Masks
One of the most important symbols in the essays of Wilde by virtue not only of their recurrence, but their prominence within, are masks. In “Pen, Pencil and Poison” he observes the paradox at the heart of this symbol: “A mask tells us more than a face.” Elsewhere he is even more to the point on the symbolic value he invests in disguise, advising that if you give a person a mask, “he will tell you the truth.” What is generally viewed as an instrument of deception for the purpose of disguising the truth is in Wilde's perspective an instrument allowing the liberation of the truth.
Beauty
In “The Critic as Artist” Wilde is also quite direct in identifying symbols for the purposes of analysis and interpretation. Wilde writes a great deal on the subject of beauty; it is a pervasive topic in not just the essays, but his prose, poetry and drama. In this particular examination, however, he identifies once and for what exactly is so special about beauty that it is worth returning to for multiple analysis and the answer is perhaps surprising:
“Beauty is the symbol of symbols. Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing.”
Private Property
“The Soul of Man Under Socialism” is one which has been discharged from the fetters of want. Wilde argues that it is the pursuit of the accumulation of which promise to make life worth living which is the very thing keeping most people from living a full and satisfying life wrapped in the trappings of individualism. Private property becomes in this sense the symbolic centerpiece of a wasted life since, after all, nobody have yet figured out how to transfer the deed of that property into the afterlife.
Art
Art is perhaps the ultimate symbol in the writings of Oscar Wilde; perhaps even more so in his essays. It pops up as the topic quite often and even when not exactly the subject at hand, he finds a way to introduce it into the discourse. For Wilde, art becomes the controlling symbol of happiness:
“The aim of all art is simply to make life more joyous.”
Art is a symbol of experience as spiritual epiphany:
“Every single work of art is the fulfilment of a prophecy.”
The absence of art is Philistinism and an incomplete existence:
“industry without art is simply barbarism.”
Wilde may write that beauty is the symbol of symbols, but he lives as that honor belonged to art.
Oscar Wilde
Ultimately, there is not getting around admitting the obvious. The single most dominant symbol in the essays of Oscar Wilde is neither beauty nor art and turns out to quite possibly be the exact opposite of mask: it is the author himself. With nearly every stroke of the pen comes a witty epigram, a corrosive insult, a majestically self-assured opinion or some other brilliant composed and constructed recognition of his own undeniable superiority in taste, intellect, understanding foresight and myriad other aspects of personality which contributed to allowing Wilde to write about the singular value of individualism with a confidence acquitted no other writer of the Victorian Era. Even if primarily in his own mind, Oscar Wilde in the writing of Oscar Wilde is forwarded as the symbolic incarnation of what every the Victorian gentlemen should have been.
