Oscar Wildes Impacts To Crime And Punishment English Literature Essay

Oscar Wildes Impacts To Crime And Punishment English Literature EssayWith his witty charm and consis ext plays Oscar Wilde has inspired some of the closely intelligent minds of our generation. The attitudes of high society towards homosexuality crap altered signifi slewtly since the article of faith of Oscar Wilde in 1895. al iodine to counsel his trial run for sodomy had a minimal inadequate termination impact on crime and penalisation is a gross infrastatement, it rocked the justnesss on sodomy and the harsh prison system to their core. As Oscar Wilde would say I do the twentieth century able to look itself in the face. manful homosexuality was make a seat of government offence in England under the Buggery subroutine of 1533 and the first man to be convicted was playwright Nicholas Udall in 1541, who was impris wizardd for a year. The practice of law became eternal in 1563 until replaced by the Offences Against the slew Act of 1828. The death penalty was the sente nce until 1861 though it was only exacted on a few occasions. Thereafter punishment became imprisonment being from ten eagle-eyed time up to sustenance. However the law became stricter the 1885 sad Law Amendment Act made any homosexual act illegal and amid the prosecutions was of course, Oscar Wilde. Underneath the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the maximum penalty for gross indecency was two years incarceration, which was reduced from life in prison, which had itself been condensed from hanging. But what appears to be a softer come on towards homosexuality is really just an elusive disguise, since the prejudice towards homosexuality had been at an increase towards the late 19th century and considered to be a fantastical criminality.But how did Wilde end up in jail? On eighteenth February the Marques of Queensberry left his calling card decorated for Oscar Wilde, posing sodomite. Wilde, (influenced by his caramel brown and Queensberrys son Lord Alfred Douglas) initiated a trial against Queensberry which ultimately back-fired. The trial in fact guide to details of Wildes homosexuality and overwhelming evidence led to The Crown VS Wilde trial and on 25th May 1895 Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years heavy labour.FileOscarwildetrial.jpgWith the law passed in 1895 that made any act of gross indecency a crime and the renown of Oscar Wilde, same sex relationships that might once have been seen as gratis(p) now became suspect. The Wilde trials ca apply social attitudes toward crime and punishment for homosexuals to stupefy harsher and less tolerant. Whereas preliminary to the trials there was a certain compassion for those who engaged in same-sex passion, after the trials homosexuals were seen more as a hazard. The Wilde trials also had another(prenominal) tacks. They caused the man to bulge out to connect art and homosexuality and to analyse effeminacy as a signal for homosexuality. Many same sex relationships seen as guil tless in the lead the Wilde trials became suspect after them. People with same sex relationships grew anxious closely doing something that might suggest indecency.Wilde was jailed in Pentonville Prison originally heretofore he was then transported too Wandsworth prison in London. The regime at the time was tough disenfranchised labour, hard f are and a hard bed was the guiding philosophy. Wilde was required to work on a tread-wheel during his time in prison and I would suggest that the banning of the salt mine was credit to Oscar Wildes acquaintanceship with it. Wilde in fact became really ill from the hard labour of the treadwheel which later contri unlessed towards his early death. I do non think it was mere coincidence that the banning of the treadwheel happened so curtly after Wildes release and I believe it is one of the wideest short term impacts Wilde had on crime and punishment.Oscar Wildes trial engrossed the nation, the subject proceeds a cause of intense rumour and speculation. But how did this have the effect of changing social attitudes towards the crime and punishment of homosexuals? The status of Wilde had a great deal to do with the magnanimity that the trials grew to. The factors that made him different in the look of the public, particularly his nature, transformed him into a model little terror. At this time, the fear and threat of homosexuality was growing, and Wildes trial took part in that expansion. However I would non agree that Wildes case alone dramatically changed the attitudes of the public, just now rather that it was one of several other incidents during the span of two decades that caused a more ravening fear of homosexuals. For example the Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889 fuelled the attitude that homosexuality was a tool to destroy male youths. The Cleveland Street Scandal in consequence was when a homosexual brothel in Cleveland Street, London, was found by police. Therefore, this, toppled with the freshly Cri minal Law Amendment Act enacted in the late 1800s, was what truly wedge attitudes in England.Analysing the Jury is pivotal to understanding how the Wilde trial impacted public attitudes to crime and punishment for homosexuals and the divisions amongst the jury reflected current public opinion very healthy. At first the public couldnt cry crucify him loud enough, but afterwards the figures increased of those who hoped Wilde would be acquitted, in view of the meagre feature of the prosecution witnesses, even if he had done what he was accused of. champion clergyman, the Reverend Selwyn Image, even found the nerve to describe the entire law under which Wilde is charged, as pernicious.The judge even called the Wilde trial as the finish up case he had ever tried and proclaimed that the maximum sentence of two years was in fact lenient. I wrap up that the