DE Profundis of Oscar Wilde

This Rough draft is submitted in partial fulfilment of the project in “Law and
Literature” for the requirement of the degree of B.B.A. L.L.B(Hons.)

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. Pratyush Kaushik ASHUTOSH RANJAN

Assistant Professor of Law Roll No. - 2812

B.B.A. LL.B.(Hons.)

Semester – 2nd

Chanakya National Law University, Patna

February, 2023

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................................................................... 3
DECLARATION ...................................................................................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 1 - DE PROFUNDIS OF OSCAR WILDE ................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................... 5
1.1.1. Review of Literature .............................................................................................................................. 7
1.2 Present Study:- .......................................................................................................................................... 8
1.2.1. Research Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 8
1.2.2. Research Questions ............................................................................................................................... 8
1.3 Hypothesis * .............................................................................................................................................. 8
1.4 Research Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 8
1.5 Scope & Limitation of Study ..................................................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER 2 – OSCAR WILDE............................................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 3 – DE PROFUNDIS ............................................................................................................................. 12
CHAPTER 4 – SEXUAL STIGMA ........................................................................................................................... 14
CHAPTER 5 – LEGAL CONNECTIVITY .................................................................................................................. 16
CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................................... 18
Bibliography:- .................................................................................................................................................... 19

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my guide, Dr. Pratyush
Kaushik Assistant Professor of Law, for assigning me the topic I was most interested in. It
was under his guidance that I structured my project and built on my abilities to research on the
subject.

I owe the present accomplishment of my project to everyone, who helped me immensely with
materials throughout the project and without whom I couldn’t have completed it in the present
way.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to my friends, family members and all those unseen hands
that helped me out at every stage of my project either financially, intellectually or emotionally.

Thank You,
Ashutosh Ranjan
Semester- 2nd
CNLU, Patna

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 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work reported in the B.B.A. L.L.B.(Hons.) project report entitled "De
Profundis of Oscar Wilde" submitted at Chanakya National Law University,
Patna is an authentic record of my work carried out under the supervision of Dr Pratyush
Kaushik . I have not submitted this work elsewhere for any other degree or diploma. I am fully
responsible for the contents of my project report.

(Signature of the candidate)

Ashutosh Ranjan (2812)

B.B.A. LL.B.(Hons.)
2nd Semester
Chanakya National Law University, Patna

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 CHAPTER 1 - DE PROFUNDIS OF OSCAR WILDE

1.1 Introduction

The aim of this project is to do a thorough research about ‘De Profundis of Oscar Wilde’. It
is basically a letter written by Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment for the charges of gross
indecency. More about the reason of his conviction will be dealt in the later parts of this
research work. Before delving deep into this topic, let’s first talk about Oscar Wilde.

Oscar Wilde’s full name was Oscar Fingal O’ Flahertie Wills Wilde, who was born in 1854
and died in 1900 after greatly establishing his name in the field of philosophy, poetry, drama,
literature etc. Some of his very famous novels are – The Picture of Dorian Grey, The
Importance of Being Earnest. He was also a spokesman in one of the movements in England
in late 19th century which advocated the slogan ‘Art for art’s sake’. 1

Talking about his letter ‘De Profundis’, this letter, as already been mentioned, was written
by him during the time of his imprisonment. The phrase De Profundis is a Latin phrase which
literally means ‘from the depths’. This was a letter which was published in the form of a book
after Oscar Wilde’s death upon his will in the year 1905. It is a well written letter of 80 pages
in which he has described his emotions for his love for a man named Alfred Douglas who
was also known as Bosie among his friends. Bosie and his father took great advantage of
Wilde as by the time he met Bosie, Wilde was already a well-known personality. Bosie
conspired with his father against Wilde so as to get money out of the fake case that they built
against him for gross indecency. 2

1
see “De Profundis | Work by Wilde” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/De-Profundis

2
See “SuperSummary” (SuperSummary) https://www.supersummary.com/de-profundis/summary/

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 In today’s world if we see where we are normalizing things like homosexuality and in a
world where in most of the countries homosexuality is already normal, such conviction of
Wilde because he was a gay, seems very unreasonable and very unjustified.

These are the main pointers that I will be further elaborating upon in this project. We will
see the legal connectivity of the letter written by such a great writer of all time, we will also see
a comparative study of today’s society to the society at that time when he was convicted.

