Oscar Wilde: A Study in Art, Mortality, and Pleasure Pursuit

Abstract

Oscar Wild's attitude to hedonism would not be of an ordinary variety. Thus, it becomes all the more necessary to focus this study on Hedonism - Its Philosophical Bases in intertwining connection with the extraordinary strange personality of Oscar Wilde. His mind during its vigorous growth of creativity for one decade and more oscillated from the Keatsian sensuousness to the upper reaches of saint- like illuminations, as one finds in his works such as De Profundis, The Soul of Man under Socialism as well as in some of his short poems. His attitude to hedonism or pleasure -pursuit has to be viewed at different dimensions of human experience other than those of the ordinary variety. Accordingly, the study sheds light on hedonism has been linked to the dramatic personality of Oscar Wilde in his legal and social battle with the Marquis of Queensbury, arising out of the cleverly manipulated and engineered propaganda that Oscar Wilde had homosexual relationship with Alfred Douglas, son to the Marquis of Queensbury. Also, the study deals with certain dramatic elements from Wilde's life. The study ends with concluding remarks and a Reference.