![]() Oscar Wilde was tried for homosexuality on April 26, 1895. The authorities saw this as a sign of implied guilt and issued a warrant for Wilde’s arrest on indecency charges.īritain’s Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 had criminalized all sex acts between men as “gross indecency.” (Sex acts between women were never made illegal in England.) Oscar Wilde On Trialįriends again urged Wilde to flee to France, but he decided to stay and stand trial. In the novel, an older artist is attracted to the beauty of a younger man whose portrait he paints.Īfter three days of court proceedings, Wilde’s lawyer withdrew the lawsuit. The defense also questioned Wilde about the premise of his controversial 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, suggesting that Wilde had used the novel’s homoerotic themes to seduce Lord Alfred. His main problem was that Queensberry’s allegations about his homosexuality were true, and therefore couldn’t be judged defamatory.ĭuring the trial, Queensberry’s defense accused Wilde of soliciting 12 other young men to commit sodomy. Libel Case Against the Marquess of QueensberryĪmid a frenzy of newspaper coverage, the libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry opened on April 3, 1895, at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly known as Old Bailey. He took the Marquess to court for criminal libel. (France had decriminalized homosexuality in 1791 during the French Revolution.)Īgainst their counsel, Wilde decided to sue the Marquess for defamation. Homosexual acts were a criminal offense in England at the time and remained illegal there until the 1960s.įriends who knew of Wilde’s sexual orientation urged him to flee to France until the storm subsided. This caused a public relations nightmare for Wilde. The card read: “For Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite. He left a calling card for Wilde with the porter at the private Albemarle Club in London. But in 1891, Wilde began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, a young British poet and aristocrat 16 years his junior.ĭouglas’ father, the Marquess of Queensberry, was outraged by the relationship and sought to expose Wilde. He bucked tight-laced Victorian fashion by wearing colorful velvets and silks and keeping his hair long. Oscar Wilde was a proponent of the Aesthetic Movement in art and literature, which suggested these forms should focus on beauty rather than trying to convey a moral or political message. ![]() His most acclaimed plays include Salome and The Importance of Being Earnest, though he is perhaps best known today for his 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. He later moved from Ireland to England and studied at Oxford.īy the early 1890s he had become one of London’s most popular playwrights. Oscar Wilde began publishing poems as a college student at Dublin’s Trinity University in the 1870s. Homosexuality was a criminal offense at this time in England. ![]() Wilde, a homosexual, was put on trial for gross indecency in 1895 after the details of his affair with a British aristocrat were made public. ![]() His flamboyant dress, cutting wit and eccentric lifestyle often put him at odds with the social norms of Victorian England. Oscar Wilde was a playwright, novelist, poet and celebrity in late nineteenth century London.
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