OSCAR WILDE
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1856, into an upper class family. He first studied at Portora Royal School, and at Trinity College in Dublin, he moved to Oxford, where he took an honour degree in classics.
It was in Oxford that he first livede as a Dandy, then in London. A Dandy was somebody who lived and dressed extravagantly, paied great attention to his own elegance, a according to the ideas of the aestheticism. As a dandy, maybe the most famous of the period, Oscar Wilde was a disciple of Aestheticism whose slogan was "art for art's sake". Wilde shared the aesthetic theory thar art didn't have any porpouse but entertaining and giving pleasure.
His popularity as a dandy, assured him also a great litterary success. He wrote several successful Poems and stories for children such as the Happy Prince. In this period he also wrote the famous Canterville Ghost, and his most important work: The Picture of Dorian Gray.
But Wilde was mostly famous as a playwright. He composed four very successful comedies: Lady Windermere's fan, The importance of being Earnest, A woman of no importance, and An ideal husband. They were greatly apreciated overall because of their characters and brilliant dialogues, Wilde was a master of. Moreover these comedies were especially funny, as they caricature the upper-class values. These plays were called Society Plays. Wilde made a large uso of pun, that is the same word, with the same pronunciation, the same sound, but with different spelling and different meaning (ernest is not only the name of the protagonist, but also means (spelling earnest this time) sensible, serious, sincere. In 1895 Wilde was imprisoned for homosexuality. During this period he wrote De Profundis, and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, his last, and really inspired, poem about a man who killed his wife.