OSCAR WILDE

(1856-1900)

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, in the family of a famous sur­geon and poetess. Oscar Wilde had every opportunity to develop his abilities. His education began at Portora Royal School from which he obtained a scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin, where he won the Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek. Then he studied at Oxford, where he came under the influence of John Ruskin, who thought life with­out art to be futile and senseless. Ruskin was of an opinion that art’s aim was to educate people, to serve humanity. Oscar Wilde, however, was greatly influenced by the theory of "Art for art's sake" that was popular at that time. He thought that every human being had a right to avoid hardships in the search of pleasure. Oscar Wilde refused to admit the fact that art reflects reality trying to prove that it's the human mind and imagination that gives birth to real beauty. He considered art to be able to exist, develop independently without reflecting reality.

"The artist is the creator of beautiful things", he writes in the preface of "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "and all art is quite useless".

In 1881 Oscar Wilde visited America where he lectured on art and in the same year he published his first book of poems.

In 1884 he married Constance Mary, daughter of a distinguished Irish barrister. Oscar was romantically in love with his beautiful young wife and for some years he was ideally happy. He had 2 sons by his wife, born in 1885 and 1886.

In 1888 his famous tales appeared, the latter being followed by  "The Picture of Dorian Gray", some theoretical essays on aesthetics and a number of comedies: "Lady Windermere's Fan", "A Woman of No Importance", "An Ideal Husband"', "The Importance of Being Ear­nest" etc.

These works made Oscar Wilde famous both at home and abroad. He wasn't satisfied with the fame of the writer though and tried to make his own life and personality a masterpiece of art. He took to dressing himself in strange shocking styles; fell into habit of using witty as well as biting paradoxes that scandalized English high soci­ety. Such eccentricity made him forget the laws of morality. He was accused of perversion and a suit was brought against him. In 1895 0scar Wilde was sentenced to two year's imprisonment. The scandal­ous lawsuit and the two years of imprisonment made it impossible for the great writer to stay in England. He spent the last three years of his life in Paris under the pseudonym of Sebastian Melmont. Oscar Wilde's body remains now lie in the French National Cemetery of Pere Lachaise.