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1.1.1. Review of Literature

1. Oscar Wilde, ‘De Profundis’, Dover publication,

(8th edition, 2011 ),

De Profundis is a letter that Oscar Wilde wrote to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, while he
was detained in Reading Gaol. Between January and March 1897, Wilde penned the letter;
he was not authorised to mail it, but after his release, he brought it with him. In it, he rejects
Lord Alfred for what Wilde ultimately perceives as his haughtiness and vanity; he had not
forgotten Douglas's remark, which he had made to Douglas while he was unwell, "When
you are not on your pedestal you are not fascinating." He also experienced a sense of
redemption and fulfilment from his ordeal, realising that, despite how unpleasant it initially
tasted, it had given the soul the opportunity to bear the fruit of experience.

2. Steven Dryden ‘A short history of LGBT rights in the UK’

https://www.bl.uk/lgbtq- histories/articles/a-short-history-of-lgbt-rights-in-the-uk

This article traces the journey of LGBT community from 1553 to today, looking at the
battles for equality that were fought and legislative changes made.

3. Stacey Mankoff ‘The Beauty in Hatred: Oscar Wilde’s Aesthetic Theory in De

Profundis

https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/literature/the-beauty-in-hatred-oscar-wildes-aesthetic-
theory-in-de-profundis

This article discusses the De Profundis and explore it’s literary beauty. This article also
discusses Oscar Wilde’s unwavering adherence to his aesthetic principles and tries to
understand what Oscar Wilde’s philosophy concerning aesthetics.

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1.2 Present Study:-

1.2.1. Research Objectives

1. To give a brief study about Oscar Wilde’s life and work.

2. To critically study the idea and content of De Profundis.
3. To critically analyse the writing style of Oscar Wilde.
4. To Talk about Oscar Wilde’s love life.

1.2.2. Research Questions

1.) What is the literary Significance of De Profundis of Oscar Wilde?

2.) How has the life experiences of Oscar Wilde affected his writing style?
3.) Which were the important events in Oscar Wilde’s live that have great reflection
in his work De Profundis?

1.3 Hypothesis *

In this project report, the researcher presumes that the life experiences of Oscar Wilde had
greatly affected his writing style and the effect of these important life events is reflected
significantly in his work De Profundis .

1.4 Research Methodology

The researcher has adopted a purely doctrinal method of research. The study is based on various
primary and secondary sources of data collection such as websites of numerous organizations,
books, journals, articles and research papers.

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1.4.1. Mode of Citation

The researcher has followed the citation style as mentioned in the Bluebook 20th Edition.

1.5 Scope & Limitation of Study

The scope of the research is to study the literary significance of Oscar Wilde’s work De
Profundis.

The limitation of the study is that it is more inclined to know about the impact it created in the
society of the time it was published.

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 PROJECT CHAPTERS

CHAPTER 2 – OSCAR WILDE

Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin (now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity
College), the second of three children born to an AngloIrish couple: Jane, née Elgee and Sir
William Wilde. Oscar was two years younger than his brother, William (Willie) Wilde. Oscar
Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and
playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most
popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s.

Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. Wilde learned to speak fluent French
and German at a very young age. At university, Wilde read Greats (an undergraduate course
focused on classics); he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity
College Dublin, then at Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of
aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde
moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.3

Until he was nine, Wilde was educated at home, where a French nursemaid and a German
governess taught him their languages. Then he went to Portora Royal School. He was not very
popular there but he impressed his peers with the humorous and inventive school stories he told.
It is also said that his fellow students had regarded him as a "prodigy" for his ability to speed
read, claiming that he could read two facing pages simultaneously and consume a three-volume
book in half an hour, retaining enough information to give a basic account of the plot.

3
See “Oscar Wilde | Biography, Books, & Facts” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Wilde

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 He excelled academically, particularly in the subject of Classics, in which he ranked fourth in
the school in 1869.

