Contents
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Wilde and His Works 1
1.2 Wilde's Aesthetic Intention 1
1.2.1 The Germ of Wilde's Aesthetic Intention 2
1.2.2 The Value of Wilde's Aesthetic Intention 3
1.2.3 Wilde's representive works of aestheticism and Its Background 3
2. The Aestheticism in Wilde's Fairy Tales 5
2.1 The Beauty of Image 5
2.1.1 The Beauty of Image in The Nightingale and the Rose 5
2.1.2 The Beauty of Image in The Happy Prince 6
2.1.3 The Beauty of Image in The Fisherman and his Soul 7
2.2 The Beauty of Spirit 7
2.2.1The Beauty of Spirit in the The Nightingale and the Rose 8
2.2.2 The Beauty of Spirit in The Happy Prince 8
2.2.3 The Beauty of Spirit in The Fisherman and his Soul 10
2.3 The Beauty of the Tragic Ending 11
2.3.1 The Beauty of the Tragic Ending in The Nightingale and the Rose 11
2.3.2 The Beauty of the Tragic Ending in The Happy Prince 12
3. The Main Feature of Wilde's Tales: The Aesthetic Idea 14
3.1 Wilde's tales: No Magic in the Real World 14
3.2 Wilde's tales: Perfect Ending 14
4. Conclusion 15
Acknowledgements 16
References 17
1. Introduction
1.1 Wilde and His Works
Oscar Wilde, born as Oscar Faingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde in Dublin on October 1854, is an Irish novelist, playwright, poet and critic, and a celebrity in late 19th century London. He enjoyed a good social reputation, though it lasted only a very short time.Wilde was profoundly affected by beauty. He lived and dressed "oddly" compared to the typical Victorian styles of the time. His wit, humour and intelligence shine through his remarks and writings. For his sexuality he suffered the indignity and it nearly ruined his life, he suffered the indignity and it nearly ruined his life. For a long time his name was linked with scandal in Europe and America. His writings such as Dorian Gray with gay themes also brought much controversy for him. While many cursed him, he was still making his mark with style and wit and enjoyed much success with many of his plays. And with the change of social attitudes he is more and more remembered with great affection. [4]1
The aesthetes produced work in every form, including short and long fiction, essays, satires, and drama.Ever the aesthete, Wilde was influenced by some figures of the day including fellow playwright George Bernard Shaw, American poets Walt Whitman and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and English author and social critic John Ruskin.
The aesthetes produced work in every form, including short and long fiction, essays, satires, and drama. Wilde's works have been translated to numerous languages, and have been adapted to the stage and screen many times over. Fictions by Wilde includes The Canterville Ghost (1887), The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888), The Portrait of Mr. W. H. (1889), A House of Pomegranates (1891), Lord Arthur Savile's Crime (1891), and Intentions (essays, 1891). His plays include Vera, or the Nihilists (1880), The Duchess of Padua (1883), Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Florentine Tragedy (La Sainte Courtisane 1893), A Woman of No Importance (1893), Salomé (1894), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).[5]68
1.2 Wilde's Aesthetic Intention
Wilde was particularly well known for his role in the aesthetic and decadent movements. While at Magdalen College, he began wearing his hair long and so-called "manly" sports, and began decorating his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, sunflowers, and blue china. He is regarded as the representative figure of the Aestheticism movement. The Aestheticism embodied in his literary critics, in his literary creation, and even in his dairy life. His works were regarded as representative work of Aestheticism, and they reflected his pursuit for pure beauty.
1.2.1 The Germ of Wilde's Aesthetic Intention
The Aesthetic Movement is a loosely defined movement in literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design. It is mainly a trend of literary thoughts which appeared in the late Victorian period from around 1868 to 1901 in the west. In this time, there were a lot of literary thoughts in the European literary arena. The Aestheticism drew a lot of attention for its high character, its anti-routine opinion, and its personal independence of conduct.[7]3 People who believed in Aestheticism advocated the belief of "Art for art’s sake." They believed that the Art had independent life, and the mission of Art was to bring the best moment of life to people, and they all pursued the beautiful paradise. The Aesthetic Movement is generally considered to have ended with the trial of Oscar Wilde.
