Charmides

by Oscar Wilde

Charmides by Oscar Wilde Known for his barbed wit, Oscar Wilde was one of the most successful late-Victorian playwrights and a great celebrity. The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray are among his best known works. He is perhaps most famous for his trial, in which he eloquently defended homosexual love and was sentenced to two years of hard labor. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

Published June 26, 2018

About the author

Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde 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. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, 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.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.

Reviews

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a couple of reads-through to grasp this one properly. My first impression was what wonderful use of language! I greatly admire Wilde's ability to write so beautifully within a rigid poetic structure of rhyme and meter. I especially loved the use of different descriptive techniques and the richness of detail in the geographical setting.

I thought a lot about the shape of the poem and appreciated the undulations and rhythms in dramatic intensity. Wilde uses apprehension and tension so effectively for accentuating peaks of bliss and peace and bringing out the feeling in moments of tragedy. He creates atmosphere so well. There were also comparisons between Charmides' different interactions which I'll explore more below.

I enjoyed the Greek mythological setting and remembering elements such as birds being used as omens/significant markers.

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I noticed some themes:

Reverence/irreverence
The characters following their sexual passions are the ones who go against the gods (Charmides and the dryad maid who are both punished). This is in contrast others who offer sacrifices to Athena near the beginning and those who refrain from looking on Charmides by the stream (in case he is a god). What does this show? What statement is it making? Is it advocating the rightness of following one's romantic passions and expressing a frustration that the way the world works is wrong (that those passions don't fit with how it works)? Is it reinforcing the power of moral authorities or does it demand change? There seems to be a link between sexuality and disobedience to the gods.

The blindness of love
There is a sad irony in Charmides' inability to see that Athena is coming to avenge herself; the blindness of his love leads to his death. The blindness of the dryad maid's love seems different in that it is given credit in the afterlife when both of their passions are consummated.

Hotness and coolness
The hotness of sexual passion is used in contrast with the coldness and lifelessness of both Athena (when Charmides is with the statue) and Charmides (when the dryad maid is with him). For example, this is seen explicitly in Athena's "chill and icy breast" in contrast with the "throbbing bosom" of the dryad maid. Certain aspects were repeated e.g. Charmides arms around their necks which led me to think the contrast was purposeful.

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I was unsatisfied with the following:

Physical beauty as related to divinity
This theme was seen particularly in Athena and Charmides (even though he wasn't divine his beauty caused comparisons with the gods). I'd like to see this ethic of holding the physically attractive as more superior challenged.

Physical/sexual passion but an absence of emotional love/connection
Throughout the whole poem there is a stark absence of any relational connection. This seems exaggerated by the inability of the sexual partners to reciprocate; Athena was inanimate and Charmides never knew the dryad maid until after death. The latter intrigues me: why were they then described as lovers? The term implies mutuality. The focus on sexual love had elements of tenderness and beauty but, wholly uncoupled with emotional/personal devotion, felt empty.

Virginity
The virginity of the women in the poem seems lauded more highly than the men's. This is less a dissatisfaction and more a question: is there a double standard here?

Consent
The poem indulged in nonconsential sexual activity (Charmides toward Athena and the dryad maid towards Charmides). It was only in Hades that Charmides and the dryad maid enjoyed mutual sex.

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I found this interesting:
The relation of Athena the statue and the real Athena. They seemed linked in a deeper way than a mere physical replica of a person, due to the nature of the reaction against Charmides' actions towards the statue. Is there some spiritual/deeper link? Or was the reaction purely due to the fact that his actions were symbolically irreverent?

[Poiesis]

1800s smut is amazing and I have gained respect for Mr. Wilde

My only complaint is that he didn't write this about me.
No, honestly I would pay so much money to have Oscar Wilde brought back to life so i could have a conversation with him.

[Dyan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amusingly raunchy, for an 1800s poem; however Wilde's style is not to my personal taste, and I struggled to maintain interest.