Wilde left Portora with a royal scholarship to read classics at Trinity College Dublin. Trinity,
one of the leading classical schools, placed him with scholars such as R. Y. Tyrell, Arthur Palmer,
Edward Dowden and his tutor, Professor J. P. Mahaffy, who inspired his interest in Greek
literature. Aestheticism was sufficiently in vogue to be caricatured by Gilbert and Sullivan in
Patience (1881).1 Richard D'Oyly Carte, an English impresario, invited Wilde to make a lecture
tour of North America, simultaneously priming the pump for the US tour of Patience and selling
this most charming aesthete to the American public. Wilde and aestheticism were both
mercilessly caricatured and criticised in the press: the Springfield Republican, for instance,
commented on Wilde's behaviour during his visit to Boston to lecture on aestheticism, suggesting
that Wilde's conduct was more a bid for notoriety rather than devotion to beauty and the aesthetic.
T. W. Higginson, a cleric and abolitionist, wrote in "Unmanly Manhood" of his general concern
that Wilde, "whose only distinction is that he has written a thin volume of very mediocre verse",
would improperly influence the behaviour of men.4

4
See “Oscar Wilde | Poetry Foundation” (Poetry Foundation)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/oscar-wilde

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 CHAPTER 3 – DE PROFUNDIS

De Profundis is a Latin term which means ‘from the depth’. It is a letter written by Oscar Wilde
during the period of his imprisonment from January to March 1897, close to the end of his
imprisonment. At the height of his fame and success, while The Importance of Being Earnest
(1895) was still being performed in London, Wilde prosecuted the Marquess of Queensberry for
criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie). The
libel trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and
trial for gross indecency with men. After two more trials he was convicted and sentenced to two
years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897.1 His letter is divided
into two parts. In its first half, Wilde recounts their previous relationship and extravagant lifestyle.
He also examines Bosie’s behaviour and its detrimental effect of Wilde’s work. This part also has
an essence of their hotel and dinner expenses, many amounting to around £1000. He also writes
about the fact that Bosie had not written even a single letter during his period of imprisonment
which made him emotionally very vulnerable. This part or chapter concludes with Wilde offering
his forgiveness to Bosie for what he thought of as arrogance, ignorance and vanity.

The second part starts with the traces of Wilde’s Spiritual growth after all the physical and
emotional hardships of prison he had. Wilde uses Isaiah 53:3 to introduce his Christian theme:
"He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid our
faces from him. It provides for Wilde’s meditation on suffering. He misses his wife and childrens
a lot. His mother passed away during this period about which his wife personally told him by
travelling all the way to him. He was very touched by this gesture.5

"De Profundis" is filled with criticisms of Bosie's character. This letter talks about the fact that
how Bosie used to spend Wilde’s money on his lavish lifestyle, his lack of care and attention for
Wilde, his love of scandal. It contains the minutest of details which shows that how much Wilde
has been hurt and offended and disrespected in this relationship. Wilde caught flu about which
Bosie was very insensitive. He even went on to publish some of the Wilde’s personal letters.
Wilde declares to Bosie that "my letter has its definite meaning behind every phrase. There is

5
See (De Profundis – Modernism Lab) https://campuspress.yale.edu/modernismlab/de-profundis/

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 nothing in it of rhetoric." Yet by accepting blame and not rejecting Bosie, Wilde rhetorically
presents himself as humble instead of angry. It solicits sympathy from Bosie as well as readers in
general because he characterizes himself as both suffering and acting in nobility. Wilde’s remarks
make parts of it very controversial as it has specific and personal criticism of Bosie. Only after
writing the letter does Wilde considers his relationship with Bosie and how it has transformed.
He admits that his letter to Bosie has been harsh and he also acknowledges the faults of Bosie.

"De Profundis" consistently declares Wilde's desire not to ignore or reject his hardships but rather
to embrace them. He tells Bosie that "the silence, the solitude, the shame—each of these things I
had to transform into a spiritual experience." The second half of "De Profundis" extensively
meditates on the image of Christ. Briefly sketching his ascendancy and dominance of the literary
and social scenes in London, he contrasts his past position and the attendant pleasure with his
current position and the pain it brings. The major element of De Profundis is self-realisation.
Wilde who had lost everything dear to him does not accuse external forces, justified as it may be,
but rather absorbs his hardships through the artistic process into a spiritual experience.6

Giving a backdrop of how and why he was sent to prison. The Marquess of Queensberry, the
father of Alfred Douglas when got to know about the relationship between Douglas and Wilde,
he wanted them to end it. Wilde refused to do so. Douglas’ father went on to publicly shame and
accuse Wilde for the crime of homosexuality. ‘Crime’ because homosexuality at that time was
not acceptable in England and it was stigmatised. Wilde then sued Bosie’s father for criminal
libel but then after there were some letters, intimate notes and evidences found which made the
accusations true. He was sent for trial and then he was imprisoned for 2 years. He writes, "To
humility there is nothing that is impossible, and to love all things are easy." Wilde's use of the
word "humility" in the passage echoes Christ's advocacy of humility.

