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Oscar Wilde was born on October 16, 1854, in Dublin, Irland. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was his full name. His father was Sir William Wilde, a successful ear and eye doctor in Irland, as well as a writer on archaeology and folklore among other things. Oscar's mother was also a writer and a poet, writing under the name Speranza.
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Wilde attended Portora Royal School at Enniskillen. While attending, he won several awards, including his school's top classics student his last two years in a row, and found a passion for Greek and Roman studies. From there on he continued to excel, earning achievements such as the Royal School Scholarship to attend Trinity College, highest score on classics exam, the Berkeley Gold Medal, the Demyship scholarship, and the Newdigate Prize for his poem "Ravenna".
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Oscar took great inspiration from the aestheticism movement during the late 19th century. The aesthetic movement focused on the beauty of art and the idea of ‘art for art’s sake’.
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Wilde agreed to lecture in the United States and Canada.
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Oscar Wilde married Constance Llloyd in 1883. With her, he had two sons named Cyril Holland and Vyvyan Holland. Not much information is known about their childhood but that they idealized their father. They had a comfortable life and were surrounded by their parent's fashionable tastes.
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One year after getting married, Oscar was hired to run a magazine called Lady's World. During this time, he changed the magazine to not only talk about what woman wear but their thoughts and feelings.
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Oscar began to publish children's stories such as The Happy Prince and Other Tales.
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Wildes's only novel, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', was published in a magazine and then in book form one year later. In this, a young man's beauty attracts an artist to paint him. Injuries and signs of aging were unseen on the man himself but inflicted on his portrait instead. He becomes corrupt causing the painter to destroy his portrait, ending his life. His novel is very popular today but when it was originally published, while is sold successfully, many criticized is for being immoral.
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In 1891, Wilde met Lord Alfred Douglas who was a 21-year-old undergraduate and poet. Oscar eventually had an affair with Douglas and the two of them exchanged a variety of love letters. During this time, Oscar kept his homosexuality a secret until Douglas' father found out about the affair.
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Wilde opened his first play, Lady Windermere's Fan, in February 1892. It's popularity encouraged wile to adopt playwriting.
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Douglas' father got word of his affair with Oscar Wilde. He was outraged and left a "calling card" at Wilde's home, addressing him as, "Oscar Wilde: Posing Somdomite". Later in March, there was a trial.
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Homosexuality was not accepted at the time and even went against the law. During his trial, lawyers presented examples of Oscar's homosexuality including pages from his novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' as evidence. On May 25 Oscar was convicted of homosexuality and sentenced to prison for two years.
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Oscar was finally released from prison in 1897. He was physically different, exhausted, and withered. He went to France where he briefly met with Douglas. His lifestyle had significantly changed, now moving between friends' apartments. He wrote very little at this time except for a poem called "The Ballad of Reading Gaol."
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Oscar died at the age of 46 at L'Hotlel in Paris. Reportedly, his last words were "This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do". Although it was believed he died of meningitis, there is speculation that Oscar may have died from a severe ear infection or some other diagnosis.
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