Content Warning: This section references institutionalized anti-gay prejudice.

Socialism and (especially) anarchism were radical philosophies in 19th-century England, particularly in Oscar Wilde’s elite social circles. Wilde’s essay uses two distinct strategies to render its ideas more palatable to such readers: satire and the lens of artistic criticism.

Where the former is concerned, Wilde uses irony and humor not only to make his points memorable but also to add an element of playfulness that takes the edge off his more biting remarks. In fact, with his reputation for extravagance and iconoclasm, the more scathing Wilde is, the more he blurs the lines before an earnest appeal and self-deprecating joke. Readers can, if they wish, dismiss Wilde’s arguments as a mere exercise in imagination and his authorial persona as a character—a man so concerned with aesthetics that he dabbles in “dangerous” ideas merely for their charm.

The opening attack on the idea of charity is a good example. In discussing the idea that charity, by virtue of being an obligation, inhibits the full personal development of those who practice it, Wilde writes: “[Private property] involves endless claims upon one, endless attention to business, endless bother.