C.+Beam


 * Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) **

Life: Oscar Fingall O'Flahertie Wills Wilde lived a very full and prosperous life. He was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin Ireland. He had a loving, as well as successful, family. Oscar's mother, Jane Francesca Wilde, was a successful poet. Some believe that Wilde inherited his talent for the English arts from his mother. Sir William Wilde, Oscar's father was a well know surgeon and author in Dublin. Sir William Wilde was knighted for his services to medicine in 1865. Most of his fathers works of writing were of the archeology and folklore genre. Having had such successful parents, Oscar had some mighty big footsteps to fill, so therefore, education was a high priority in Oscar's life. He was given the best education that Ireland had to offer. After grade school Wilde attended the best colleges at the time, Portora Royal, Trinity College, and Oxford. Wilde graduated at the top of his class while at Trinity and was awarded the Berkley Gold Medal. After graduating from Oxford, he met his soon to be wife, Florance Balcombe. She wasn't much of a wife though, she soon became engaged to fellow writer Bram Stoker. When Oscar found out about his wife's engagement, he wrote to her informing her that he would be leaving Ireland for good, and that he did. He spent the next six years touring London, Paris, and the United States. After leaving in 1878, he only returned to Ireland twice for brief visits. While in London he met Constance Lloyd, the wealthy daughter of one of the Queen's councilmen, Horace Lloyd. The two got married in 1884, and had two children the following two years, Cyril and Vyvyan. Though it may appear that he was straight, he was the exact opposite. In the summer of 1891, Wilde was introduced to Lord Alfred Douglas by a poet named Lionel Johnson. The two shared and intimate friendship with each other. Lord Alfred's father didn't like that his son was gay and had confronted Oscar about it on several occasions. Wilde eventually filed a complaint of criminal libel against Marquess of Queensberry, Alfred's father. Marquess was jailed but was released soon after. Upon getting out of jail, Queensberry had Wilde jailed on several counts of homosexual activities. After two years in prison Wilde's health, along with his money, was spent. He died on November 30, 1900, three years after getting out of prison.

Time: Wilde lived during in England during the Victorian era. In his writings, he downed the Victorian government using satire. From this day in time, the upper class people dressed to impress. They wore thier best looking clothes on a day to day basis. Looking good was a must. The middle class would dress nice as well, but their clothes were not as showy and flashy as the upper classmen. The lower classmen dressed in rags, because they had little to no money to buy clothes as nice as the upper or middle classes. Oscar was the leading poet in the Victorian age. In his most popular work, //The Importance of Being Earnest//, he used satire and hypocracy to get a very important point across about the government.

Works:
 * //Picture od Dorian Gray//
 * //Importance of Being Earnest//
 * //An Ideal Husband//
 * //Happy Prince//

Famous Quotes: "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

"A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her."

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."

Sources __Oscar Wilde__. 27 Apr. 2009. 28 Apr. 2009 [].

__The Quotations Page - Your Source for Famous Quotes__. 20 May 2009 [|http://www.quotationspage.com].