Wilde decided to adopt a life of Victorian respectability for a while. In 1884, he married Constance Lloyd and fathered two sons, Cyril (1885) and Vyvyan (1886). He even became editor of "Women's World". But respectability was a terrible burden for Wilde, and by 1886 he was sneaking off to Oxford to visit young men. Shortly thereafter, he separated from his wife, claiming that he'd been away from home for so long that he had forgotten the house number. He submerged himself into a sea of drink and young men and ironically, it was during this devil-may-care period (1888-1895) that most of Wilde's important works were written.

The last of Wilde's plays to be written, "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895), is considered by many to be the finest modern farce in the English language. Unfortunately, by the time of its first performance on February 14, 1895, Wilde's demise had already been set in motion. For months, the Marquess of Queensbury had been demanding that Wilde stay away from his son, Lord Alfred Douglas. Wilde, however, was infatuated with the young man and ignored their urgings. Two weeks later, he confronted Wilde at his club, leaving his infamously mispelled note accusing Wilde of "posing as a Somdomite." Wilde decided to charge Queensbury with libel, but revelations during the trial about the nature of Wilde's relationship with Queensbury's son caused the playwright to be prosecuted for offences to minors. He was tried twice. The first trial ended with a hung jury, the second with a guilty verdict. Wilde was sent to jail for two years.

Wilde made several half-hearted attempts at writing after his imprisonment. He was never the same after his release from prison in 1897. The once flamboyant public figure shyed away from his former audience, and lived out the remainder of his life under the alias of Sebastian Melmoth. In 1900, Oscar Wilde died penniless and alone in a Paris hotel. His plays also include "Lady Windermere's Fan" (1892), "Salomé" (1893), "A Woman of No Importance" (1893), and "An Ideal Husband" (1895).