The germ of the Aesthetic Movement lay in the vision of William Morris. Reacting against the effect of mass-production both on design and workers, Morris insisted on handcrafting his furniture and wallpapers. Later, in the 1870s, the Aesthetic Movement abandoned its socialist roots,also known as Art for Art's Sake.
The notion of art for art's sake, [12]18has more to do with advertising and political
slogans than with aesthetic and critical theory. Although the slogan states "art for art's sake," in practice it usually meant that art should avoid social, political, and moral themes and concentrate on creating beauty, The artists and writers of the Aesthetic movement tended to hold that the Arts should provide refined pleasure, rather than convey moral or sentimental messages. As a consequence, they did not accept the conception of art as something moral or useful. Instead, they believed that Art did not have any purpose; it need only be beautiful. The people who believed in Aestheticism developed the pursuit for beauty. Life should copy Art, they asserted. They considered nature as crude and lacking in design when compared to art. The Aesthetic movement emphasized the importance of art above everything else and the pleasure to be found in beautiful things. So the notion really meant "art for the sake of beauty and its effects."[7]23 Here, Art was given an especially high place,as it was considered the gateway to the reality. Moreover, since many of those who associated with Aestheticism played important roles in the Arts and Crafts Movement, they intended their work to create beautiful total environments, and so their work had a social and even political agenda, which involved changing the way people lived and their attitude towards art. But at that time, The movement was not widely accepted by the public.
1.2.2 The Value of Wilde's Aesthetic Intention
Oscar Wilde, as one of the representative figure of the Aestheticism movement, his work are full of aesthetic intentions. but at first period, Wilde's work suffered a lot of criticism. His mode of dress also came under attack by critics who was calling his work and lifestyle "immoral".
Wilde was deeply impressed by the English writers John Ruskin and Walter Pater, who argued for the central importance of art in life. Wilde believed that "art is supreme" [4]10in his pure artistic theory, thinking that art was higher than nature and life, not related to morals, but a pure"form". For him, reality means ugliness and valueless. Therefore, he advocated the transformation of life into art to create an independent and pure aesthetic world outside reality. Opposed to his contemporary realist ideas, he used his aesthetic beauty of individuality love to fight against the ugly world. Wilde's aesthetic ideas were all around love, beauty and sadness which he think as the necessary elements of the real world.
1.2.3 Wilde's representive works of aestheticism and Its Background
To Britian and even to Europe as a whole, the late 19th century is a time when contradictions in all senses reached the peak. The political situation was steady, but there was some dangerous elements hidden beneath the seem-nice situation. The economy is prosperous, but at the same time, it created a group of people who sought nothing but profits, and caused the poverty of common people who had struggle under the poverty line. The ugly side of the society had take off its veil.
In such time, Wilde brought forth the prosperity of the Aestheticism with his own rise, and led it to the decline and termination with his imprisonment and death. The formation of Wilde's aestheticism and works can not escape the influence of certain historical background and literary environment, not to say its close relation with Wilde's family, experience, education and personal temperament.
It was just under this self-contradictory background of that time and the literary environment that Wilde with his aestheticism appeared. The most remarkable works of Wilde include The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888), A House of Pomegranates (1891), Intentions (essays, 1891), A Woman of No Importance (1893), Salomé (1894), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). All of them are full of aesthetic intentions.
2. The Aestheticism in Wilde's Fairy Tales
Wilde's fairy tales, which are considered as his representative aesthetic works, are different from traditional ones in ideological coments. He always favored the death theme, challenged the standards of morality and took multiple stands when telling the stories.[2]5
2.1 The Beauty of Image
The beauty of image not only means the picture is nice, but also includes the beautiful description of the tale's plot, the character, the whole environment in which the story take place and its language.
