Style

            Oscar Wilde was flamboyant in his lifestyle as well as his style of writing.  Everything about Wilde himself – his wit, his poise, his love of beauty, poetry, fondness for interior decoration, etc.- set a standard for “ the Oxford Manner” of the 1920’s, and what are common gay stereotypes today.    His earlier poetry was symbolic and full of aesthetic beauty, while his plays were always very witty and sophisticated. 

The influence of fine art is always evidence in Wilde’s poetry, from a Pre-Rafaelite obsession with natural detail in “The Garden of Eros,” through the exercises in classical archaeology that imitate such painters as Lord Leighton and Alma-Taderma, to the Whistlerian or Japanesque “impressions” that mark a later stage in Aesthetic taste.  Wilde also frequently uses “the comparison of the arts” a familiar topic in the late nineteenth century.  According to the Aesthetics, links between the competing claims of the different arts became a way of justifying art as a whole.  Wilde himself was associated with his famous symbols: a peacock feather, sunflowers, dados, long hair and velveteen.

            Unlike many other artists, Wilde was greatly appreciated in his time.  His plays were widely produced and well received.  Even his early effusions in magazines like Month, The Catholic Mirror, and the Irish Monthly were considered witty, artistic and accomplished.  His first success was with his American Tour after his first play, Vera.  His outrageous affectations, witty sayings and paradoxes were eagerly followed by everyone.  It was one of his last works, a novel called The Picture of Dorian Grey, 1891, in which he is closest to addressing his sexuality.   Wilde’s picture of  the successive stages of degradation in man was openly presented in the character of Dorian Grey, who remained young outwardly while his pact with evil allowed his portrait to take on his many sins.