Wit and Wilde

Ignorance is bliss: a simple, yet brilliant phrase commonly overlooked in today’s society. Is ignorance really bliss? In the plays Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, by Moises Kaufman, and Wit, by Margaret Edson, show how this saying can and cannot be true. Kaufman uses the brilliant mind of an artist to show how his ignorance due to his superior intellect subsequently leads to his destruction, while Edson uses the character of a brilliant English professor dying of cancer to show how her above-average knowledge of the world leads to an exaggerated mental struggle before her death.
Gross Indecency uses the character of Oscar Wilde to show how his unique and brilliant understanding of human interaction leads to the destruction of his life as an artist and as an important pillar of society. Wilde falls under public scrutiny when he is tried for the crimes of gross indecency with young male members of the English society. The public views these relationships very li...