The Billing Trial: The Postmortem Condemnation of Oscar Wilde
The Billing Trial: The Postmortem Condemnation of Oscar Wilde: The Cult Of Wilde In the mid 1910’s, during the midst of World War I, London was rife with political and social tensions. It has been twenty years since the infamous trial of playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, convicted for acts of sodomy and “gross indecency.” A figurehead of the Aestheticism movement, Oscar’s legacy was etched into the very bowels of English society- even after his death in 1900, the supposed “Wildean Cult” emerged: A society of young homosexuals, artists, and poets. The youth of England, caught between a never-ending war and the changing roles of men and women, found self-expression through the ideals of Wilde. Hedonism as an art was in full blossom. But along with this faction of illustrative youth, there grew a puritan influence in the politics of Britain. Wilde’s name was demonized, his works seen as disgusting, unholy, dirty, and completely lacking in moral character, and there was a growing conce...