Humanity space International almanac VOL.

1, No 4, 2012: 891-899

Style features of Oscar Wilde’s tales

O.V. Stukalova

Federal State Research Institution of the Russian Academy of Education

«Institute of Art Education»
Pogodinskaya str. 8, building 1, Moscow 119121 Russia
Федеральное государственное бюджетное научное учреждение
«Институт художественного образования» Российской Академии Образования
119121, Москва, ул. Погодинская, д. 8, корп.1; e-mail: [email protected]

Key words: Oscar Wilde, tales, style, aestheticism, irony, ornamental prose, image.
Ключевые слова: Оскар Уайльд, сказки, стиль, эстетизм, ирония,
орнаментальная проза, образ.
Abstract: The author analyzes the artistic features of the Oscar Wilde’s style by the
example of his famous tales. The irony, ornamental prose, rich detail and epithets
are the stylistic features that make Wilde's fairy tales so popular among readers and
critics.
Резюме: Автор статьи анализирует художественные особенности стиля Оскара
Уайльда на примере его знаменитых сказок. Ирония, орнаментальность прозы,
богатство деталей и эпитетов – все это стилевые черты, которые делают сказки
Уайльда столь популярными у читателей и критиков.
[Стукалова О.В. Стилевые особенности сказок Оскара Уайльда]

There are very clear words of A. Ransome devoted to Oscar

Wilde: “Wilde was discontented with life as it was commonly lived
and had learnt to hope that it might be beautiful be being set among
beautiful things” (Ransome, 1913: 62). This can be used as an
epigraph to all nine fairy stories of the famous English writer of the
end of the nineteenth century.
Also, excessiveness, is often called as the main trait of Wilde.
This [excessiveness] concernes both his life and his works.
Being under deep impression of Reskine, Dikkens, Flaubert,
Andersen “The closest influence is Andersen” (The fairy stories of
Oscar Wilde / With an introduction by Naomi Lewi’s. London, 1976:
11), and some other predecessors Wilde, meantime, had his own
strong style manners.
Many of the specialists in Wilde’s works note the decadent
motifs (rapprochement Love and Death, aetheticism of Evil and Vice
and, also, the lack of understanding or sympathy between the
sensitive artistic soul and the unfeeling Philistine majority). The last

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theme is a common theme in Wilde’s works.

Picture of life in his texts is expressly conditional. Problems
of style were more important for Wilde than plot and psycological
portray of the characters.
The object of analysis in this manuscript is Wilde’s fairy
tales. We want to speak about it one else, at greater length.
At first, “Oscar Wilde loved to tell stories. <...> he had a
genuis for storytelling <...> That Wilde was pleased with his tales,
especially the fairy tales, is clear from his letters <...>“ (Ericksen
Donald, 1977: 53).
At second, many of the tales possess the ornate stylistic
embellishments found the larger artistic works of Wilde (such as
Salome or The Picture of Dorian Grey).
At third, the themes and subject matter of Wilde’s stories are
essentially the same as those of his other works.
The fourth argument is the fact of presence of the improbable
principle in the whole of Wilde’s works. In addition, two volumes of
fairy tales constitute two of Wilde’s significant achievements as a
prose writer if enduring popularity is any creation. What style
features were used in two collections of tales? After our analysis of
nine tales we draw such conclusion:
* The tales were written in the rhythmical, highly
ornamental prose. Wilde uses to sharply illuminate his scenes. The
effect in some cases is a rich, sensuous prose-poetry.
* The tales are filled with the highly ornate passages.
For example (from “The Nightingale and the Rose”):
“The she gave one last burst of music. The wight moon heard
it, and she forgot the dawn, and lingered 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 the carried its messages to the
sea”.
From our point of view, the very artificiality of Wilde’s style
and the distancing effect it creates is the source of a portion of
Wilde’s success with the fairy tales.
* Irony is one of the main elements of Wilde’s artistic
credo. For example, he no doubt admired the complexity created by

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the ironic contrast between the student’s undervaluation of the

