Essay about Oscar Wilde and o ' Flahertie Wills Wilde

Submitted By loz777
Words: 512
Pages: 3
Open Document
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on 16 October 1854. He was an Irish writer and poet, who wrote throughout the 1880s, and became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams and plays, and the circumstances of his imprisonment which was followed by his early death.
Oscar became fluent in French and German early in life. At university Wilde proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles. He published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then returned to London where he worked prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering conversation, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day.
At the height of his fame and success, while his masterpiece, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), was still on stage in London, Wilde had the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, prosecuted for libel, a charge carrying a penalty of up to two years in prison. The trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency with other men. After two more trials he was convicted and imprisoned for two years' hard labour.(1900-11-30) He died at the age of 46 on the 30th November 1900 in Paris.
Imprisonment
Wilde was imprisoned first in Pentonville Prison and then Wandsworth Prison in London. Inmates followed a regimen of "hard labour, hard fare and a hard bed", which wore very harshly on Wilde, accustomed as he was to many creature comforts. His health declined sharply, and in November he collapsed during chapel from illness and hunger. His right ear drum was ruptured in the fall, an
Show More

Related Documents: Essay about Oscar Wilde and o ' Flahertie Wills Wilde

The Life Of Oscar Fingal O Flahertie Wills Wilde

Playwright, novelist, poet, and short story writer, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland (Wright 54). He was the son of two very talented parents. His father, Sir William Ralph Wills Wilde, was a leading eye and ear surgeon, scholar, and noted archeologist. His mother, Jean Francesca Elgee, wrote passionate nationalistic articles for the radical newspaper, The Nation (Wright 54). Although Wilde did not do well in school, he loved the classics and found…

Words 1778 - Pages 8