Oscar Wilde by GK Chesterton - G. K. Chesterton

7/17/2019 Oscar Wilde by GK Chesterton - G. K. Chesterton

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/oscar-wilde-by-gk-chesterton-g-k-chesterton 1/4

Oscar Wilde by G.K. Chesterton

Originally published in the Daily News, 1909.

Later collected in A Handful of Authors.

The time has certainly come when this extraordinary man, Oscar Wilde, may be

considered merely as a man of letters. He sometimes retended that art was

more imortant than morality, b!t that was mere lay"actin#. $orality or

immorality was more imortant than art to him and e%eryone else. &!t the %ery

clo!d of tra#edy that rested on his career ma'es it easier to treat him as a mere

artist now. His was a comlete life, in that awf!l sense in which yo!r life and

mine are incomlete( since we ha%e not yet aid for o!r sins. )n that sense one

mi#ht call it a erfect life, as one sea's of a erfect e*!ation( it cancels o!t. On

the one hand we ha%e the healthy horror of the e%il( on the other the healthyhorror of the !nishment. We ha%e it all the more beca!se both sin and

!nishment were hi#hly ci%ili+ed( that is, nameless and secret. ome ha%e said

that Wilde was sacrificed( let it be eno!#h for !s to insist on the literal meanin#

of the word. -ny ox that is really sacrificed is made sacred.

&!t the %ery fact that monstro!s wron# and monstro!s re%en#e cancel each

other, act!ally does lea%e this indi%id!al artist in that %ery airy detachment

which he rofessed to desire. We can really consider him solely as a man of

letters.



-bo!t Oscar Wilde, as abo!t other wits, israeli or &ernard haw, men wa#e a

war of words, some callin# him a #reat artist and others a mere charlatan. &!t

this contro%ersy misses the really extraordinary thin# abo!t Wilde/ the thin#

that aears rather in the lays than the oems. He was a #reat artist. He also

was really a charlatan. ) mean by a charlatan one s!fficiently di#nified to desise

the tric's that he emloys. - %!l#ar dema#o#!e is not a charlatan( he is as

coarse as his crowd. He may be lyin# in e%ery word, b!t he is sincere in his style.

tyle as Wilde mi#ht ha%e said is only another name for sirit. -#ain, a man

li'e $r. &ernard haw is not a charlatan. ) can !nderstand eole thin'in# his

remar's h!rried or shallow or senselessly er%erse, or blashemo!s, or merely

narrow. &!t ) cannot !nderstand anyone failin# to feel that $r. haw is bein# as

s!##esti%e as he can, is #i%in# his bri#htest and boldest sec!lations to the

rabble, is offerin# somethin# which he honestly thin's %al!able. 2ow Wildeoften !ttered remar's which he m!st ha%e 'nown to be literally %al!eless. haw

may be hi#h or low, b!t he ne%er tal's down to the a!dience. Wilde did tal'

down, sometimes %ery far down.

Wilde and his school rofessed to stand as solitary artistic so!ls aart from the

!blic. They rofessed to scorn the middle class, and declared that the artist

m!st not wor' for the bo!r#eois. The tr!th is that no artist so really #reat e%er

wor'ed so m!ch for the bo!r#eois as Oscar Wilde. 2o man, so caable of

thin'in# abo!t tr!th and bea!ty, e%er tho!#ht so constantly abo!t his own effect

on the middle classes. He st!died them with ex*!isite attention, and 'new

exactly how to shoc' and how to lease them. $r. haw often #ets abo%e them

in serahic indi#nation, and often below them in sterile and materialistic

exlanations. He dis#!sts them with new tr!ths or he bores them with old

tr!ths( b!t they are always li%in# tr!ths to &ernard haw. Wilde 'new how to

say the recise thin# which, whether tr!e or false, is irresistible. -s, for examle,

3) can resist e%erythin# b!t temtation.3

&!t he sometimes san' lower. One mi#ht #o thro!#h his swift and sar'lin#

lays with a red and bl!e encil mar'in# two 'inds of ei#rams( the real

ei#ram which he wrote to lease his own wild intellect, and the sham ei#ram

which he wrote to thrill the %ery tamest art of o!r tame ci%ili+ation. This is

what ) mean by sayin# that he was strictly a charlatan " amon# other thin#s. He

descended below himself to be on to of others. He became !rosely st!ider

than Oscar Wilde that he mi#ht seem cle%erer than the nearest c!rate. He

lowered himself to s!eriority( he stooed to con*!er.