2.1.1 The Beauty of Image in The Nightingale and the Rose
The second fairy tale in The Happy Prince and Other Tales is "The Nightingale and the Rose".The plot is easy to summarize. A young Student is attracted by the daughter of a Professor. She promises to dance with him till dawn at the Prince's ball if the Student will bring her a red rose matching her beautiful skirt. But in his garden there are no red roses. The Nightingale decided to provide the boy the red rose so as to praise the love between the Student and the young woman.In the end,
the Nightingale paid a heavy price for the love she believes in. She lost her life for the red rose. And Wilde writes 11 paragraphs to describe the Nightingale's suicidal effort, which is a painful experience indeed. There are details of her suffering:
"the thorn touched her heart, and a fierce pang of pain shot through her. Bitter, bitter was the pain, and wilder and wilder grew her song."
The most powerful imagery used in this story is just before the Nightingale is about to die, and she gives one last burst of music.
"The white Moon heard it, and she forgot the dawn, and lingered on in the sky. The red rose heard it, and it trembled all over with ecstasy, and opened its petals to the cold morning air. Echo bore it to her purple cavern in the hills, and woke the sleeping shepherds from their dreams. It floated through the reeds of the river, and they carried its message to the sea."
The Moon stopping dead in the sky to listen to the tiny powerful creature, the red rose dancing in the wind and the cold morning air. the little Nightingale's voice travels further and further, it is so mighty that it must have travelled to the four corners of the Earth.
This picture is no doubt full of beauty, and at the same time, a little bit sad. It is the last show of the little Nightingale.
2.1.2 The Beauty of Image in The Happy Prince
"The Happy Prince" is one of Wilde's best known and most popular fairy tales. And The Happy Prince predicted all Wilde's life astonishingly. It resemble the life of Wilde to the life of the Happy Prince.[3]23
Before and after Wilde's sentence is just like the life of the Happy Prince before and after his death. Before Wilde was in prison, he lived with reputation and flowers.The brilliance of his conversation, the polish of his wit gave him an outstanding place in society. At that time he was a “happy prince”. But after his sentence, he suffered a lot.He spent two hard years in prison. He lost his family and friends, he also lost his society place. He had no money, no health and lived in Paris lonely. Then he became a “sad prince”. [5]38
When we first meet the happy prince, he is a beautiful statue,actually he is the golden statue of a prince of the city who, the story implies, had died young. "gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold," his eyes are "two bright sapphires," and "a large red ruby" is fixed on his sword-hilt.
In the second paragraph of "The Happy Prince",Wilde writes:"He is as beautiful as a weathercock,only not quite so useful"remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes,but at the same time he was fearing that people should think him unpractical,which he really was not.The readers might notice Wilde's Aesthetic intention immediately from the key words such as "beautiful","artistic","useful",and "unpractical".By adding the comment"only not quite so useful",Wilde implies that the artistic statue is useless in the eyes of the councillors.The councillors are so blind to the statue's value,since they compare a rare artistic work to a common plain weathercock.
In "The Happy Prince",Wilde continues to show a mathematical master who "frowned and looked very severe"when he knew children dreamed of angels for he did not approve of children dreaming.
The beauty of the Happy Prince can not be ignored, though at last it loses all his decorations. The Happy Prince's position is just an aesthetic art objection which stands high above the city. His pleasure-seeking life, his death, when he lived in a beautiful place that itself is a work of art.
2.1.3 The Beauty of Image in The Fisherman and his Soul
Wilde 's second fairy tale book A House of Pomegranates contains 4 tales, all of which are more distressing and confusing than those in the first book."The Fisherman and his Soul"is the longest and most puzzling of them.
It is a story about love, sorrow, and death, and it emphasis lays on the conflicts of spirit and flesh, beauty and goodness, earth and heaven. [8]7It mainly involves with the bitter battle between a Fisherman and his Soul, also with his love for the Mermaid.
In the end, the Fisherman and the Mermaid were both dead, and at the beach where they died grew a lot of white flowers.The white flowers at the chapel is so strange.