Nightingale’s song and the Nightingale’s overvaluation of the
student’s sincerity (from “The Nightingale and the Rose”).
Next examples were taken from “The Remarkable Rocket”:
“I am made for public life,” said the Rocket.<...>
“Ah! the higher things of life, how fine they are”, said the
Duck and that reminds me how hungry I feel” <...>
“She has a decidely middle-class mind”<...> and he [the
Rocket] sank a little deeper still mud, and began to think about the
lonelines of genuis <...>“
There is the ironic contrast in this piece of the tale. We mind
the contrast between “the higher things of life” and “a little deeper
still mud”, where the Rocket “began to think about” its. In this
context the name of this tale is full of irony.
Wilde often used the ironic contrast in the finales of the tales:
“I am rather afraid that I have annoyed him”, ansewered the
Linnet. “The fact is that I told him a story with a moral”.
- Ah! that is always a very dangerous thing to do - said the
Duck.
And I quite agree with her. (“Devoted Friend”)
* The other main element of the Wilde’s style is
parody. This style feature is connected with stylisation.
Speech of the Woodpecker (“The Star Childe”) is obvious
parody. Wilde parodyized the philosophical treatises:
“- Well, for my own part - said the Woodpecker, who was a
born philosopher.-I don’t care an atomic theory for explanations. If
a thing is so, it is so, and at present it is terribly cold”.
We can see the different kinds of parody in thе tales: Wilde
parodyized the genre of literary fairy tale itself (of course, in the first
place, the Andersen’s tales, especially his manner - pretty poetic and
imaginative flights; also the plots of its - for example, the plot of
“The Fisherman and his Soul” is the smooth reflection of the plot of
Andersen’s “The Mermaid”); Wilde parodyized the different styles
(example above); in conclusion, he parodyized the different social
types:
- the Wolf from “The Star-Childe” is the collective character
of the typical Philistine):
“Ugh - snarled the Wolf, as he limped through the

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brushwood with his tail between his legs, - “this is perfectly

monstrous weather. Why doesn’t the Government look to do it!”
<...>
“Nonsense”, growled the Wolf, “I tell you that it is all the
fault of the Government, аnd if you don’t believe me I shall eat you”.
The Wolf had a thoroughly practical mind, and was never at a loss
for a good argument”.
- the student, “who only knew the things that are written down
in books” (“The Nightingale and the Rose”)is opposite to the
Nightingale as a true Philistine to a true artist.
* Wilde creates an effect in the tales, partly by use of
two levels of reality.
Let us analyse the tale “The Birthday of the Infanta”:
one level consists of the Infanta’s surface world of elegance,
beauty, and laughter and the second consists of an underlying world
of sorrow, cruelty and death.
With great skill, Wilde employs image after image to
reinforce the reader’s conscience of the often ironic contrast between
these two levels.
* Wilde used not only the ironic contrast, we meet
such type of contrast as antithesis. This style feature is especially
important for the tale’s plot.
For example, there is a contrast between Beauty and Ugliness
in the plot of “The Star-Child”:
the first picture of the Star-Child:
“<...> he was white and delicate as sown ivory, and his curls
were like the rings of the daffodil”.
(after he said to his mother, “<...> rather would I kiss the
adder or the toad than thee”, he looked into the well of water “and
lo!
his face was the face of a toad, and his body was scalled like
an adder”.
* Such type of usage of the antithesis is connected
with Wilde’s criticism.
Wilde’s deep concern with social issues is strikingly evident
in such stories as “The Happy Prince”, “The Star-Child” and “The
Birthday of the Infanta”.
In addition, Wilde is also attaking what he saw as the

