Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s childhood seemed to greatly affect him in later years. With his father being so absent and the aspirations of being an Aesthete, Wilde was exposed to the aspects that mold himself later in life. He writes with light imagery of leaves and butterflies. Wilde’s lifestyle probably helped with his style of writing while being in the company of other Aesthetes, but it ended his career in turmoil and exile, begging for change to those that might find sympathy for him. He writes in "Symphony in Yellow",

“An omnibus across the bridge

Crawls like a yellow butterfly,

And, here and there, a passer-by

Shown like a little restless midge.” (p. 831)

As Wilde writes these lines I think he is seeing himself across this imaginary bridge where he wants to “crawls like a yellow butterfly.” The bridge he speaks of is the acceptance he wants to have for his lifestyle from the government of Britain. Homosexuality is unlawful in those times and he wishes to able for it to be a forgeable bridge he can cross. The butterfly he speaks of is himself. He wants to be free and live the life he so wants and be accepted for his thought. It was a shame that his writing was affected by this. He is still a man who writes with the same poise and intelligence as before.

Wilde’s fight against conformity is the same as youths today. He was not accepted for certain aspects of his personality and punished for it. Today with so many different stereotypes and classification for the many different groups of people, who is to say that their fellow citizen is “weird” for being nonconformist? Every norm started with a movement and the liberalization of individuals is what brings about change. I am neither applauding these changes or against them, just pointing out that inconsistencies in individuals are what shapes the many different views and cultures that we live in.