This was my research paper for senior high (I'm only in 11th, mind you all.) and I thought I'd put it up to share the knowledge! Seeing as I've already turned it in, there isn't much point to proof reading it for me, but you can if you want. Critiques are welcome, I guess. But its a school paper, already turned in, so anything you tell me will be kept in mind for my next paper. I'm posting it purely for entertainment/learning. Enjoy! Also, I attached the document that has my source page, in case anyone is interested.
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Wilde Love
Oscar Wilde said, “The two great turning points in my life were when my father sent me to Oxford, and when society sent me to prison” (McKenna 2). Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish born author and playwright (Wilde), was tried and convicted of gross indecency (Hyde 270). Gross indecency, at the time, meant any form of sex that was not reproductive or, in Wilde’s case, sex between two men (Linder). One reason behind Oscar Wilde's homosexuality is that his mother, distraught at not having a girl, had him wear feminine clothes. She finally succeeded in giving birth to a daughter, four years after Wilde’s birth, who unfortunately died when she was nine (Hyde 51). In 1871, Wilde went to school at Trinity College, Dublin, and later in 1874, was accepted to Oxford and moved to England (29-31). Despite his gay tendencies, he fell in love with many girls while studying at Oxford (52). He sought marriage as a way to “cure” his homosexual desires, as it was often believed that homosexuality in men was a phase that marriage would stop (McKenna 49). In 1884, he married Constance Lloyd (Wilde), and though in a happy relationship, he was still attracted to men (McKenna 59). In 1886, Wilde met a Robert Ross, who would be one of many men that he would have sexual relationships with. Ross and Wilde had a lifelong friendship, and after Wilde’s death, Ross became his literary executor (Hyde 46). Ross is also another reason given for Wilde’s homosexuality: though it is known he had inclinations before their meeting, it is believed that Ross was the first to bring him into the practice of homosexuality (58 ).
In 1891, Wilde met Lord Alfred Douglas and the two soon became lovers (Hyde 63). At the time of their meeting, Wilde was thirty eight years old, and Douglas was only twenty two years old (62). Though it is known that Oscar Wilde was a homosexual at least five years before meeting Douglas, sodomy never occurred between the two (65). Douglas’s father, Lord Queensberry, begged Douglas to leave Wilde, even threatening to disown him if he did not, but all of his attempts were unsuccessful. In Queensberry’s many attempts to hurt their relationship, he left his card at a club, and on the back wrote: “for Oscar Wilde, posing as a somdomite[sic]” (Linder). This card was the cause of the first trial, in a series of three, which would eventually lead to Wilde’s conviction (Hattersley).
Wilde accused Queensberry of criminal libel (Hyde 63), and the only way that Queensberry could be found innocent was if it could be proven that Wilde was a sodomite (96). Carson, Queensberry’s lawyer, took advantage of the fact that his books often had a theme of “secret sin” or recklessness that resulted in an eventual demise for the character (Wilde). He used Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, to try and accuse him of immorality. Carson quoted passages that showed one male character’s affection for another male character in hopes of showing that Dorian Gray could be seen as a perverted novel. But Wilde believed that books aren’t moral or immoral, they can only be well written, or badly written. He said that the one characters affection for the other was because he inspired his art, and that people who weren’t artists wouldn’t understand this. While being questioned at the trial, Wilde said, “I think it is perfectly natural for any artist to admire intensely and love a young man. It is an incident in the life of almost every artist” (Linder). Carson presented a good defense, and the jury found Queensberry not guilty (Hyde 148). Many people congratulated Queensberry, because now Wilde was accused of being a sodomite, and he would have to go to trial for that (156). Upon Queensberry’s release, he wrote Wilde a letter that said that if Wilde was allowed to leave the country, and he took Douglas with him, Queensberry would “follow him and shoot him” (149).
