Oscar Wilde and the Confidence Trick

Abstract

Abstract Critics have long highlighted the centrality of forgery in Oscar Wilde. This essay focuses instead on the idea of the confidence trick in Wilde’s life and work, with a special focus on ‘The Portrait of Mr. W. H.’. The capstone of the confidence trick is the so-called long con, a type of elaborate deception that resembles an extended theatrical performance. With its properties of narrativity and plot-making, the long con subsumes forgery. Its use in literature points to literature itself as a piece of trickery. Through cultural, biographical and textual analysis, this essay dwells on the various striking ways by which Wilde’s fictions are entangled with reality as they are pervaded by the long con trope. By considering Wilde’s perceived image in his 1882 American tour and his brushing shoulders with famous conmen, the essay first suggests that the confidence trick and dandyism share common ground. It demonstrates that the confidence trick is akin to Wilde’s ‘lying’ and catalytic as an aesthetic performance. The cultural consciousness of the confidence trick is strongly present in such works as An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, which are built around long cons. ‘Mr. W. H.’ features a long con and in targeting the reader operates as one. Paradoxically, because of its open exploration of forgery, the story as a confidence trick in literature is failproof, imperceptible, and so perfect.