"their beauty troubled him, and their odour was sweet in his nostrils. And he felt glad, and understood not why he was glad."
Here the "him" refers to he Priest,who strongly against the Fisherman's idea of abandon his soul which he think is a sin that may not be forgiven.
"the soul is the noblest part of man, and was given to us by God that we should nobly use it. There is no thing more precious than a human soul, nor any earthly thing that can be weighed with it. It is worth all the gold that is in the world, and is more precious than the rubies of the kings. Therefore, my son, think not any more of this matter, for it is a sin that may not be forgiven."
These strange flowers are sending th
e message that the love between the Fisherman and the Mermaid is so great. The Priest desires to speak to the people of the wrath of God. But the beauty of the white flowers troubles him, and their odour is sweet in his nostrils, and there comes another word into his lips, and he speaks not of the wrath of God. The act of the Priest, the reason why he becomes like these, all of which just express the aesthetic idea that "Love generated from human nature rises above all."[10]56
2.2 The Beauty of Spirit
Wlide's fairy tales are all full of the beauty of spirit. Like the theme of the Aestheticism,The tales praise the pure love, the sadness that love causes, the sacrifice and dedicated to sacred purpose:love.
2.2.1The Beauty of Spirit in the The Nightingale and the Rose
The Nightingale, who decided to provide the boy the red rose so that he can go to dance with Professor's daughter, views the boy a true lover and is struck by the mystery of Love, "Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the marketplace. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold."
She goes to three rose trees asking for a red rose. The first bares only white roses, the second only yellow ones. The third is indeed a red rose tree, but because of a harsh winter cannot bare any roses. But he Tree tells her:
"If you want a red rose, you must build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with your own heart's blood. You must sing to me with your breast against a thorn. All night long you must sing to me, and the thorn must pierce your heart, and your life-blood must flow into my veins, and become mine."
The Nightingale itself is such a tragedy, though she think "death is a great price to pay for a red rose", still she decides to help the young boy. Promising to provide the red rose "out of music by moonlight" and to "stain it with my own heart's-blood," the Nightingale asks of the Student only that he "will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty."
If there is a true lover, then the the nightingale is the one. She, at least, is Romance, and the Student and the girl are unworthy of Romance. The Student desecrates the rose by throwing it into the street. The woman rejects the rose because it won't go with her dress--she concerned only with appearances and status.
In the eye of the Nightingale "Love generated from human nature rises above all."[10156It is also the spirit that Wilde praises.
2.2.2 The Beauty of Spirit in The Happy Prince
Until the Prince views the citizens of his city,he began to realize the suffering of his fellows,and all the pain and sorrow that exists in the city below him, His heart overflows with love and pity, and he sacrifices his aesthetic glory to help others. Then there came a little Swallow who was about to flying to Egypt because of the cold weather and his affection for a Reed. The Swallow came to rest beneath the Happy Prince's statue for a realistic reason:"It is a fine position,and has plenty of fresh air". When the swallow feels the statue's tears on him, thinking it is a raindrop, he complains "What is the use of a statue if it cannot keep the rain off?" he said, "I must look for a good chinmey-pot". But before he flies away, he looked up, and saw the Prince, "The eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears, and tears were running down his golden cheeks. His face was so beautiful in the moonlight that the little Swallow was filled with pity." Moved by his beauty, the Swallow leaves his realistic idea behind and becomes the Happy Prince's admirer and messenger. The change of the swallow is a reflection of Wilde's argument that only thought art can we realize our perfection,and only beauty can attract us.
With the help of the Swallow, the Prince sets about helping the poor people. The first person he helps is the sick son of a seamstress. He has the Swallow bring the boy the ruby from his sword. The Prince then helps out a struggling playwright by sacrificing one of his eyes, which "are made of rare sapphires", with his help, the playwright could buy food and firewood, and finish his play. Then he commanded the reluctant Swallow give his second eye to a "little match-girl" whose matches have fallen into the gutter and been ruined. Though the weather is cold, the Swallow became to realize that he feels "quite warm", and it made him really confused. Here the Prince replies: "'That is because you have done a good action'". All of these nice,good thing reflects Wilde's Aesthetic intention that love is pure and beautiful.
