OSCAR WILDE - HIS LIFE AND WORK
FULL NAME
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde
in deference to his Irish heritage
OCCUPATION
PLAYWRIGHT
NOVELIST
POET
CRITIC
BORN
16th October, 1854
Dublin, Ireland
parents
His mother, Jane Wilde was a successful poet and Irish nationalist whose pen name was “Sperenza”
His father, William Wilde, was a doctor who was knighted for his work
literature movement
aesthetic movement
art for art’s sake
aesthetic values
beauty
Education
at home
TrinityCollege, Dublin
University of Oxford
degree in literature
wilde’s lifestyle
eccentric
extraordinary
long hair
velvet knee breeches
his roomfilled with sunflowers, peacock feathers, blue china
marriage
married Constance Lloyd on May 29, 1884
never divorced
changed her last name to Holland after Wilde’s imprisonment
children
had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan.
Vyvyan and Cyril changed their last name to Holland.
Cyril fought and died in World War I in France where he is buried.
Vyvyan , translator and the author of the autobiography 'Son ofOscarWilde'(1954).
the lecturer
lectured in the USA and Canada on English aestheticism
Wilde’s first play
Vera, or the Nihilists
produced in New York
but is not successful
SALOME
rehearsals for the play Salomé were halted by the British censor because of a law forbidding the representation of Biblical characters on stage
his plays
produced 9 plays
Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892),
A Woman of No Importance (1893),
An Ideal Husband (1895),
and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) are the most popular
his novel
he only published one novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1891).
moral decay of Dorian
Poems
Poems, his first collection
The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a poem inspired by the 18-month period Wilde spent in prison.
his style and work
wittysatires and epigrams on Victorian society
witty plots and remarkable dialogues
a natural talent for stagecraft and theatrical effects
satirized the English upper classes
his homosexuality
had an affair with a young man named Lord Alfred Douglas
Llord Alfred Douglas, (22 October 170– 20 March 1945),
nicknamedBosie,
was an English author, poet and translator,
better known as the friend and lover of Oscar Wilde
infamous arrest
was convicted of homosexual acts
the most sensational court trial of the century
received a sentence of two years' hard labor
emerged from prison in 1897
penniless, exhausted and downcast
went to France
lived in cheap hotels and friends' apartments
wilde’s death
died in France
died of meningitis on November 30, 1900
at the age of 46
his last words were
“My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or other of us has got to go.”
biography
9 biographies have been written on Wilde since his death
Vyvyan's son and Wilde’s grandson, Merlin Holland, published the Oscar Wilde biography 'A Portrait of Oscar Wilde'