reaction from the judge during the trials sentencing statement is enough evidence to confirm the direful views of the public towa rds crime and punishment for homosexuality.Not only his trial but Wildes imprisonment and exile changed public attitudes on the prison system. He force from his experience to produce The Ballad of Reading Gaol and several articles against the despicable conditions in British prisons, one of which contributed to the passing of a law to sustain the imprisonment of children. During Wildes imprisonment, a hanging took place. Charles Thomas Wooldridge had been a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards. He was convicted of cutting the throat of his wife, Laura Ellen, earlier that year. This had a profound effect on Wilde, inspiring the line Yet each(prenominal) man kills the thing he loves. The ballad had some influence on public perception as well as it described what life in gaol was like. Although it could be argued that he didnt have a considerable term impact on hanging in prisons as it was censor in 1969, I strongly believe Wilde had an impact on attitudes toward capital punishment in the short term as it must be remembered that The ballad of Reading Gaol was published and was rather popular.Such was the electron orbit of influence on the trial of Oscar Wilde that it had a negative impact on how crime and punishment for homosexuality was perceived across the Atlantic. American report red-hot York Times stressed a need for a law on gross indecency which being the distinguished newspaper it is, quite obviously impacted public attitude towards sodomy. After Wildes arrest, the April 6 New York Times discussed Wildes case as a query of immorality and would not specifically address homosexuality, discussing the men some as young as 18 that were brought up in the witness box. The treatment of the Wilde case in American newspapers reflects the American attitude towards the subject in the 1890s although in discussion, homosexuality could not be named.Furthermore Englands national newspapers also had a negative impact on short term attitudes towards homosexuality as the news about the trial was biased and faulty at best. It is no secret that newspapers are in business to make money so analysing newspaper articles is vital to understanding public attitude that the Oscar Wilde trials brought, after all, they are a sounding board for current attitudes. They caused Oscar Wildes trial as well as his conviction to be an extremely exposed event, strongly influencing the modal value thepublicinterpreted homosexuality and the crime of sodomy. The articles of the regularing Standard and the dawn among others portrayed Wilde as having a particular tendency toward committing sexual acts with other men. The newspapers also most effectively described Wilde as a languorous, haired lover of sunflowers. I would therefore analyse that newspapers transformed homosexual acts into a homosexual identity. Despite the substance of homosexual categories in medical books by 1869, Victorian journalism created a new homosexual parable that the Oscar Wilde trials can l ay claim to producing the category of the homosexual. National newspapers were overall a vice for what public attitude was for crime and punishment for homosexuals 1895.One could argue that in the short term, Wilde influenced the origins of many pressure ag meetings. For example in 1895 Earl Lind created Cercle Hermaphroditos which was the 1st group to announce a political agenda to clash against the discrimination of homosexuals. As well as this, in 1897 George Cecil Ives structured the first homosexual rights group in England, the Order of Chaeronea. These pressure groups in my opinion clearly choke a positive indication that the Oscar Wilde trial increased public knowingness and influenced attitudes of political persecution of homosexuals. But how could the formation of two small pressure groups suggest that the Wilde trial impacted attitudes in the short term? Pressure groups have played and continue to play an important part in the information of political and social systems and it must not be forgot that pressure groups influenced the governments ratiocination to allow homosexual acts in 1967.Douglas O. Linder, author of Famous Trials summed up the Oscar Wilde scandalisation quite appropriately when he stated Celebrity, sex, witty dialogue, political intrigue, impress twists, and important issues of art and moralityis it any surprise that the trials of Oscar Wilde continue to fascinate one hundred years after the death of one of the worlds greatest authors and playwrights. He has no idea how right he is as after his 1895 trial for gross indecency, Oscar Wildes name became a byword for immorality. But in the 20th century, gay men embraced Wilde as an icon of gay history and changes were made to the law in 1967, when same-sex acts were finally decriminalised. This proves that Wilde irrelevantly did have a long term impact on attitudes to crime and punishment for homosexuals which proved to be positive. Despite some positive impacts Wildes trial produ ced such as influences on hanging and the abolition of the infamous treadwheel, there is no denying that the Oscar Wilde trial most definitely had a negative impact on attitudes to crime and punishment for homosexuals in the short term. The trials brought media attention on them and public attitudes turned from ignorance to hatred. Even the Church could no longer pacify homosexuality as something unspoken, probable to the modern day dont ask dont tell policy historically used by the US army in relation to homosexuals until being abolished under President Obama. By the time of his conviction, not only had Wilde been established as the main sexual deviant of the nineteenth century, but he had become the model for an emerging public definition of a new typewrite of menace, the homosexual.