16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900
‘Be yourself; everyone else is already taken’
I’ve been a admirer of Oscar Wilde for years. We had a quotes board in my sixth form, and I remember clearly writing several quotes attributed to Wilde on it, throughout the year, the simplicity and the wit of the things that he is credited with saying, influencing how I saw the world.
“Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.”
His incredible skill as a dramatist, is shown in the fact that his plays are still performed, and that his work has been adapted for film. It wasn’t until I saw Wilde, starring Stephen Fry, that I realised how much about his life I was unaware of.
He seems to have been a man who didn’t often let whatever insecurities he possessed show to others. His self belief was such that he even believed that he could win the libel case which he took out against the father of his lover ‘Bosie’ Douglas. Unfortunately that heightened self belief is what led indirectly to his early death, as he lost the case and was imprisoned for ‘gross indecency’, just because he happened to enjoy having sex with men.
The things that he managed to produce, even over the course of his relatively short life, are remarkable, and still resonate with people, despite the changes in society since Wilde’s lifetime.