Wilde's world impact was gigantic not because of the enormous success that his works have found with contemporary audiences
or because of his position as spokesman for the Aesthetic movement, either. What Wilde's real lasting impression is stands
with the amount of publicity he brought to the issue of homosexuality. Wilde's impact on the way England and, really, the
entire world, viewed the possibility of two men together was revolutionary.
The tagline
of the 1998 movie about Wilde's life is that Wilde was the "First Modern Man". While this assertion is obviously an enormous
claim, it is not entirely inaccurate--in fact, it's almost true. Given, the Gay Rights movement didn't really get started
until the Stonewall Riots in 1969, over a hundred years after Wilde's birth; Wilde certainly did not martyr himself so
that the world would suddenly be universally tolerant of homosexual behavior. It can, however, be said that an issue that
was never thought about during Wilde's timed was dragged to the fore-front of every newspaper and would never be entirely
ignored again.
Even in
Wilde's time there were many famous supporters of Wilde. Some, like Robert Ross, Reginald Turner, and other members of
their literary circle were obviously accepting of the practice because they indulged in it themselves. However, many figures
including Frances Hodgson Burnett the writer of conservative children's novels such as The Secret Garden and The Little Princess
argued to release Wilde because what he had been imprisoned for hurt nobody and was not the government's business. These were
shocking positions to take at the time (as has clearly been evidenced by the way they were received during Wilde's trial)
and probably went against everything these people believed.
It is important
to take note when writers like Victor Hugo, a great humanitarian but one who often emphasized the importance of God in his
works, risked their incredibly successful careers because they felt it was right to at least say publicly that they pity Wilde's
fate and support him throughout. It's not hard to imagine what the effect on their lives could have been if these comments
had been heard by the wrong person. A society as opposed to change and uniqueness as Victorian England was would do anything
to maintain order, even imprisoning their most important cultural individuals just for arguing in favor of something controversial,
regardless of whether or not they indulge in it.
It must
be taken into account that after Wilde's death although gays were still not welcome parts of society, they were often accepted
by more liberal-minded members of society and laws against them became less harsh. By the 1920s, many major cities had significant
gay populations living in well known gay hot spots and lived in relative peace. That's a long way to come in 20 years and
while many extenuating factors contributed (take for example the implications of two World Wars in Europe where soldiers live
together without any female contact for months) it cannot be ignored that the Trials of Oscar Wilde brought these events into
the open.
Like
many societies hostile to change, it was the introduction of new ideas that was most disturbing. Once an idea had been widely
distributed for longer and longer periods of time they sink in and people realize there's nothing that bad about the change.
This is what happened thanks to the publicity brought to homosexuality by Oscar Wilde. By the 1940's Homosexuals were basically
accepted as part of society and thought the flux of conservative ideology during the fifties quelled gay communities for a
time, when they began to demand equal treatment in the 60's, very few were shocked to find out they existed.
Oscar Wilde survives
today as one of the most recognized gay idols in history. It is nearly impossible to go through a day without hearing someone
quote his wit. Gays turn proudly to Wilde when they feel unaccepted by society and through the stories he wrote to express
his own frustration at this lack of acceptance find a kindred spirit. Wilde is not only a gay icon, however. He has proved
popular for over a century by audiences both hostile and friendly to his sexual orientation, his hilarious parodies on society
still ring true today, and he is widely accepted as one of the great writers of the Nineteenth Century.