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Chapter 2. The Greatest England novelist Oscar Wilde
II.1 Oscar Wilde and his biography
Birthday: October 16, 1854 (Libra)
Born In: Westland Row, Dublin, Ireland
Oscar Wilde was a noted Irish playwright, novelist, poet and essayist, born in the middle of the nineteenth century into an intellectual family. While studying in Trinity, Dublin, he was influenced by the aesthetic movement, which advocated that art must be practiced only for the sake of art and soon became one of its ardent followers. Although his very first book, ‘Poems’ established him as an upcoming poet, he tasted real success only in the last decade of his relatively short life. But by then, despite being married with two sons, he had become entangled in a homosexual relationship and when that came into light, he was sentenced to two-year rigorous imprisonment. On coming out of prison, he went to France, where he spent the last years of his life, cut off from his family and shunned by most of his friends. By then, his books had also stopped selling and his plays were closed down. Thus he lived in poverty and ill-health till he died aged just forty-six. Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on 16 October 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, Sir William Robert Wills Wilde, was a noted eye-ear surgeon. He also authored a number of books on medicine, archeology and folklore. In 1864, he was knighted for his services in the censuses of Ireland.His mother, Jane Francesca Agnes (née Elgee) Wilde, was of Italian descent. She was a poetess, writing under the penname of ‘Speranza’, meaning hope. A supporter of Irish nationalist movement, many of her works were pro-Ireland and anti-British. She was also interested in Irish folktales and campaigned for women’s education.Oscar was born second of his parents’ three children. His elder brother, William Charles Kingsbury Wilde, grew up to be a noted journalist and poet while his sister, Isola Francesca Emily Wilde, died of meningitis at the age of nine.Oscar also had three half-siblings, Henry Wilson, Emily and Mary Wilde, born out of wedlock to Sir Wilde before his marriage to Jane. Henry William Wilde was later trained in medicine and assisted Sir Wilde in his practice in Dublin.Up to the age of nine, Oscar Wilde was educated at home under a German governess and a French nurse. From them, he learned German and French respectively.In 1864, he was enrolled at Portora Royal School, then a boarding school in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. Here, he became especially interested in Greek and Roman studies, receiving prizes as the best Classics student in his last two years there.In 1871, Oscar Wilde graduated from Portora with a Royal School Scholarship to study classics at Trinity College, Dublin. Here he quickly established himself as an outstanding student.Among his teachers at Trinity was John P. Mahaffy, who inspired Wilde to study Greek literature and also taught him to love “Greek things”. In the year-end examination in 1872, Wilde secured first position in Classics.Again in the year-end examination in 1873, Wilde was awarded the Foundation Scholarship. He also became a member of the University Philosophical Society, taking regular part in its proceedings. Sometime now, he was drawn towards the theory of aestheticism and presented a paper called ‘Aesthetic Morality’.In 1874, he graduated from Trinity, winning the Berkeley Gold Medal, the highest medal for Greek. Thereafter, he entered Magdalen College, Oxford with a Demyship. Among his teachers here were John Ruskin and Walter Pater, who impressed upon him the importance of art in life.
Wilde was especially impressed by Pater, who advised his students “to burn always with hard, gemlike flame.” He soon became famous for his role in the aesthetic movement. Wearing his hair long and decorating his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, sunflowers, blue china, he openly scorned manly sports.This was also the time he first established himself as a poet and in 1878, won the coveted Newdigate Prize with his long poem, ‘Ravenna’. In the same year, he graduated from Oxford with a double first in his B.A. of Classical Moderations and Literae Humaniores.6
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