Link to Video
I want to reconcile the violence in your heart
I want to recognize your beauty's not just a mask
I want to exorcise the demons from your past
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart
You trick your lovers
That you're wicked and divine
You may be a sinner
But your innocence is mine
Oscar Wilde met Lord Alfred Douglas through a mutual friend in 1891. This meeting was to prove fatal to both individuals. They fell in love almost immediately, and both Oscar and Lord Alfred forgot themselves. Their affair was a slap in the face of Society and the standards of acceptability at the time, but neither seemed to care. Together, Oscar and Lord Alfred would do whatever they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to. Oscar Wilde would live to regret it.
This song is dark and, to me, symbolizes things that cannot be discussed openly on the surface. Oscar Wilde's fault here was in flaunting his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas to the point where Society could no longer ignore what was going on. This song is also classic Oscar. Muse references 'beauty as a mask,' a phrase Oscar would have loved. He thought Beauty was one of the few things worth living for, and as Oscar himself said, "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” Through Wilde's works we can see the many masks he wore as a person. This song strips all of those masks bare.
There is also a hint of religion put into this song. Sodomy is recognized by most churches as a sin, and yet Oscar viewed love as the worship of another person, writing to a friend: "He [Douglas] lies like a hyacinth on the sofa, and I worship him." (Pearce, 203).
"They do not sin at all, who sin for love," Oscar wrote in The Duchess of Padua (Pearce, 290). This song seemed to capture this viewpoint perfectly.
Ellmann, Richard. (1987). Oscar Wilde.New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Pearce, Joseph. (2000). The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde. London, England: HarperCollins.
No comments:
Post a Comment