Oscar Wilde was ill, "When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting." Wilde blamed himself, though, for the ethical degradation of character that he allowed Douglas to bring about in him and took responsibility for his own fall, "I am here for having tried to put your father in prison." The first half concludes with Wilde forgiving Douglas, for his own sake as much as Douglas's. The second half of the letter traces Wilde's spiritual journey of redemption and fulfilment through his prison reading. He realised that his ordeal had filled his soul with the fruit of experience, however
Willie Wilde can give nothing to the house and Willie is always in a state of utter poverty. So all is left upon me." Willie and Lily had their only child, Dorothy 'Dolly' Ierne Wilde, in July 1895. Lady Wilde wrote Oscar a lengthy letter seeking reconciliation between him and Willie, who, she said, was "sickly and extravagant". She added that she was "miserable at the present position of [her] two sons" and "at the general belief that you hate your brother". She then asked Oscar to hold out his hand to Willie, a request she repeated several times in the letter: