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oscar wilde and de profundis

   

    In my opinion, one of the brightest, bravest, and idiosyncratic writer is Oscar Wilde. His distinctive sarcastic, sometimes cold, but often heartfelt voice makes me finish his books in one fell swoop. Oscar Wilde is an Irish writer who lived in the late Victorian era in Britain. Considering the rigidity of the people, the country, and the queen in the Victorian era, Oscar Wilde cuts this harsh and sharp period into pieces with his pen. Also, he is a writer who only manages to turn the country upside down with his aestheticism based ideas and life, his many theatre plays and one single novel which is The Picture of Dorian Gray. Unfortunately, he generally stands out for his homosexuality rather than his authorship. However, for me, it is a certain and well-known fact that no personal situation can overshadow his mind, outlook on life, and the cleverness of his writings. As Andre Gidé said, "He was a man of life." According to his close friends, Oscar Wilde was a master at turning his life into a work of art. But his sad ending made me realize once again the fact that most people never see beauty, they live to judge rather than understand, they prefer ugliness to beauty, and they are always afraid of people who are themselves. I find his view of life and the wording in his books very close to me. I am so glad that a person such as Oscar Wilde existed. 




    After this long introduction, I would like to talk about De Profundis. It is a book contains Oscar Wilde's letters to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas. He wrote all of the letters when he was in Prison Reading. And it is also an important fact to consider that the reason of Oscar Wilde's being in prison was Lord Alfred Douglas and Douglas's father. They live their relationship as two person, however the heavy and injustice result stayed on Oscar Wilde's shoulders. In these letters, we can directly see the transformation of him compared to his previous books(before experiencing prison life). It is quite possible to observe this change from what he wrote in prison since he had never seen material absence, material hardship in his elite life before he went to prison. His genre, wording and touch of words are such subtle and soulful that, as a reader I went to many spaces in my head while reading the letter. De Profundis generally called as a "love letter". Within his love words, this letter also implicate many more things such as understanding what being a human means, what mercy is, what love is... 



    "She lives the poet she cannot write" is one of my favorite quotes by Oscar Wilde, and it is very relevant for this blog post. I experience and live a lot of soulful, emotional states that I can not be able to describe them. For me, you just live Oscar Wilde while you are reading, but you cannot describe his books, especially the book//letter De Profundis. Because the letter is extremely personal and needs a "lived" background. I strongly recommend everyone to read De Profundis to going deep down of pain and pleasure and love and mercy and humanity and in short the bitter love of human spirit... 













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