When the Happy Prince loses all his decorations, several Town Councillor view him as "little better than a beggar"due to his shabby appearance. They pulled him down because he was ugly to look at. The art professor at the university who was supposed to be able to appreciate
real beauty surprisingly showed no interest in the Happy Prince too."As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful."
Not only do the councillors value art in a material way and decide it is useless, but they do the same to children's dreams and find them useless too. By imitating the people's material way of thinking and pushing it to the extreme, Wilde makes a monk on them.
No matter how ugly the Happy Prince look like in the end, his behaviour, his good action all present his beautiful heart.
2.2.3 The Beauty of Spirit in The Fisherman and his Soul
The Fisherman and his Soul, it is a story about love, sorrow, and death, and it emphasis lays on the conflicts of spirit and flesh, beauty and goodness, earth and heaven. It mainly involves with the bitter battle between a Fisherman and his Soul, also with his love for the Mermaid. The Fisherman falls in love with the Mermaid whom he catches by accident in his net. In order to marry the Mermaid who has no soul, the young man sets his mind upon throwing his soul away and rejects to give his soul a heart. At firet, he turn to the Priest for help,but the Priest think the Mermaid as evil and refuse to support him. finally, the Fisherman gets the help from a young Witch. Regardless of the Soul's depression, the young Fisherman abandons it, marries the little Mermaid, and lives with her happily under the sea. The deserted Soul, travels on exotic journeys to such places as Syria, Egypt, and Mecca for three years, each year returning to the seashore and calling up the Fisherman, trying to get him to allow him to reunite with him. He tells the young man about his fascinating journey. His story is full of exotic images and scenes.
During the first journey, the Soul and his companions come upon "ripe pomegranates," The Soul comes back from this trip to tempt the Fisherman with the offer of Wisdom, a kind of negative Logos. The Fisherman prefers Eros--he stays with the Mermaid.
During the second journey, the Soul encounters a Moslem Emperor in whose city is a Street of Pomegranates. The Soul obtains from this young Emperor a "Ring of Riches," or so he tells the Fisherman as he tempts him with it. Again the Fisherman rejects the Soul's temptation.
The third temptation, the girl with the naked feet, he cannot resist.The girl's naked feet possess a numinous attraction for the Fisherman and he yields. The Soul, by now thoroughly evil because the Fisherman had refused to give him his heart, reunites with the Fisherman.
But, wisdom, wealth and beauties are not his purpose at all. He only uses these experiences to persuade the Fisherman come back. Cheated by his Soul, the young Fisherman leaves the mermaid. Instead of taking the Fisherman to the girl with the naked feet, the Soul leads him on a three-day journey into the depths of the shadow. The Soul yet again urges evil. The Fisherman has been possessed by the shadow, which the Soul represents. The Witch had told the Fisherman: "What men call the shadow of the body is not the shadow of the body, but is the body of the soul", and when the Soul becomes separated from the body, he looks exactly like the Fisherman. Without heart, without Eros, only the negative characteristics of the shadow thrive, and the Fisherman at last realizes this: he tells the Soul, "but you are evil, and has made me forget my love, and has tempted me with temptations, and has set my feet in the ways of sin".
The Fisherman hurries back to the little Mermaid.Yet there is no breaking away from one 's soul for the second time, which means no returns for the Fisherman with the Mermaid. At the end of the second year, the Mermaid is washed to the shore, dead. And the Fisherman dies of a broken heart.
The Soul always goes after the Fisherman from the very begin till the end, he never gives up his pursuit. It is the spirit that Wilde praises.
The Fisherman loves the Mermaid, though he betrayed her once, he returns and continues his love for the Mermaid, and dies of sadness eventually.
