Oscar Wilde

Inspired mankind with his creations

There are two international playwrights that have influenced mankind to a great degree; one is Shakespeare, whom we have already featured; the other is Oscar Wilde. Besides plays, Wilde also wrote many short stories and poems and these have inspired and continue to inspire millions of people around the world.

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland, the second son of William Wilde, a doctor, and Jane Francesca Elgee, who wrote revolutionary poems for a weekly newspaper. It's said that some of her work inspired Oscar later in life.

Oscar had an older brother, William Charles Kingsbury, and a younger sister, Isola Emily Francesca. Emily's

 death at the age of ten from a sudden fever, had affected the young boy to a great extent and it's said that he carried a lock of her hair sealed in a decorated envelope his entire life.

William and Oscar both attended the Portora Royal School at Enniskillen, where Oscar showed his excellence in Classics. During his last two years in school, he won the top prize, and also won prizes for drawing.

In 1871, he started attending Trinity College in Dublin after receiving a Royal School Scholarship, where again he did rather well in his Classics courses. Without settling for less, he won the highest honour the college bestows on an undergraduate, a Foundation Scholarship.

In 1874, he won the college's Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek and was awarded a Demyship scholarship to Magdalen College in Oxford, more glorious feathers in his cap.

Despite his father's death in April 1876 and the resultant financial problems encountered by the family, Oscar continued to do well at Oxford, earning the Newdigate prize for his poem, Ravenna. After graduation, he moved to London and in 1881, published his first collection of poetry, Poems, which received mixed reviews.

By this time, his fame had spread beyond the Atlantic and in December 1881, he sailed for New York to travel across the United States and deliver a series of lectures on aesthetics. The 50-lecture tour, which was originally scheduled to last four months, continued for upto a year and included over 140 lectures.

His play, Vera, was also arranged to be staged in New York the following year. After returning from America, he spent three months in Paris.

On May 29, 1884, Wilde married Constance Lloyd, a young woman who was well-read, spoke several European languages, was outspoken and had an independent mind. They had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. Around this time, Wilde started working for a women's magazine to support his family.

The period which followed was the most creative of his life, with the publication of two collections of children's stories, The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888), and The House of Pomegranates (1892).

His first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in an American magazine in 1890. Wilde's first play, Lady Windermere's Fan, opened in February 1892 to financial and critical success, encouraging him to continue to write plays.

A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were some of the significant plays that were the result. These all led to high acclaim, firmly establishing Wilde as a reputed playwright.

Constance, his wife, died in 1898. Two years later, on November 30, 1900, Wilde died of meningitis, which had been the result of an ear infection. He died in Paris and was buried at La Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

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The works of Wilde

Ravenna, Poems, The Happy Prince and Other Tales, The Decay of Lying, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories, Intentions, Salome, The House of Pomegranates, Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, The Duchess of Padua, The Sphinx, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest and The Ballad of Reading Gaol.