6
See Mankoff S, (The Beauty in Hatred: Oscar Wilde’s Aesthetic Theory in De Profundis, August 30,
2012) https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/literature/the-beauty-in-hatred-oscar-wildes-aesthetic-
theory-in-de-profundis

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 CHAPTER 4 – SEXUAL STIGMA

The quality or characteristic of anyone being attracted to the person of his/her own gender is called
homosexual. It is a romantic, sexual attraction between people of the same gender. The prejudice,
discriminatory behaviour for the people belonging to these categories has always been there in the
society. Things started getting normalized as the time passed and people got okay and aware with
such things. But the time here we are talking about is not the modern time and today’s world but the
time of 17 th century when the things were not so normal infact same sex relationships were a crime.

People did not perceive same sex relationships to be pious or pure because they were in minority
and even the people who were interested in such relationships used to suppress their feelings because
humans are social animal and they want to be accepted in the society that is why they used not to do
such things that were not acceptable in the society.

Now, at that point in time when these things were so unacceptable in society, we can imagine how
the life of people would have looked like when the society got to know about their life secrets. This
is what happened when the father of Bosie publicly accused Wilde of homosexuality which was a
crime in England at that very time. He was ashamed publicly for something that was inherent, that
was natural. When people got to know about this, they developed certain form of prejudice for him.
They started looking down upon him. When such things happen, it does not only affects your image
in the society but also your own mental health and the carrier that you are into. This is what happened
with Wilde. During the time that he was imprisoned, he suffered from lonliness as Bosie totally
abandoned him. The carrier that he had built up, all the fame he had earned was shattered in a day
because people started stigmatising him. He was convicted for gross indecency and imprisoned for
two years of hard labour in jail. The one who had lived a lavish, luxurious always had two spend his
two precious years in jail. Wilde was a rich, glamorous, aristocratic celebrity, famous for his wit and
funny plays. Yet when his homosexuality came to light,Victorian society was shocked. Wilde was
hunted down, he was prosecuted and thrown into jail for nothing. After getting released from prison,
he lived for a very short period with Bosie and then after he died soon in 1900.7

7
(The Perception of Male Homosexuality in Great Britain from the 19th century to the Present
— Anglais, March 13, 2001) https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/civilisation/domainebritannique/the-
perception-of-male-homosexuality-in-great-britain-from-the-19th-century-to-the-present

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This event made his name unspeakable and works unsalable because no one would buy the work of
a person accused of homosexuality. Only after decades did it become possible to mention him. His
trials made homosexuality even more invisible than it had been before. Wilde had three trials, and
“being a homosexual” was not the specific charge in any of them. He started legal proceedings
himself, in response to harsh provocation, and the charge he brought was one of libel, though it arose
in relation to claims about his sexual behaviour. Before the Wilde trials, a series of events had made
Queensberry hypersensitive to sexual relations between men. The most important was the death of
his oldest son and heir, Francis, Viscount Drumlanrig, in 1894. Drumlanrig was rumored to have
had an affair with Lord Rosebery, the Prime Minister. Supposedly threatened with exposure, he
killed himself, although his death was recorded as a shooting accident.

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 CHAPTER 5 – LEGAL CONNECTIVITY

The Buggery Act of 1533, passed by Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII, is the first time in
law that male homosexuality was targeted for persecution in the UK. Completely outlawing sodomy
in Britain – and by extension what would become the entire British Empire – convictions were
punishable by death. It was not until 1861 with the passing of the Offences Against the Person Act,
that the death penalty was abolished for acts of sodomy – instead being made punishable by a
minimum of 10 years imprisonment.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 however, went a step further once again, making any male
homosexual act illegal – whether or not a witness was present – meaning that even acts committed
in private could be prosecuted. Often a letter expressing terms of affection between two men was all
that was required to bring a prosecution. The legislation was so ambiguously worded that it became
known as the ‘Blackmailer's Charter’, and in 1895, Oscar Wilde fell victim.

