Personality Concept of Oscar Wilde - Essay Example

Personality concept (Oscar Wilde) Brief Overview of Oscar Wilde Wilde was a commoditized image. From starting of his career, consciously, Wilde sold himself as a commoditized image, and his reputation in public preceded his significant achievements in artistic. Wilde had achieved first popular notice as an advertisement figure for Sullivans and Gilbert Patience, and Richard DOyly Carte hired him to make his lecture that was celebrated in the United States. He was publicity for the New York operettas run when he was primarily still famous as the Bunthorne, character model. In Last Testament, the first stage of his life in public was described as a desperate looking for a reputation of any form (Knezevic, 2013). Personality of Oscar Wilde For Oscar Wilde, it is not until during the trials that he was forced to confront heterosexual bias of the community. Although the events of his life describe him otherwise, Oscar can be described as a secretive person and was never identified as a homosexual. However, Lord Alfred Douglas, who was his youthful lover, described Oscar as one of the greatest charms and that he was natural, and most of the time he uttered without fear and respect of any persons. He would exactly express what he might think in any given situation. However, it can be noted that there was no reason for someone like Oscar to self-identify as homosexual. In addition, Wilde through his art and actions can be seen as someone who did not lie but when he was called upon by the society to defend his questionable character he was obliged to confront the reality of his uniqueness. Undoubtedly, there were situations women and men came out before Wilde, but it was not until the time that a public face get to identify who Wilde was. However, Wilde’s repercussions and the trials sent ripples via the social status around worldwide. Wilde can be acknowledged today as well as during his time as a man, who was a literary genius. However, Oscar Wilde at a tender age of 20 left Ireland in order to study at Oxford University, England, and he eventually attained brilliant academic record. Already, when he was still a young man he had gained a reputation as a dandy, and as well-being a witty conversation master (Moran, 1999). He was at the height of relatively short career with two of his plays that he wrote running on the West End, and a lecture tour that he carried out in the United States under his belt, and poems as well as novel . During this time, Wilde also developed a reputation in London as a man who loved being in the company of young men, most from the lower socio-economic classes. Wilde can also be described as a person who did not wish to be seen as a coward or a deserter. The built to the climactic times started when Wilde decided to stay in London for his third trial and faced the consequences of his decision of bringing Queensberry to court and this resulted to his imprisonment, losing wife and sons, as well as the auctioning of his literary work as well as belongings. He also separated from Lord Alfred Douglas. However, Wilde’s transformed and this occurred when he admitted to his friend that the charges of gross indecency were true and that he must stay in London because it was nobler and beautiful to stay so that he cannot be termed as a deserter or coward (Kaufman, 1999). In addition, Wilde was a tragic hero. Wilde’s decided to prosecute Queensberry, and this can be seen as an instigating action. Wilde sets out on course driven by injustice, pride, and love that led to his destruction. However, throughout, Wilde made choices that would influence his fate, but it can be observed that with every decision, he inevitably chose the path wrought with snares. In most of the time, he could potentially have reversed results or selected little destructive outcome but he still chose to stay the course and allowed what may seem inevitable to occur. Perhaps, one thing that is questionable surrounds the Oscar Wilde trials and why he chose to prosecute when already the defence had offered a plea of justification for the libel and had proven that Wilde posed as a sodomite. Tragically, it can be seen as Wilde was a person who placed his desire to defend art and aestheticism over his well-being (Kaufman, 1999). The impulse to protect his art plays a great function in his first trial where Wilde applied his linguistic skills and artistic to great effect. Oscar Wilde chose to effectively respond to the Marquess of Queensberry’s threat. Oscar Wilde can be seen as a man who was fully in control of his life. This is a significant personality. It can be observed that Wilde’s beliefs and art were on trial as much like his private life was that provided and motivated him to prosecute. However, Wilde takes the threat that is against his work seriously than even the threat against himself. Salamensky(2002) gave a suggestion that did describe Wilde, as someone who is divergent from Victorian norms, and this was from his first forays into the public eye and onwards. He could stand in sharp relief to the high Victorian context in that masculinity was defined by self-control, stringency, self-effacement, as well as earnestness the term was unmercifully mocked in Oscar Wilde most famous stories. In most normative social display, Wilde’s behaviours’ portrayed him as an enthusiastic person (Salamensky, 2002). A fascinating aspect of most of his play portrayed him as a historical figure who was most famous to be labelled as a someone who was homosexual but, until his downfall due to the trials, lived his own life as he had chosen and without being identified and restricted as a gay. Wilde represents a fulcrum in culture and society today. He can be considered as the first post-modern homosexual. There was a freedom that was underlying in the way he lived his life. After the trials, the gayismhad been defined, and all gay men would bare that weight as they form their identities. To some extent, Wilde is termed as someone who understood the rights of the minority in the society. However, Wilde not even a day did he referred himself as a homosexual; he made a statement by choosing to remain in London in order to defend charges that he was being accused of. In his decision of not fleeing, Wilde seemed to have recognized the significance of his trials and that the events will have an impact on the future generations. In summary, he was a victim of internal and external homophobia as well as majority oppression. In the end, someone can feel that his actions assisted in shaping the identity of the gay rights movement that has resulted in importance changes for gay, a queer, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people (Kaplan, 2012). Conclusion It can be concluded that Wilde truly paid for what he chose in his personality and his life was ruined. After he had left jail he moved to France and lived his last three years with an assumed name. This depict him as someone who was determined and courageous. Before he departed from England, he was divorced and declared a bankrupt as stated by Robbin (2011), and while in France he was forced to rely on friends he left for financial support. He never gave up with his art skills, during this period of bankruptcy, he wrote his last masterpiece, The Ballade of Reading Gaol, it was an elegy for a man who was executed, Charles Woolridge, a guard man who had killed wife due to jealousy. However, the executions were uncommon events at Reading Gaol, and the poem was Wildes sensitive response to the mans plight and humane to the inhumane situation in prisons. Oscar’s state of health deteriorated during this time, and he finally died at the age of 46, alone and penniless in a very cheap hotel room in Paris, November 1900(Moran, 1999). References Kaplan,M.B.(2012). Sodom on the Thames: Sex, Love and Scandal in Wilde Times. Cornell University Press, pp 14-89. Kaufman, M. (1999).Gross Indecency: the Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. New York, Dramatists Play Service Inc, 15-69 Salamensky, S.I. (2002). Re-presenting Oscar Wilde Trials, Gross Indecency and Documentary Spectacle, 54 (4), 575-588. Knezevic, M.M. (2013).Postmodernist Approach to Biography: the Last Testament of Oscar Wilde by Peter Ackroyd, 11(1), pp. 47-53. Moran, J. (1999).Simple words: Peter AckroydsAutobiography of Oscar Wilde.Biography, 22(3), pp 356-389. Robbin, R. (2011). Oscar Wilde: Biography and Autobiography. A&C Publication, pp 2-10. Read More