The Mermaid loves the Fisherman obviously, otherwise she would not die because of the Fisherman's betray.
The love spirit can be found in the tale everywhere.It is the most important idea that Wilde holds.[1]53
2.3 The Beauty of the Tragic Ending
Most of Wilde's tales end with tragedy, there is no other way except death for the character. [11]48But these fairy tales, though without a happy ending, still have their charms, the tragedy sometimes has a more powerful influence than the traditional comedy.
Suffering is an attractive literal subject, and such intense and prolonged description is a feature of Aesthetic literate. The sorrow in actual life made people less perfect, but the sorrow in literature made people aware of the beauty in life,and purify human beings.
2.3.1 The Beauty of the Tragic Ending in The Nightingale and the Rose
The Nightingale and the Rose' is another story following the theme of love. The theme is conveyed in this story through the ac tions of the Nightingale. It shows how one life would sacrifice itself in order to make another happy. From the Nightingale's point of view, this is a tragically ironic story. For she thinks that the Student must be a true lover .
In the end, the Nightingale paid a heavy price for the love she believes in. She lost her life,
The ending of this story again expresses its love theme. The Nightingale was dead, and no love came of it. After the Professor's daughter had told the Student that she was now going to the dance with the Chamberlain's nephew, "he threw the rose into the street, where it fell into the gutter, and a cart-wheel went over it." All that work she had put into perfecting the rose was wasted! Her life had been wasted, just like the rose. The Professor's daughter was, I think, just as selfish as the Student;Just as Wilde criticized the human race,We are equally as selfish as each other, and we should pay more attention to things other than ourselves. " besides, the Chamberlain's nephew has sent me some real jewels, and everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flower." In this case she was very wrong! This flower had cost a life, and it was built with love. What the Nightingale had said earlier on in the story now made sense to me: "Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals." The Nightingale knew what love was worth. The Student had experienced a bad example of love, and after one attempt, he was prepared to give up. The Students feelings towards love were "It is not half as useful as Logic, for it does not prove anything." Again he was wrong, for love proved that lives were willing to sacrifice themselves to make him happy, but he had no idea of what went on in order for him to get that red rose; so he could not appreciate the act of love in this story. Love proved that it existed, and being such a strong and powerful emotion, it needed to prove no more.
2.3.2 The Beauty of the Tragic Ending in The Happy Prince
The story ends with both the death of the Prince and the swallow, both are ready to enter Heaven. The poor Happy Prince became an ugly statue and his leaden heart had broken, and at the moment the Swallow died because of chilliness.
There is always a theme showed in all of Wilde's fairy tales: love, selfless contribution and death. People become selfless all because of love, and become beautiful because of love. It is love that make the world full of beauty. [3]7Many people have read the fairy story The Happy Prince, and may be moved by the self-sacrificed spirit of the Happy Prince and the true friendship between the Swallow and the Happy Prince.
"The Happy Prince" is the most story which perfectly reflect the "love"theme, When the Prince was alive and had a human heart, he did not know what tears was, for he lived in the Palace of Sans- Souci, where sorrow is not allowed to enter. In the daytime He played with his companions in the garden, and in the evening he led the dance in the Great Hall. He never cared to ask what lay beyond all the beautiful things, everything about him was so beautiful. His courtiers called him the Happy Prince, and happy indeed he was. So he lived, and so he died. And when he is dead they have set him up so high that he can see all the ugliness and all the misery of the city. Then the prince's heart is full of sadness, and sent the swallow to help as many people as he can,without any concern of his own life.
3. The Main Feature of Wilde's Tales: The Aesthetic Idea
Wilde's fairy tales are different from traditional ones. He always favored death theme, challenged the standards of morality and took multiple stands when telling the stories.
3.1 Wilde's tales: No Magic in the Real World
Wilde's aestheticism fairy tale subverts the effect of the magic in the traditional
fairy tale. The magic is so powerful and so charm when it works in the Grimm's Fairy Tales or the Andersen's Fairy Tales,It can make the ordinary life gorgeous and full of miracle, the kind and beautiful character live a better life due to the help of the magic. But in Wilde's tales, there is no magic at all, maybe no magic in the real word. The suffering is common and inevitable in the daily life. It judges fairy tale to link to the actual life with the fairy tale.
