Oscar Wilde

A World Without Wilde

Oscar Wilde, a Victorian playwright whose literature is only rivaled by that of William Shakespeare. With wit, purpose and ability, Wilde is arguably the best to ever put pen to paper. The flattering words in the preceding statement may very well have been an accurate description of the legend of the Irish author, Oscar Wilde. However, during the peek of his career, he was imprisoned. Wilde was not incarcerated for the murder of an innocent child or the rape of a young woman; but for loving a person of the same sex. A literary genius, sentenced to hard labor, for the charge of “gross-indecency” as the court put it. Wilde would eventually die of an illness related to his sentence. Sadly, works of pure art, such as The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Grey would from then on stand alone. Who knows what amazing works of art Oscar Wilde would have written if allowed to continue living his life. A great contributor to literature was taken on the basis of a seemingly inaccurate judgment of what was morally wrong and right. In the words of Wilde himself, “Morality, like art, means drawing the line some place.” Unfortunately, in the case of Oscar Wilde, that line was drawn much too early.

So, if I were to change one historical event, I would prevent the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde lived in a Victorian society where there was no room for independent thinking and individualism. For this reason, any homosexual act was dubbed an act of gross-indecency. This seems to be a heinous label, even for someone who is very much so against homosexuality. Sentencing another person to hard labor on the sole basis of their sexual orientation is, to say the least, an act of inhumanity. Furthermore, if I had the ability to change this event, the first thing I would do is prevent Queensbury, the prosecutor in Wilde’s case, from ever receiving the “incriminating” love note written on the back of a hotel card. This was the exposition...