To quote Wilde, in his own words, he believed that “there are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely – or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.”īosie’s father however resented the gossip circulating about Wilde and his son. He appeared to be proud of his leanings, and were he able to attend a modern pride festival I have no doubt he’d be at the top of a rainbow float. He gave the men gifts, invited them on holiday, and overall became far less cautious in hiding his sexual preferences as his affair with Bosie continued.
#Was oscar wilde gay in later life full
The writer would dine out in public with the men in places like the Cafe Royal, in full view of the Victorian upper class, and in full view of those who served them. Prostituting however soon became a habit for Wilde. Perhaps doomed to be cruel by being born to a monstrously cruel father, Bosie would not only squander his own talent on sonnets and magazines pursuing his campaigns against Robbie Ross, the Asquiths, the Jews, and any other party by whom he felt wronged, but personally betray Wilde in later years.īosie partook in some unsavoury forms of entertainment in his youth, such as indulging in the company of male prostitutes, and Wilde went along, perhaps already foolishly in love with the man. His story however was one that intersected tragically with Wilde’s. “Bosie” was a spoiled young man, though he was known to be beautiful, and a golden boy of sorts. However, it is his romance with Lord Alfred Douglass – the son of the Marquess of Queensbury – that is most well known, above that of his marriage to Constance. Ross was staying with Oscar and Constance when he allegedly seduced Wilde, who was always “open to a new sensation.” However, it’s undeniable that he had a strong interest in men from as early as his university days, with one documented letter from him written while he was at Oxford to a boy he seemed to fancy stating “I enjoyed my time with you, and I shall be ever so sad until I see you again.” It was also noted that it was after Wilde’s wife became ill during pregnancy, and “lost her lithe, slender, boyish figure” that Wilde entered into a relationship with his first known male lover whilst married, Robbie Ross a lifelong friend.
Some have suggested because of this fact that Wilde may have actually been bisexual, although his relations with women may have been due solely to the social pressures to be heteronormative during Victorian times. But Wilde in fact married a woman named Constance, with whom he had two children. No straight man has ever paid enough attention to interior decorating to write more than a page of a novel describing curtains and marble fixtures. In the modern day, it would perhaps be easy to look at a man like Wilde and see the social cues that he was almost definitely gay. A patron of art, poetry, journalism and even interior design, the skilled conversationalist and flamboyant dresser known as Wilde soon became well known in upper class social circles, an unforgettable and glittering personality. To give an idea of Wilde’s writing style, if you’ve ever used the term ‘aesthetic’ on social media, this is derived in fact from the movement of aestheticism that Wilde was a spokesman for, and which features heavily in his novels through sensuous language and long, lavish descriptions. He moved to London, and soon rose to fame for his impressive works of Literature. Wilde was born in 1854 in Ireland and was extremely well educated, attending Oxford university and learning both French and German fluently as a boy. This was not far at all from the truth, although another notable thing about Wilde is quite how fearlessly he expressed his sexuality, in a time when homosexuality – or ‘sodomy’ – was punishable in Britain by several years imprisonment. One of my favourite writers of all time is Oscar Wilde, for the simple reason that anyone with the brain to write something as detailed and captivating as ‘the picture of Dorian Grey’ had to have lived an interesting and extremely eccentric life himself.
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