The truth is rarely pure, and never simple Oscar Wilde made that very cogent remark in his well known play The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895.
Wilde is one of my personal heroes because of his great wit and humor, and because of his iconoclastic nature.
The Oxford American Dictionary defines an iconoclast as a person who attacks cherished beliefs. Wildes Literature and his life were a headlong Quixotic tilt at the windmills of convention.
Wilde was very much a man of his time born to privilege, he was educated at the best schools in Ireland, and at Oxford. He courted the patronage of the Victorian elite, and was well known in the Literary salons of the day. He was also a man ahead of his time Wilde was at the forefront of what has become what we now call popular culture, although he would not approve of the intellectual erosion that is the hallmark of that culture today. And he was far and away ahead of his time because he did not believe tha t homosexuality was immoral. Unfortunately for him, sodomy brought a prison sentence in England until the 1960s. By the way, eighteen US states still have laws that dictate prison sentences for sodomy including Virginias Crimes Against Nature statute.
Wilde achieved fame in America and in Europe with his essays, his lectures on Aesthetics, his childrens books, and his plays. He reached the pinnacle of artistic society, and then was destroyed by revelations of his homosexuality revelations brought about by the actions of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, who coined the phrase the love that dare not speak its name to describe gay relationships. Lord Douglas spoke that loves name, and brought down his greatest benefactor, demonstrating a truism of the Literary world bite the hand that feeds you!
Over a century after his death, Oscar Wilde is remember chiefly for his downfall, and for The Importance of Being Earnest one of the most popular plays performed byhig h school drama clubs.
He would love the Irony there.
There is so much more to this man, and his work, than his tragic downfall and the play that launched a thousand drama clubs. I think Wilde is an under-appreciated cultural hero. He gained fame by brilliantly parodying the Literary and social conventions of the late Victorian age. Without Oscar Wilde, would Monty Python have been possible?
The gay rights movement owes Oscar Wilde a great deal for his sacrifice, which was made on their behalf at a huge personal cost.
Here are just a few examples of Oscar Wildes timeless wit:
On Societal Conventions:
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
Society to be in it is merely a bore, but to be out of it simply a tragedy.
You should study the Peerage it is the best thing in fiction the English have ever done.
The English country gentleman galloping after a fox the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.
Observations on Life:
The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden, and ends with Revelations.
Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. Thats his.
I can resist anything except temptation.
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
Observations of the Literary World:
What is a cynic ? A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.
Bernard Shaw hasnt an enemy in the world, and none of his friends like him.
The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.
These are just a few pearls from Oscar Wildes pen there are whole opera necklaces waiting for your delectation. Start with his short fiction, including his luminous stories for children; then study his essays, written for Literary magazines between 1881 and 1895; move on to his theatrical comedies (and yes, read The Importance of Being Earnest- youll find out how much you missed at that high school performance); read the long paean to Aestheticism and beauty gone wrong that is The Picture of Dorian Gray; and finally read the stunning prose and poetry of a broken but unbowed man, De Profundis and The Ballad of Reading Gaol reflections on his imprisonment and subsequent exile.
He died, broke and alone, in Paris in 1900, a mere shell of the shining Literary lion he had been a mere five years before for Wilde, there was Irony even in his death, as he ended very like one of his most famous characters, Dorian Gray.
Read Wildes plays, his stories, his essays and discover the truth in what I think was his most memorable line - All of us are in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Casey Quinlan has successfully managed change through several careers - perfomer, photography studio manager, broadcast producer, broadcast company exec, and now Media Relations/PR consultant. Her company, Mighty Casey Media, works with technology innovators that change the world. Visit her on the web at http://www.mightycasey.com
Author:: Casey Quinlan
Keywords:: Literature, Literary, Aesthetics, Oscar Wilde, Irony
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