One mi#ht easily ta'e examles of the hrase meant to li#htly to!ch the tr!th

and the hrase meant only to bl!ff the bo!r#eoisie. 4or instance, in 3- Woman

of 2o )mortance,3 he ma'es his chief hilosoher say that all tho!#ht is

immoral, bein# essentially destr!cti%e( 32othin# s!r%i%es bein# tho!#ht of.3

That is nonsense, b!t nonsense of the nobler sort( there is an idea in it. )t is, li'e

most rofessedly modern ideas, a death"dealin# idea not a life"#i%in# one( b!t it

is an idea. There is tr!ly a sense in which all definition is deletion. T!rn a few

a#es of the same lay and yo! will find somebody as'in#, 3What is an immoral

woman 53 The hilosoher answers, 3The 'ind of woman a man ne%er #ets tired

of.3 2ow that is not nonsense, b!t rather r!bbish. )t is witho!t %al!e of any sort

or 'ind. )t is not symbolically tr!e( it is not fantastically tr!e( it is not tr!e at all.

-nyone with the mildest 'nowled#e of the world 'nows that nobody can be s!cha cons!min# bore as a certain 'ind of immoral woman. That %ice ne%er tires

men, mi#ht be a tenable and entertainin# lie( that the indi%id!al instr!ment of

%ice ne%er tires them is not, e%en as a lie, tenable eno!#h to be entertainin#.

Here the #reat wit was layin# the chea dandy to the incredibly innocent( as

m!ch as if he had !t on aer c!ffs and collars. He is simly shoc'in# a tame

c!rate( and he m!st be rather a secially tame c!rate e%en to be shoc'ed. This

irritatin# d!lication of real brilliancy with snobbish bl!ff r!ns thro!#h all his

three comedies. 36ife is m!ch too imortant to be ta'en serio!sly3( that is the

tr!e h!morist. 3- well"tied tie is the first serio!s ste in life3( that is the

charlatan. 3$an can belie%e the imossible, b!t man can ne%er belie%e the

imrobable3( that is said by a fine hilosoher. 32othin# is so fatal to a

ersonality as the 'eein# of romises, !nless it be tellin# the tr!th3( that is said

by a tired *!ac'. 3- man can be hay with any woman so lon# as he does not

lo%e her3( that is wild tr!th. 3Good intentions are in%ariably !n#rammatical3(

that is tame trash.

&!t while he had a strain of h!mb!# in him, which there is not in the

dema#o#!es of wit li'e &ernard haw, he had, in his own stran#e way, a m!ch

deeer and more sirit!al nat!re than they. 7!eerly eno!#h, it was the %ery

m!ltit!de of his falsities that re%ented him from bein# entirely false. 6i'e a

many"colo!red h!mmin# to, he was at once a bewilderment and a balance. He

was so fond of bein# many"sided that amon# his sides he e%en admitted the

ri#ht side. He lo%ed so m!ch to m!ltily his so!ls that he had amon# them one

so!l at least that was sa%ed. He desired all bea!tif!l thin#s " e%en God.



His fri#htf!l fallacy was that he wo!ld not see that there is reason in e%erythin#,

e%en in reli#ion and morality. 8ni%ersality is a contradiction in terms. o!

cannot be e%erythin# if yo! are anythin#. )f yo! wish to be white all o%er, yo!

m!st a!sterely resist the temtation to ha%e #reen sots or yellow stries. )f yo!

wish to be #ood all o%er, yo! m!st resist the sots of sin or the stries of

ser%it!de. )t may be #reat f!n to be many"sided( b!t howe%er many sides one

has there cannot be one of them which is comlete and ro!nded innocence. -

oly#on can ha%e an infinite n!mber of sides( b!t no one of its sides can be a

circle.

Documents

Oscar Wilde by GK Chesterton - G. K. Chesterton