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tendency of the wealthy and privileges classes to justify their own

indifference and selfishness by specious economic and moral
rationalizations. The social conscience that Wilde was to reveal in
such later works as “The Soul of man under Socialism”, “The Ballad
of Reading Gaol” is much in evidence in his fairy tales.
We show this feature by the tale “The Happy Prince”: the
final of the story about the virtuous Prince, who wanted to help the
poor people, is full of sorrow and bitter irony:
“So they pulled down the statue of the Happy Prince.
“As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful”, said the
Art Professor at the University.
Then they melted the statue in a furnace <...>“
The only thing could remind about the Happy prince: it was
“the broken lead heart.” But it was unusual Heart: it “will not melt in
the furnace”. But the heart was thrown on “a dust-heap where the
dead Swallow was also lying”.
May be, there is the only “silver lining” in this cruel story:
“You have rightly chosen,” said God, “for in my garden of
Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of
gold the Happy Prince shall praise me”.
May be... but, it seems to us, there is the Wilde’s irony in
these words. Is it merited recompence for the Prince?
* In many of Wilde’s fairy tales the motifs of
suffering and redemption through love appear as consistent threads
“a varity of writers have remarked upon the fascination Wilde
seemed to have had throughout his life for Christianity and especially
the figure of Christ” (Ericksen Donald, 1977: 77).
This Christ motif permites the texture of “The Selfish Giant”
most visibly. The little boy whom the Giant had helped into the tree
long ago finally returns with the marks of crucifixion on his hands
and feet and a message of love. The Christian motifs are obvious also
in “The Young King”: such rich metals are often correlative to
transcendence in Biblical literature, in this tale the King becomes
illuminated by
“a marvellous and mystical light”.
* Wilde had always striven to create an atmosphere of
strange and exotic beauty.
- he integrates his rich detailes (especially in “The Young

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King” - the Young King send his servants for):

“all rare and costly materials had certainly a great
fascination for him <...> curious green turquoise which is found
only in the tombs of kings, and is said to possess magical properties
<...> silken carpets <...> stained ivory <...> sandal - wood and blue
enamel <...>“
- he often uses the epithets connected with treasures
(jewels, gold and silver and so on):
“my city of gold (The Happy Prince)”;
“most brilliant descent in a shower of golden rain” (“The
Remarkable Rocket”);
“an aureole of faded gold stood out stiffly round her pale little
face” (“The Birthday of the Infanta”);
“The dead staff blossomed and bare lilies that were whiter
than pearls. The dry thorn blossomed, and bare roses that were
redder than rubies.
Whiter than fine pearls were the lilies and their stems were of
bright silver. Redder than male rubies were the roses and their
leaves were of beaten gold” (“The Young King”);
“<...> he was white and delicate as sown ivory, and his curls
were like the rings of the daffodil” (”The Star-Child”);
“gold dust on their wings” (“The Birthday of the Infanta”);
“Fisherman and His Soul” possess the same lengthy
catalogues of exotic jewels, precious metals.“
The “precious” epithets are not only metaphor. For example,
the Happy Prince was made off gold and jewels:
“He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes
he had two bright sapphires, and a large ruby glowed on his sword-
hilt”.
“Gold”, “sapphires” have a literal meaning in this description.
But these words can possess a figurative sense too. So the description
of the Prince is enriched by two meanings. The main idea of this tale
is enriched too, of course. We can compare the first description of
the Prince to the end of this tale: the Prince had the “lead heart”.
Lead is not a precious metal, but in that case it means true treasure:
“ This broken lead heart will not melt in the furnace”.
- Wilde is the wonderful painter, but his instruments are the
Word and the Imagination.

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This is the initial description of the Infanta’s garden, thou