3.2 Wilde's tales: Perfect Ending
Wilde's aestheticism fairy tale unlike the traditional fairy tale, do not have the happy ending. The character in the traditional fairy tale, like the Grimm's Fairy Tales or the Andersen's Fairy Tales, always rise above the difficulty and become a tremendous success."live a happy life ever after"
Wilde's aestheticism fairy tale leaves readers shock and implied meaning. It created another kind of imagination of the fairy tale.
4. Conclusion
Young children have no difficulty believing in mermaids or accepting that swallows, ducks, wolves, and even inanimate objects like fireworks or statues, can talk or think like human bei
ngs; for in the eyes of the children the exterior world is really no different from the interior--both are alive with consciousness.Although critics have tended to neglect Wilde's fairy tales and stories, these fairy tales and stories have sold in their millions. They have been dramatized, made into films for cinema and television, adapted for radio and long-playing records. They have been transformed into cartoon films, made into children's opera, into ballets, into mime plays. Above all, the reading public has never stop their love for Wilde's stories.
Wilde praised beauty heartedly. Although we can use the ethics idea to blame Wilde himself and some of his works, he do ignore the ethics in other works. But in his fairy stories he tried to let beauty and the worth of ethics unify astonishingly. we have to admit that he pursued beauty so honestly, so sincerely. In The Happy Prince, he praised the true friendship between the Happy Prince and the Swallow, and the self-sacrificed spirit of the Happy Prince. He thought these were the most beautiful things in the world.
As to whether Wilde's fairy tales were written for children, Wilde wrote to G. H. Kersley that The Happy Prince and Other Tales are "meant partly for children, and partly for those who have kept the childlike faculties of wonder and joy, and who find in simplicity a subtle strangeness" . 102
Nowadays, numerous books and articles have been written on Oscar Wilde, reflecting on the life and contributions of this author since his death over a hundred years ago. Wilde's influence will remain as strong as ever,and be remembered by the whole world.
Acknowledgements
My initial thanks go to my supervisor Liu Shuqin, who patiently supervised my dissertation and was at times very willing to offer me illuminating advice or suggestions. Without his help, I could not have finished this dissertation.
I am also indebted to other teachers and my classmates who have not only offered me their warm encouragements but also shared with me their ideas and books. They are Han xiaoya, Cheng Tingting and many others.
My greatest personal debt is to my parents, who have cultivated a soul of sensitivity, hospitality, and honesty out of me, and offered a harbour of happiness and sweetness for me.
The remaining weakness and possible errors of the dissertation are entirely my own.
References
.
St.Martin's Press, 1991.
[2] CHRISTOPHER NASSAAR. Wilde's the happy prince and other
tales and a house of pomegranates [M].Explicator, 2002
[3] HEARN;MICHAEL PATRICK. The victorian fairy book [M]. Pantheon Books,
1998
.Ares Education Policy
Review, 2003
[5] 弗兰克•哈里斯. 奥斯卡•王尔德 [M]. 河南人民出版, 1996
[6] 澜工. 唯美主义大师图典[M]. 陕西师范大学出版社, 2003
[7] 王新春. 唯美主义的死亡 [J]. 哈尔滨商业大学学报(社会科学版),2002(3)
[8] 吴学平. 国内王尔德研究评述 [J]. 外国文学研究,2003(1)
[9] 维维安•贺兰(英) 李芬芳译. 王尔德 [M]. 百家出版社, 2001
[10] 张介明. 当代西方的王尔德研究 [J]. 外国文学研究,2004(4)
[11] 张介明. 唯美叙事：王尔德新论 [M]. 上海社会科学院出版社
[12] 周小仪. 唯美主义与消费文化 [M]. 北京大学出版社
