On the Death in Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales

By

Kui Liuqing

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2016

Acknowledgements

First of all, I want to thank my instructor Pan Min, who guided from the topic of the paper to the details. She gave me a lot of detailed guidance, and put forward many valuable comments and suggestions. Her rigorous and attitude toward research, high degree of professionalism, and assiduous work style have a major influence on me. Her profound knowledge broadened my horizons and gave me a deep inspiration. Secondly, thanks to every teacher who taught me in the past four years, relying on their strict requirements and selfless teachings, I was able to study step by step, and grasp the scientific ideas and methods, to have a more professional knowledge to develop good learning and working style. Thank them for the teaching, help and support. I would like to show my highest respect and most sincere thanks to all the teachers! Finally, I would like to thank my parents and classmates. If there are no classmates accompany me to gather information on several rainy days in the library, this paper is difficult to succeed. My parents also gave efficient support and encouragement during my university. I will work hard to pay back society, not let you down. I would like to dedicate this article to all the people who helped me. Thanks again to them, and wish them good luck!

On the Death in Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales

Kui Liuqing

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: Chosen as the theme in numerous literary works, death is the final destination that no one can escape. As one of the best writers in the 19th century, Oscar Wilde also paid attention to the theme of death. He presented the theme of death in his novels, plays and fairy tales. In his works, fairy tales are especially linked with death. Each of them has a corresponding description of death. In this paper, a careful analysis of causes of death in the fairy tale is involved. Contacted with the author's life experience and social background, it analyzes and explains the deep ideological connotations to explore the close link between social backgrounds and images of death, thus indicating that the master aesthetic concerns about society and morality. The fairy tales’ profound meaning of death is also worth thinking. Although the study only focuses on Wilde in his fairy tales, it has some limitations. This paper still hopes to get rid of the death’s hardship and understand the death literature, for the people in modern society.

Key words: Oscar Wilde; death; aestheticism; fairy tales; The Happy Prince and Other Tales

摘 要

死亡是自然万物不能摆脱的宿命，以此作为创作主题的文学作品不胜枚举。作为19世纪善于思索人生的杰出文学家之一，王尔德也把创作的视线投向了死亡这一主题。死亡主题在其小说、戏剧以及童话中都有所呈现，其中当属童话着墨最多.每篇童话中都提及到死亡，其中有八篇都有相应的对死亡的描写。本文仔细分析童话中所涉及到的死亡原因,有的为爱而死，有的为善而亡，还有的是意外之死。联系作者生平的个人经历和社会背景，分析和阐释了王尔德对于死亡描写赋予的深层思想内涵，探索死亡意象与社会背景之间的紧密联系，从而指出这个唯美大师对当时社会和道德的关注。

关键词: 奥斯卡·王尔德；死亡；唯美主义；童话；《快乐王子及其他》

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Effect of personal experience of writing 2

3. Reasons of death 3

3.1 Love 4

3.2 Kind 5

3.3Accident 5

4. The Connotation of Death in Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales 6

4.1 The Expression of Aestheticism 6

4.2 Moral Inquiries Against Social Reality 7

4.3 Singing the Praises of Love 8

5. Conclusion 10

References 10

1. Introduction

Oscar Wilde, born in Britain in the 19th century，one of the greatest writers and artists, is known for its plays, poetry, novels and fairy tales. He is a representative of aestheticism, the main aesthetic movement in the 1880 s and 90 s decadent movement pioneer. He said, "The purpose of art is not a simple truth, but complex beauty." Oscar’s way to show aestheticism narrative style of the tragic story, creates a kind of extreme beauty. Wilde does not repeat the clichés that “prince and princess lived happily for one hundred years,” nor “one good return deserves another”. Those imperfect fairy tales reflect profound contradiction in daily life and complexity in realistic society, circuitously showing his pure pursuit to art and love.

The rapid increase of wealth in the late 19th century in Britain brought about a series revolution in economy, social structure and literature. The Bourgeois Revolution and constitutional monarchy made British bourgeoisie have real leadership of British government, which led enormous economic growth and crazy overseas expansion. Adam • Smith's Wealth of Nations published in 1776, Malthus' theory of population published in 1789 and Darwin's Origin of Species published in1859 changed the British’s values and behavior fundamentally. Britain's overseas expansion and accompanying commercial trade activities highly promoted economic prosperity, science and technology, which greatly enriched the literary theory and creative writing. Wilde’s middle class family and good educational background in his previous life experiences contributed to his passion for pure beauty of worship and the relentless pursuit of formal beauty.

Death, as the eternal human destination, is an enduring theme for writers and an important source of literary and art. In The Happy Prince and Other Tales, he expressed his unique insights theme of death. The swallow died because of delayed migration, and The Happy Prince’s lead heart broke; the nightingale, used her own blood to red roses for the immortal love; Giant was no longer selfish and he came to an end after the child came back. He doesn’t judge those characters, but let death become the best ending of tragic destiny. This paper analyzes death theme in the Happy Prince briefly, in order to understand it deeply.

2. Effect of personal experience of writing

He was in the era when British capitalism was in a period of great prosperity. Twice Opium War and actual control of Egypt and the Suez Canal made British the richest country in the world. However, nearly all the property was in governor’s hand and the gap between the rich and the poor was huge. He witnessed the Irish people’s fight for freedom, the Franco-Prussian war, and the Paris Commune. “The happy prince”, in fact, reflects the people activity driven by pecuniary interests.

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