What Is Known Cannot Be Unknown: The Cancelling of Oscar Wilde

March 24, 2025

Alexandra Turnbull

Cancel culture is a part of our society. In the Victorian era, the reasons for cancelling someone were related to what society considered acceptable. Oscar Wilde was a Victorian poet and playwright, but also a convicted criminal, and is the perfect example of early cancel culture. In this article, we delve into the life of Oscar Wilde and how he went from celebrity to pariah and attitudes to homosexuality affected him. Wilde’s story shows the impact reputation and status has, and how cancel culture was used as a weapon to make sure people adhered to the social order.

The social order of the Victorian period held rigid rules of behaviour that one was expected to follow, under threat of social ostracism. In other words, cancel culture would have been very popular among the Victorians. The term ‘cancel culture’ is unique to the 21st century, but its definition can be seen over and over again throughout history.

Cancel culture involves using the value of reputation against a party who has committed a wrongdoing which goes against what is acceptable in society. In the Victorian era, what was acceptable in society looks a little different from how it looks today. Upholding social etiquette was very important to the people in the Victorian times and morality was an essential part of Victorian society, which automatically labeled anyone who went against the grain as immoral.

There was emphasis on upholding religion, evangelicalism, hard work, social etiquette and upholding the law, within the public sphere, reputation was key to the victorians. Nowadays, people who are cancelled are in the public eye, for example: celebrities lose their jobs, their brand endorsements; they are unfollowed on social media and are subject to hate comments online and negative press coverage. The cancelled become pariahs. Whilst it looked a little different in the Victorian era, namely for lack of the internet, the cancelling of Oscar Wilde was no exception.

Cancel culture is reliant on publication of a crime or an immoral act, bringing it to the attention of the public which insights discourse and condemnation for the accused party. In 1885, Oscar Wilde was accused of sodomy. Behaviour seen as unacceptable, such as homosexuality, were punishable by law. If found guilty, you would not just be at risk of losing your reputation, but also could be tried in a court of law. Homosexuality, in the Victorian era, was punishable by life imprisonment.

However, the prosecution of homosexuals during the time and the spotlight on Oscar Wilde’s case brings to light an interesting thought about cancel culture, which in my mind applies both then and now. When someone's actions are revealed, we, the general public, enforce punishment on them, shaming them and even who they associate with, people who had knowledge of what has been done and did nothing about it. What people are willing to accept changes depending on who else knows about it, when the world is watching, opinions can change, as is seen with Oscar Wilde. Wilde was cancelled not for his sexuality, but because his trial forced people to deal with it.

Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet, playwright, author and a darling of Victorian London society. Wilde was educated in Oxford, where he received honours for his studies and was the recipient of a coveted award for his poetry, the Newdigate Prize. This gave him an introduction into London society, where he used the connections from his time in university to become well known in social circles. Over the course of his life, Wilde rose to fame for his poems and plays but also for the way he was, nowadays personality plays a big role in celebrity and how the public receive you determines popularity, this was true for Oscar Wilde. Wilde is frequently described as flamboyant, effeminate, and in keeping with how victorians perceived homosexuality.

His only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, was ripe with sexual tension between the leading men, and his famed play The Importance of Being Earnest deals with the duality of identity in the main character who goes by both Jack and Earnest, which is seen as a metaphor for homosexuality. These themes meant that many of his works, whilst very popular, were disapproved of by conservative critics, with The Picture of Dorian Gray being censored in its first publication, with sections removed for the depictions of attraction between two men. His novel is seen as a reflection of himself, a symbol of the repressed homosexuality that London society rejected. Regardless, Wilde became a celebrity in London - a well known writer with vast popularity.

In a time that valued respect, religion and keeping the social order, Wilde stood out, and this was acceptable, as long as conversion about his own sexuality stayed in the realm of rumours and gossip. Oscar Wilde’s case was cancel-culture exemplified, as things took a turn in 1895. In 1895, a case came to The Old Bailey, London's main courthouse, the case of Wilde vs Queensbury. The man behind it all was John Sholto Douglas, the Marquess of Queensberry, father to Lord Alfred Douglas, who was Wilde’s friend, confidant and suspected lover. Oscar Wilde was not announcing his homosexuality from street corners I grant you, but it was not unknown among London society.

