- His work has been studied and translated.
- And he is considered one of the best writers in the English language; In addition.
- His courageous temperament.
- His witty way of speaking and his infamous imprisonment because of his homosexuality.
- Which was followed by his untimely death.
- Are best remembered.
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in October 1854, the son of a doctor with a certain status and was the founder of a hospital to care for the most disadvantaged in society. Oscar’s mother was a poet who decisively influenced her son.
As a child, Oscar Wilde was a brilliant student who loved classics. During his training at Oxford, Wilde began exceling in creative writing. His writing skills led him to win several prizes.
After completing his studies at Oxford, he moved to London with a friend, a retratist from London high society; that’s when he wrote his first collection of poems. The following year he traveled to New York, where he toured for almost a year. Year.
Returning to his country, he continued his readings and began to consolidate himself as one of the main representatives of aesthetics. Aesthetics was a movement that focused on the pursuit of beauty in political or social ideals.
After a first crush on an Irish woman who turned her down to marry another, Oscar Wilde meets a wealthy Englishwoman, Constance Lloyd, whom she married and had two children. A year later, she began running a women’s magazine, Lady’s World. .
However, his wife eventually abandoned him after the scandal of his arrest and changed his children’s surnames so as not to link them to his father. Although he never divorced, Wilde was forced to give up his children’s paternity rights.
During his seven years as editor of Lady’s World magazine, Oscar Wilde experienced a period of unbridled creativity during which he produced almost all of his literary works.
He has published a collection of children’s stories, The Happy Prince and Other Tales, and subsequently addressed the prose genre with Intentions, a series of works that enhance the principles of aesthetics.
Soon after, his first and only novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, premiered. Although Wilde’s work is now considered one of the great classical works, critics of the time considered it completely open.
The story tells the life of young Dorian Gray, who is given the desire for his portrait to age while he remains young and leads a life of sin and debauchery.
Later, she challenged the dramaturgy in Lady Windermere? S Fan, who was so successful that he became convinced to devote himself to this genre as the main literary form.
His following works were satirical and spiritual, full of dark and deep nuances, including another of his most striking works: The Importance of Care.
When Oscar Wilde experienced the literary success so aptly achieved, he began a relationship with a young man, the son of the Marquis of Queensberry. It seems that Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality at the time was no secret, although society kept up appearances until it led to scandals.
His lover’s father sent Wilde a rather raw note that deeply offended the famous playwright. Oscar Wilde decided to sue him for defamation, but that decision ruined his life.
The Marquis’ lawyers used all available resources to present evidence of Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality and, as a result, was sentenced to two years in prison.
After his release from prison, Oscar Wilde was physically, emotionally and financially ruined, voluntarily went into exile in France, where he lived for a while, and died of meningitis in November 1900, at the age of 46.
One of Oscar Wilde’s most important works, The Importance of Being Serious, literally means “The Importance of Being Honest”, although in Portuguese it has been translated as The Importance of Being Careful.
The truth is that this is a more dissonant note in the biography of Oscar Wilde, a brilliant playwright who saw his life collapse because of his sexual orientation, at a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness.
During Wilde’s trial and conviction, the media spread the news, which eventually spread to the United States, what Oscar Wilde never knew was that his arrest was the beginning of a very slow process that would end with the decriminalization of homosexuality as a crime. Wilde is considered an emblematic victim of 19th-century Victorian puritanical hypocrites.
A brilliant author whose life, unfortunately, was not so much. After a life marked by lyrics and his talent, he was condemned to exile and hardship.
His legacy is still alive and kicking, some of his works have been moved to the cinema and there are even films about him. Wilde is one of many tragic stories in which homosexuality, unfortunately, has been condemned. A story that helps us think, to realize that much remains to be done.