Forbidden love
Forbidden love
With a tragic end…
Celebrated playwright Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854. At a young age he travelled from Ireland to England, where he spent most of his life. With his long hair, flamboyant outfits and exquisite use of language, the young Wilde soon gained the reputation of being a veritable Dandy. As a writer, Wilde became most famous for his plays. Masterpieces such as Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were written by him. The last two are often still performed today.
The revolutionary and remarkable Oscar Wilde married Constance Lloyd in 1884 and they had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. As a writer, Wilde was known for his witty remarks and pithy quotes. Wilde also made several statements about marriage including, ‘the proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding.’
In 1891 Wilde met the handsome Lord Alfred Douglas, a student at Oxford, an up-and-coming poet and the son of the Marquis of Queensberry. Correspondence between the two shows that their friendship grew into a passionate love affair - but it was a love affair that was in fact, forbidden. At the time, homosexuality was punishable by life imprisonment. It was not until 1967 that sex between men was legalised in England.
In this portrait, we see the two men standing next to each other. They are relaxed and at the very beginning of their relationship, when Wilde was staying with Douglas in Oxford for an extended period. However, their relationship caused Wilde serious problems when Douglas’ domineering father accused the writer of homosexuality. Encouraged by Douglas - but against the advice of his friends - Wilde sued the Marquis for libel. However, the court ruled in Queensberry’s favour and the trial led to ‘shocking’ revelations about Wilde’s homosexual behaviour. He was found guilty of ‘gross immoral acts’ and sentenced to two years of hard labour in prison.
During his imprisonment, Wilde wrote a long letter to Douglas which was only published after his death under the title De Profundis. After his imprisonment, Wilde fled to die a broken man in Paris.