The Stories of Oscar Wilde: Fairy Tales Dripping with Figurative Language and Satiric Wit

Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales differ from other European tales because of their incredible artfulness. His stories are definitely more of Kunstmarchen, art tales, than the typical Volksmarchen, people tales. Wilde employs beautiful metaphors and imagery, quite unlike most of the other tales we have read (except for, as John noted, Angela Carter’s tales). For example, in “The Selfish Giant,” Wilde describes the decay of the garden as an extended personification of the seasons/weather. “The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver” (Wilde 332). There are similar extended metaphors and forms of imagery in all of Wilde’s stories. Furthermore, the main characters in Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales are not one-dimensional - they all change and develop or transform: the giant learns from his selfishness, the happy prince gives away all of his accessories, becoming dull and drab and eventually destroyed, and the Nightingale sacrifices herself, dying for the “lover.” This is quite unlike heroes in the stereotypical European fairy tales, like Snow White, who does not change much throughout her tale.

Another thing that I thought was significantly unique about Wilde’s fairy tales was the clear emphasis on the grotesque and bizarre. According to Tartar this idea was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales (Tartar 327), but this aspect was continued in even his later novels, including his most famous, The Picture of Dorian Gray, so clearly it is an idea Wilde wanted to emphasize. An example of this “grotesque” and slight horror element would be the Nightingale, singing louder and louder as she continued to stab herself through the heart. Although there are acts of violence in European tales, none of them glorified horrific self-sacrifice like Wilde’s tales do. Tartar also talked about Wilde’s emphasis on misery which we discussed in class as being related to the time in which he lived and wrote. He wanted to capture the real suffering of people during the beginnings of WWI as well as the specific horrors of the Industrial Revolution, and he could only do so through the lack of happy endings - all of Wilde’s fairy tales we read ended in death and usually without the chance for redemption. I agree that this element is also related to the idea that Wilde was rejecting and critique the idea that a fairy tale needed to end “happily ever after” because none of his do.

As a devout believer in social Christianity, Wilde’s tales also have an above average number of religious references as well as social critique in them. Most of the other tales we have read have less direct references to the bible and definitely seem to have more of an educational purpose than to critique society. But the little boy in “The Selfish Giant” is a pretty clear depiction of Jesus - he has nail marks on his hands and feet and he leads the giant from death into Paradise. The Town Councillors and other governmental officials in “The Happy Prince” are critiqued for their great greed, especially in comparison in the charitable deeds of a statue and the lovers in “The Nightingale and the Rose” are both depicted as vain and stupid, especially in comparison with the great generosity of the Nightingale. In this way, Wilde delivers an artful social critique (satire) quite unlike most of the other tales we have read.

Works Cited

Tartar, Maria, editor. The Classic Fairy Tales. 2nd ed., New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.

Wilde, Oscar. "The Selfish Giant." The Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tartar, 2nd ed., New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 2017, pp. 331-34.