Young, (Oscar) Wilde, and Free: A Mind 115 Years Gone by Aria

Young, (Oscar) Wilde, and Free: A Mind 115 Years Gone by Aria - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

When one thinks of Oscar Wilde, a face might not come to mind. He was a master of words, cultivating a legacy of such profound thought that many of his quotes are still in mainstream circulation—think “to love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance” or “be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” With countless other ideas on life, relationships, and the self (and almost as many plays as fingers), Wilde crafted a landscape from his own mind.
However, when he was alive and writing, he was persecuted (both informally and legally) purely because of his identity. He was viewed not only as a face but as a body, one subjected to inescapable public scrutiny. As he was “deviant” in both his sexuality and gender expression, convention of the late 1800s hindered his living a normal, professional life and ultimately sentenced him to two years of hard labor on charges of “indecency.” Though he died shortly after, there’s a spark worth noticing.
Whom we loved or how he dressed should not have been conditions of recognition and acceptance, yet his life followed this exact model. Considering these unjust hardships—and how virtually all of them were out of his control—I see immense value in knowing how exactly he maintained such an active, creative mind despite his body being objectified as a place of politics. What encouraged him to write? What did love offer him? How does the label of “criminal” affect the idea of one’s self worth? More than one hundred years after his death, the impact that his perseverance and authenticity could have on our current social climate cannot be understated. He did not leave this world unscathed, but his mind continued to blossom, and we owe it to both him and ourselves to at least ask how.