The Supreme Vice
Wilde makes reference to the supreme vice several times throughout the length and breadth of De Profundis. What is the vice of all vices for Oscar Wilde? Oddly enough, considering the criticism that Wilde often received during his career—or, perhaps, not so oddly—the supreme vice is shallowness. Oscar Wilde was accused of having a shallow career in which he placed too much attention on appearances—in both his manner and his fiction. Of course, the object of Wilde’s ire regarding the vice of being too shallow in De Profundis is his former lover, Alfred Douglas, referred to with great affection here (and elsewhere) as “Bosie.”
Debt and Collections
When Wilde is not talking about the supreme vice of shallowness, he is keeping accounts. A pervasive thematic blanket of concern over debts unpaid and debts to be repaid hangs over the entirety of the text. When Oscar is not providing a detailed itemization of money going out for which not enough money to cover is coming in, he is letting Bosie know full well the ramifications that the strain of not being able to cover that debt is placing upon him. Perhaps the guilt trip is a manifestation of the supreme vice or perhaps it is just simply that Bosie does not quite get it. Nah, forget the former, it is clearly the latter because as Wilde
Shame, Shame
Oscar could not be more direct with Bosie: “Secretly you must think of yourself with a good deal of shame.” Except that, thematically, there is a semantic dimension would that sentence that is actually a confirmation that when it comes to the supreme vice, Wilde should be excluded. If there is one thing that Oscar Wilde was not and perhaps never could be, it is shallow. By including that little “must” to Bosie, he has expanded upon the meaning of the phrase exponentially. Is he being rhetorical or authoritative? Is that a question or a command? The entirety of De Profundis seems to implicate Oscar’s intention as…both. In one way, it is an example of using the power of language to enforce shaming. In other way, it is a rhetorical exercise in answering the question of who is more deserving of feeling shame: Wilde or Bosie?
