I think that this failure to address his own mistakes, and the fact that he went back to Bosie after getting out of jail makes me think about De Profundis being some ways in the context of a performative piece. I think Bosie deserves to be called out for his actions, but Wilde fails to take into account his own choices in his involvement with Bosie. His indiscretions about their relationship really illuminated how horrible Bosie treated Wilde, and it was a very vulnerable move on Wilde’s part. Wilde starts the piece with a pretty scathing denouncement of Bosie. I think Wilde partly uses De Profundis as a performance of his own truth, but a truth that does not fully consider his own actions and their consequences. It greatly differs from his other works, but in a sense it is still performative. He writes from prison, his reputation eroded, and with a new outlook on life. De Profundis is arguably Wilde’s most vulnerable piece of art.
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