The Importance of Being Paradoxical: Maternal Presence in the Works of Oscar Wilde

Patrick M. Horan presents his own biography of Speranza and Wilde to illustrate that they were, paradoxically, both rebellious and conventional. He terms this contradictory impulse to upset and maintain the status quo "conventional Bohemianism." Horan then explores Speranza's presence in Wilde's literature and stresses that he shared her love of paradox, which he used to explain his contradictory views about nationalism, feminism, love, motherhood, and imprisonment. Horan argues that, even though Wilde longed to be recognized by fashionable London society, he was "self-alienated" because he was hailed as the son of an Irish nationalist poet. He illustrates that feminism was problematic for both mother and son - they were both trailblazing feminists. Nevertheless, Speranza idealized wives as self-sacrificing and submissive, and Wilde idealized female lovers as objects of beauty. Horan asserts that Speranza's love of Irish myth fostered young Wilde's love of fantasy, which is evidenced in his fairy tales and The Picture of Dorian Gray. He concludes that Wilde wrote fantasy, in part, to identify humanity's inhumanity, to acknowledge that love is often unreciprocated, and to affirm the naturalness of homosexuality. He also proposes that Wilde wrote fiction and drama, to present the self-sacrificing nature of motherhood; his mother's characters clearly exhibit Speranza's at once conventional and Bohemian personality. Finally, the author demonstrates that in "De Profundis," Wilde acknowledged Speranza's wise and paradoxical credo that sorrow brings joy.