To give some context from the time, Ari Adut from the American Journal of Sociology argues that, in the Victorian era, the publicity of going to trial on cases such as these were seen as more damaging to the general public than the act itself. Homosexuality was seen as the worst sexual sin, but the prosecutors were keen to protect Britain's elites from the stain the accusation would bring.

A trial such as Wilde’s was an event, the talk of the town, which brought homosexuality to the forefront of society's conversation. It was thought that this would lead to the idea becoming widespread, so in order to keep the idea of homosexuality out of the social consciousness, only 22% of the trials brought against men for homosexuality were found guilty. Adut writes ‘Wilde’s well-known homosexuality did not cause a scandal until his trials simply because it was not publicly denounced. People prattled—much and maliciously, but always in private.’ Wilde’s sexuality became proven and registered in the public sphere, which labelled him as immoral. In keeping with the time, society shunned him.The publication of his crime is what led him to be cancelled from London society, rather than the act itself.

Wilde vs Queensbury was the first of his legal trials, and was instigated by Wilde himself, little did he know it would lead to his downfall. Queensbury accused Wilde of sodomy, which caused Wilde to sue him. Bear in mind that, in this time, if you could prove your accusation was true, you won the case. Queensbury and his lawyer brought out letters written from Wilde to his confidants and accused lovers. In response to this and in his first trial as a whole, Wilde continued to be the man he had shown to London society, replying to the examination with jokes and arguing that the fact he is a poet means he brings emotion to everything he writes.

When it was revealed that Queensbury had accounts from young men Wilde had been with, both Wilde and his attorney decided to remove the suit. Queensbury would not stop there, sending his findings to prosecutors in London in order for Wilde to be arrested for his crimes. The hypocrisy of the Victorian era is well known, and the case of Oscar Wilde is evidence of that. Over the course of three trials, two following his arrest for gross indecency, Wilde’s works lost the celebrations they had once received. Wilde’s novel was removed from stores, his name removed from his plays currently in production and theatres were told to stop performing them. At his most successful, he was cancelled, shunned and arrested, removed from society.

The cancelling of Oscar Wilde had a considerable impact on society of the time, which is shocking considering the level to which he was praised prior to this. In the years following his arrest, British society experienced an increased intolerance of homosexuality. Relationships between two men, even platonic ones, were subject to rumour and looked upon disapprovingly. It seems the hint of acceptance that Oscar Wilde experienced was gone, and with it, fear and prejudice took hold. Wilde was released from prison in 1897 and lived out his remaining years in mainland Europe before his death in 1900. The Pall Mall Gazette shows the lasting impact of his trial on his work in an announcement one month after he died stating ‘Mr Wilde had wonderful cleverness, but not substantially. His plays were full of bright moments but devoid of consideration as drama.’ This is a stark contrast from The Pall Mall Gazette review of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ in 1895, just one month before his arrest, which goes as follows ‘This time we must congratulate him unreservedly on a delightful revival of theatrical satire’. It took 8 years after his death for an authorised collection of his works to be published.

He did have one more literary success post-prison, and just as his career began with a poem, it ended with one, titled The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Written in 1897, The Ballad of Reading Gaol was inspired by the hanging of a prisoner during Wilde’s time incarcerated. There was a detrimental effect on Wilde due to his time in prison which affected him to the end of his life. He remained in exile till the end, never returning to Britain but his scandal was still remembered. The poem was published in 1898 under an alias, C.3.3, which was Wilde’s cell number. The poem sold out and had six editions printed before 1899, when Wilde’s name was added to the cover. The 1920s and 30s saw a resurgence of his work, and in today's world, he is celebrated.

There was considerable impact on his personal life, his wife, Constance, was urged by her family to separate herself from him, and changed her name. He never saw his children after his arrest and his parental rights were removed. However, in her final letter to her son she wrote “Try not to feel harshly about your father; remember that he is your father and that he loves you. All his troubles arose from the hatred of a son for his father, and whatever he has done he has suffered bitterly for.” (Son of Oscar Wilde, 1954). What makes the case of Oscar Wilde so sad is that the desire to not be ostracised along with him meant that friends, family, supporters turned their backs. Something that so many in London society knew was used for his downfall and their attitudes changed with the wind. His works, now considered to be British classics, were disregarded, such is the strength of his shunning from society. The case of Oscar Wilde is an early example of cancel culture, and shows the damage that scandal and gossip can do.

Oscar Wilde was pardoned of his crime posthumously by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017.