Female homosexuality was never explicitly targeted by any legislation. Although discussed for the
first time in Parliament in 1921 with a view to introducing discriminatory legislation. In the post-
war period, transgender identities started to become visible. The Report of the Departmental
Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, better known as the Wolfenden Report, was
published in 1957, three years after the committee first met in September 1954. Central to the report
findings was that the state should focus on protecting the public, rather than scrutinising people’s
private lives.

In 2004 the Civil Partnership Act 2004 allowed same-sex couples to legally enter into binding
partnerships, similar to marriage. The subsequent Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013 then went
further, allowing same-sex couples in England and Wales to marry; Scotland followed suit with the
Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014. Northern Ireland enactment the Northern
Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019, making same-sex marriage legal on 13 January 2020.
The Gender Recognition Act 2004, which came into effect on 4 April 2005, gave trans people full
legal recognition of their gender, allowing them to acquire a new birth certificate – although gender
options are limited to ‘male’ or ‘female’. Between July and October 2018 the UK Government
consulted the public on reforming the Act. As of 1 September 2020 no report from the consultation
has been published.

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 The Equality Act 2010 gave LGBT employees protections from discrimination, harassment and
victimisation at work. The legislation brought together existing legislation and added protections for
trans workers, solidifying rights granted by the Gender Recognition Act. 8

The LGBT community continues to fight for equality and social acceptance.

8
(British Library) https://www.bl.uk/lgbtq-histories/articles/a-short-history-of-lgbt-rights-in-the-uk

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CONCLUSION

In the completion of this project we have seen that who Oscar Wilde is. Of course he needs no
introduction if we are talking about literature. Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin
(now home of the Oscar Wilde Centre, Trinity College), the second of three children born to an
Anglo-Irish couple: Jane, née Elgee and Sir William Wilde. Oscar was two years younger than his
brother, William (Willie) Wilde. Moving on we have seen one of his most prominent works De
Profundis which was published by Robert Ross who was one of his lovers and a very good friend
to him in the year 1905, 5 years after his death. We saw that how Wilde has described his pain and
suffering of prison as learning and came out stronger out of it. He has criticised Bosie in such a way
that the criticism has been taken very softly. The reader as well as Bosie sympathizes with Wilde.
Wilde also mentions that the suffering were not because of anyone else but the reason was him. He
writes that how disheartened he was on getting no letters or anything from Bosie during the period
of his imprisonment. He felt betrayed that Bosie had lived such lavishly on his money. The food,
room rents, hotels, lifestyle and everything Wilde paid for from the money he had made all these
years. He felt cheated. On the other hand, he was very happy on seeing his wife coming and telling
him the news that his mother had died. He was touched by this gesture. The second part of De
Profundis deals with the spiritual journey of Wilde that how he has moved to become spiritual
growing out of his emotional and physical hardships. We have also discussed that how certain group
of people are stigmatized in the society like here we are talking about homosexual people. The
hardships they have to face because they are perceived to be different than the so called normal
people. The hardships are not only emotional or mental but it could also turn out to be monetary as
the carrier of them is also affected as we have seen. The time when the secrecy of Wilde was
revealed was a time when homosexuality was not just a stigma but also a crime for which rigorous
punishment was given. Later on, when homosexuality became legal in the United Kingdoms, all the
charges on Oscar Wilde were removed.

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Bibliography:-

1. Oscar Wilde, ‘De Profundis’, Dover publication, (8th edition, 2011 )

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Profundis_(letter)#First_part:_Wilde's_account_of
_time_with_Douglas

4. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/De-Profundis/plot-
summary/#:~:text=The%20second%20half%20of%20%22De,finds%20prison%20c
onditions%20very%20difficult

5. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/De-Profundis/plot-
summary/#:~:text=The%20second%20half%20of%20%22De,finds%20prison%20c
onditions%20very%20difficult

6. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/De-Profundis/plot-
summary/#:~:text=The%20second%20half%20of%20%22De,finds%20prison%20c
onditions%20very%20difficult

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