Based on Wilde’s statements from the first trial, a warrant for his arrest was approved (Hyde 151). Wilde was urged by many of his friends to leave the country, but he continued to be indecisive about what to do until it was too late, and he was arrested (152). A friend of Wilde’s, Alfred Taylor, was also arrested (157). They were both charged with twenty five counts of gross indecency (167). Despite the fact that Douglas was Wilde’s lover, he wasn’t arrested on the basis that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him (161). At the start of the trial, his publishers stopped printing his books, and theatres stopped showing his plays (164). The trial consisted of testimony given by several men that had relationships with both Wilde and Taylor. Only one witness actually accused Wilde of sodomy, but this may have been due to the boy’s misunderstanding of the word (60). Wilde was hurt by the fact that the boys, who he had treated so nicely, were willing to incriminate themselves just to testify against him (61). It was obvious to everyone that having Wilde and Taylor on the same trial would hurt Wilde’s chances (219) but because there was no chance of there being a third party to testifying that these acts really happened, the case rested solely on the boys’ testimony, which would help them both (212). In the end, the jury could not come to a decision and so ruled not guilty, and this forced a retrial (218).
This time, Wilde and Taylor were tried separately, but it still ended up hurting Wilde’s case because he was tried right after Taylor (Hyde 219). Once more, Wilde was pressed by many to leave the country, but he wouldn’t (224). He was now charged with only eight counts of gross indecency (233). In the third trial, the testimony was similar to that of the second (Linder), but there was no reference made to his literature (Hyde 234). In hopes of saving Wilde, his lawyer tried to find faults in the witnesses’ testimony, and did find many, but even with such faults, the jury still convicted him (233-240). Wilde was found guilty of seven counts of gross indecency (270) but was not charged with sodomy (60). Taylor was also convicted of gross indecency (231).
Wilde was sentenced in May 1895 to two years of hard labor at the prison of Reading Gaol (Wilde). He is quoted as saying that the only things he felt guilty of were actions that weren’t those of an artist (61). Due to his age and physical condition, he managed to escape the worst that hard labor had to offer, though prison life was still a challenge for him (Hyde 274). He suffered horrible conditions (276) and became unhealthy to the point of nervous and physical breakdown (287). He picked up the obsessive habit of organizing his things because of prison inspections, and the punishments given out if his things were not in order (278). Despite all this, he still continued to write. He wrote a letter to Douglas while in prison, later published and titled De Profundis by Ross, which blamed Douglas for his being in prison (298). He believed that their romantic friendship lead to his downfall, as did many others (299). Queensberry was still trying to hurt Wilde while he was in prison, too. He sued him for the amount owed over the Libel case, making Wilde even bitterer towards Douglas because it was understood that Douglas’ family would pay for the costs of the prosecution since Douglas had so strongly pushed for the case, but they had not paid for it (282-283). To pay off his debts to Queensberry, and other debts he had accumulated over his years of living, he was forced to declare bankruptcy (283). Wilde’s other work while in prison was The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a poem which spoke concern for the brutal prison environment that so many had to live in (Wilde). Surprisingly enough, though her husband was in jail for acts of indecency, Constance Wilde never attempted to divorce with Oscar and even visited him while he was in prison (Hyde 286). After her first visit to her husband, she told a friend, “It was indeed awful…I could not see him and I could not touch him…He has been mad these last three years, and he says that if he saw Alfred Douglas he would kill him” (286). As the terrible months in prison passed, it came closer to Wilde’s release. Many of his friends tried to petition for him to be released early to avoid publicity, but it wasn’t granted and he had to serve the full two year sentence (306). Wilde was released in May of 1897. (307).
After his release, he handed over his written letter to Douglas, De Profundis, to Robert Ross, with instructions on how to publish it (307). In his last years, he edited The Ballad of Reading Gaol which was first published in 1898 (308-309). Wilde also had a short reunion with Douglas, though it ended quickly at the demand of Lady Queensberry. It also ended due to a dispute of money between the two lovers: Douglas promised to give Wilde a home, then turned around and expected Wilde to pay for the house (308). He died in November of 1900 from meningitis; the result of an injury to his ear from when he had fallen on the stone floors of his prison cell, faint with illness that the prison doctors had neglected to notice (287, 313-314). The trials of Oscar Wilde had a great effect on the public, both good and bad. It brought homosexuality to the world’s attention. He put gay rights on the minds of everyone, but he also set homosexuality as something that should be wiped out. A comment Wilde made on gay rights is one that is still true today, “I have no doubt we will win, but the road is long and red with monstrous martyrdoms” (Hattersley).
Yeah, my conclusion was crumby. I was trying to get 5 pages, and I did, so I was happy. Not sure what I got on it yet. Thank you anyway! Wilde is amazing.
