# Oscar Wilde Related Questions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-wilde-related-questions/735911>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 27, 2015, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-wilde-related-questions/735911 "2015-10-27T22:45:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-wilde-related-questions/735911/21 "2015-10-30T12:18:35Z")

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An interesting article:  
[http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps\_articles=andrew-elfenbein-on-the-trials-of-oscar-wilde-myths-and-realities](http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=andrew-elfenbein-on-the-trials-of-oscar-wilde-myths-and-realities)  
This is my point about hypocrisy:

> [@](#):
>
> When asked about Douglas’s poem, which ended with the line describing “the love that dare not speak its name,” Wilde burst into an eloquent speech about same-sex love, describing it as “such a great affection of an elder for a younger as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you find in the sonnets of Michaelangelo and Shakespeare. It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect” (qtd. in Ellman 463).

Wilde waxes poetic about the “love that dare not speak its name” and yet the evidence of the trial was a dirty old man buying sex - even though, supposedly, he was in a serious relationship with a man 20 years younger who wrote poems to him. (Serious enough that the father, who was determined to break it up and had no social filter, not only insulted him with a letter left at his club, but basically stalked him, yelled at him on his doorstep and interrupted performances of his play.)

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**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscar-wilde-related-questions/735911/22 "2015-10-30T17:36:41Z")

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> [@md2000](#):
>
> An interesting article:  
> [Andrew Elfenbein, “On the Trials of Oscar Wilde: Myths and Realities” | BRANCH](http://www.branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=andrew-elfenbein-on-the-trials-of-oscar-wilde-myths-and-realities)  
> This is my point about hypocrisy:  
> Wilde waxes poetic about the “love that dare not speak its name” and yet the evidence of the trial was a dirty old man buying sex - even though, supposedly, he was in a serious relationship with a man 20 years younger who wrote poems to him. (Serious enough that the father, who was determined to break it up and had no social filter, not only insulted him with a letter left at his club, but basically stalked him, yelled at him on his doorstep and interrupted performances of his play.)

I think Little Nemo has it right based on what I have read. If you could ask him I think Oscar would deny being a hypocrite, even though he clearly behaved in a hypocritical manner… and that points to some level of self denial. He had an idealize (in his mind anyway) world view based on how the Greeks behaved and as a gay man tried to apply it to Victorian times with relatively little success. He had his friends, cohorts and followers, but once he became entangled with Queensberry everything fell apart. As mentioned previously, his boyfriend ‘Bosie’ encouraged Oscar to sue his father (Queensberry) for libel which turned out to be a huge mistake.

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