[[quoteright:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oscar_wilde_2.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:330:''[[PrettyBoy Fabulous]].'']]
->''"All that I desire to point out is the general principle that Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life."''
-->-- '''Oscar Wilde'''

->''"[He] is still occasionally mistaken for actor GeneWilder, probably because he’s as close to [[Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Willy Wonka]] as any living human’s ever been."''
-->-- ''Website/{{Cracked}}'', [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-10-best-comebacks-of-all-time/ "The 10 Best Comebacks of All Time"]]

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish playwright of the Victorian Era; he lived in VictorianLondon. A huge celebrity of his day, known for his wit and social commentary. He habitually made perverse and snarky quips, and often immortalized them in his work. His most celebrated play, ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest,'' is still often performed today. He also wrote poetry, most famously ''The Ballad of Reading Gaol'', one novel (''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'') and several beautiful tales, including ''Literature/TheHappyPrince''. He once wrote a break-up letter that became world-famous (''De Profundis'').

His fun was interrupted when he sued for libel over being called homosexual. He was, in fact, homosexual (or maybe [[NoBisexuals bisexual]]), but British law would still have found for him if that had been considered irrelevant. Instead, he lost, and since homosexuality was illegal... yeah. RealLife DownerEnding, there.

Famous for producing an enormous body of quotable wit- enormous enough that of the hundreds of quotes ''attributed'' to him, as many as half may resemble things he actually said. This tendency to gather misattributions is the root of his status as Wiki/{{Uncyclopedia}}'s MemeticBadass / MemeticMolester / MemeticSexGod in chief.
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!!'''Works with their own pages:'''

* ''{{The Importance of Being Earnest}}''
* ''Literature/{{The Picture of Dorian Gray}}''
* ''Theatre/{{Salome}}''
* ''Literature/TheHappyPrince''
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!!'''Other works provide examples of:'''

* AlasPoorYorick or ALoveToDismember: ''Salome''
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: An aversion drives the plot of ''An Ideal Husband.''
* AuthorAvatar: The character with all the good lines generally; Lord Darlington in ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' and Lord Goring in ''An Ideal Husband'' specifically)
* AuthorsOfQuote: Even within his own lifetime
* AuthorTract: Nearly everything he wrote, to some extent.
* {{Badass}}
** BadassBookworm
** BadassLongcoat
** BadassGay
** Although it's not the image one associates with Wilde, he was a keen boxer in his student days. (Which is particularly ironic, given that the modern rules for boxing were written by the very same Marquess of Queensberry whose "libel" precipitated Wilde's fall.)
* BedsheetGhost: ''The Canterville Ghost''.
* {{Blackmail}}: Mrs. Cheveley, twice, in ''An Ideal Husband.'' [[spoiler: She fails both times.]] Mrs. Erlynne in ''Lady Windermere's Fan''.
* BombThrowingAnarchist: Real life aversion. Wilde was an anarchist, but he was certainly no bomb-thrower.
* BreakTheHaughty: His incarceration after his trial.
* CampGay: or Camp Bi. It's thought that many of the modern Camp Gay stereotypes originated with Wilde's flamboyant public persona. If not the TropeMaker, he was certainly a TropeCodifier.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: His comment on the wallpaper, dressing like prince Rupert for a costume party then wearing the same costume everyday, holding only a lily in a blue vase in his rooms, wanting to satisfy his blue porcelain set.
* DeadpanSnarker: Everyone in his plays. '''Everyone'''. The man himself as well.
* DoubleStandard: Several of his plays at least touch upon the unfairness of women's reputations being ruined by activities that men are allowed to get away with.
* DownerEnding: Various works, to say nothing of the last few years of his own life, which border on DiabolusExMachina territory.
* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: ''[[http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/gsr/portmrwh.htm The Portrait Of Mr. W. H.]]
* FalseWidow: Mrs. Arbuthnot from ''A Woman of No Importance''.
* FamousLastWords: One of the last sentences he was believed to have said while dying of cerebral meningitis; "The wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do."
* GallowsHumor the aforementioned last words being an example on TheOtherWiki.
* HiddenDepths: Lord Goring in ''An ideal husband''.
* HomoeroticSubtext: Found in ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray''. Played with in ''[[http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/gsr/portmrwh.htm The Portrait Of Mr. W. H.]] (see also EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory)''
* HumiliationConga: Again, his imprisonment.
* InsaneTrollLogic: "The Devoted Friend", "The Remarkable Rocket", "The Crime of Lord Arthur Savile".
* LoverAndBeloved: Bosie and him.
* MasterPoisoner: Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, according to ''Pen, Pencil, and Poison''
* {{Narcissist}}: How he liked to act. ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'' is a book about this.
* OurSoulsAreDifferent: "The Fisherman and his Soul"
* PatrickStewartSpeech: [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars]].
* PatrioticFervor: He really wasn't a fan of it, with his famous words, "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious". Mainly because he knew how Britain treated its colonies while claiming inherent British superiority.
* PrettyBoy: Bosie.
* SelfPlagiarism: Some of the same bits of dialogue appear in more than one of his plays.
* ShakespeareInFiction: "The Portrait of Mr. W.H."
* SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers: Once called a cynic 'a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing'.
* SmugSnake: Mrs. Cheveley in ''An Ideal Husband.''
* TakeThat: To various cultures, places, and people for his satirical works.
* TitleDrop: ''The Importance of Being Earnest''; ''An Ideal Husband''; ''AWomanOfNoImportance''
* UpperClassWit: Lots, including Wilde himself.

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