The Soul of Man Under Socialism

1891 essay by Oscar Wilde

"The Soul of Man Under Socialism" is an 1891 essay by Oscar Wilde in which he expounds a libertarian socialist worldview and a critique of charity. The writing of "The Soul of Man" followed Wilde's conversion to anarchist philosophy, following his reading of the works of Peter Kropotkin. In "The Soul of Man" Wilde argues that, under capitalism, "the majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism—are forced, indeed, so to spoil them": instead of realising their true talents, they waste their time solving the social problems caused by capitalism, without taking their common cause away. Thus, caring people "seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see in poverty but their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it" because, as Wilde puts it, "the proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible."

Wilde did not see kindness or altruism per se as a problem; what worried him was its misapplication in a way which leaves unaddressed the roots of the problem: "the altruistic virtues have really prevented the carrying out of this aim. Just as the worst slave owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it, so, in the present state of things in England, the people who do most harm are the people who try to do most good" while preserving the system. Wilde's deepest concern was with man's soul; when he analysed poverty and its causes and effects in "The Soul of Man under Socialism" it was not simply the material well being of the poor that distressed him, but how society does not allow them to reach a form of self understanding and enlightenment. He adopted Jesus of Nazareth as a symbol of the supreme individualist. Wilde advocated socialism, which, he argued, "will be of value simply because it will lead to individualism" and "substituting co operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition of a thoroughly healthy organism, and ensure material well being for each member of the community." Juliet Jacques has noted that the essay does not make any suggestions regarding political action to bring about socialism: rather it discusses the possible life of artists in a hypothetical socialist society in which private property had been abolished. Wilde examined the political conditions necessary for full self development and devotion to art, arguing, "Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine.") he declared himself an anarchist. Kropotkin in turn was an admirer of Wilde's work: in correspondence with Robbie Ross, he wrote of the "deepest interest and sympathy" in the anarchist movement for Wilde, and stated that "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" included words "worth being engraved". For anarchist historian George Woodcock "Wilde's aim in "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" is to seek the society most favorable to the artist. for Wilde art is the supreme end, containing within itself enlightenment and regeneration, to which all else in society must be subordinated. Wilde represents the anarchist as aesthete." Woodcock called the essay, "The most ambitious contribution to literary anarchism during the 1890s" and finds that it is influenced mainly by the thought of William Godwin. and book.

Oscar Wilde, Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, 5th ed, (London: Collins, 2003), , pages 1174–1197. (The fifth edition is the current corrected version of the "Centenary Edition" [fourth edition] of the Collins Complete Works; for the first time in 1999, the Centenary Edition corrected the position of a fairly long paragraph that was out of place; the paragraph is misplaced in most modern editions before the year 2000). Oscar Wilde, The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde. Volume IV: Criticism: Historical Criticism, Intentions, The Soul of Man, Josephine M. Guy, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), , pages 231 268. (The OUP's variorum edition retains the misplaced paragraph in its original position, however).