strikingly sensuous and ornate, foreshadows the sad end of this tale
(“The Birthday of Infanta”):
“The purple butterflies fluttered about with gold dust on their
wings, visiting each flower in turn; the little lizards crept out of the
crevices of the wall, and lay backing in the white glare; and the
pomegranates split and cracked with the heat, and showed their
bleeding red hearts”.
The colouring the Wllde’s fairy tales is rich and
polychromatic (especially in tales from the collection “The House of
Pomegranates”: for example, the description of the meeting with the
priests (“Fisherman and His Soul”).
Sometimes other colour has the important meaning for the
characteristic of the tale’s personages:
”She was like a white rose before” said a young page to his
neighbour.
“But she is like a red rose now” and the whole court was
delighted.
For the next three days everybody went about saying, “White
rose, Red rose, Red rose, White rose <...>“ (“The Remarkable
Rocket”)
In that case “Red” and “White” are the context antonym. This
episode maintains the psycological notes (the girl became “Red
Rose” after the words of love), but Wilde did not describe inner
feelings, he showed only outer display of her emotion.
* The Wilde’s style is close to the antique authors. He
admired the subjects of the material culture as them (the description
of the furniture in the Young King’s room).
* There is interesting usage of stylisation in the tale
“The Fisherman and His Soul”:
“And in the first chamber I saw an idol seated on a throne of
jasper bordered with great orient pearles;
And I said to the priest; is this the god? And he answered me,
“This is the God”. <...> And I touched his hand, and it became
withered <...>
And the priest besought me <...>“
The reiteration “And” creates an illusion of the scriptural
style.

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* One of the main style feature of the Wilde’s tales is

the constant usage of comparisons . He used:
- simple comparisons (to one subject):
“His hair is dark as the hyacnth-blossom, and his lips are red
as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his face like pale
ivory, and sorrow has set her seal upon his brow”. (“The
Nightingale and the Rose);
“<...> and the fish dart about like silver birds”
(“The Fisherman and His Soul”);
- comparisons to the whole complex of different feelings:
“<...> and a delicate flush of pink came into the leaves of the
rose, like the flush in the face of the bridegroom when he kisses the
lips of the bride”. (“The Nightingale and the Rose)
The colour of the Rose is not only a tint of red, the Rose was
coloured by the first love, the first tenderness, mixed with the first
sexual feeling.
* Wilde created his images using the bright detailes:
“Two tiny slippers with big pink rossetes peeped out beneath
her dress as she walked”. (“The Birthday of the Infanta”);
“<...> she did so she throw into the air seven pink stars”.
(“The Remarkable Rocket”).
This style feature creates the particular elegance and the
atmosphere of vivacity.
* The usage of prosopopoeia has some particulations.
Wilde made full use of certain names of places and persons
and, perhaps, trusting to the capital letters to carry them through,
frequently decorated his tales:
“He did not hate the Winter now, for he knew that it was
merely the Spring asleep, and the flowers were resting”. (“The
Selfish Giant”)
* Finally, the tales are full of the examples of maxims.
As usual for the Wilde’s style they are paradoxes:
“You will never be in the best society unless you can stand on
your heads” <...> ( “Devoted Friend”);
“The love is vile”, cried the Priest, knitting his brows,”and
the vile and evil are the pagan things God suffers to wander through
His world”. ( “The Fisherman and His Soul”)
There is no doubt the last maxim is a parody. It is a bright

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example of the Wilde’s irony.

REFERENCES

Arnold I.V. 1990. Contemporary English style. Moscow. Prosveshchenie. 300 p.

Arnold I.V., Yakovleva N.Ya. 1967. Analytical reading (English prose of 18-20
centuries). Leningrad. Prosveshchenie: 199-210 (Oscar Wilde).
Encyclopaedia Britannica. Vol. 12: 683; Vol. 15: 328; l. 21: 488-489.
Ericksen Donald H. Oscar Wilde. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977. 175 p.
Galperin I.R. 1958. English language style. Moscow. [Izdatelstvo literatury na
inostrannykh yazykakh]. 459 p.
Literary encyclopaedic dictionary. Moscow. [Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya]: 132, 259,
418, 419.
Problems of lingustic style. [Sbornik]. Moscow, 1969. 175 p.
Ransome A. 1913. Oscar Wilde. A critical study. London, 1913. 236 p.
The fairy stories of Oscar Wilde / With an introduction by Naomi Lewi’s. London,
1976: 11.
The Oxford English dictionary. Vol. II; 710; Vol. VI: 254, 398; Vol. VIII: 1493.

Получена / Received: 09.10.2012

Принята / Accepted: 16.10.2012

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