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Masaryk University Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature Masaryk University Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature WILDE’S SOCIAL CRITICISM OF THE VICTORIAN SOCIETY IN THE HAPPY PRINCE AND OTHER TALES Final Thesis Brno 2019 Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Zuzana Kršková, Ph.D. Mgr. Lucie Ševců Ševců 1 DECLARATION I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only sources listed in the bibliography. ___________________________ 5th June 2019, Brno Author’s signature Ševců 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. Zuzana Kršková, Ph.D., for her immense patience, valuable advice and kind guidance during the process of writing my thesis. Ševců 3 ANOTACE Sbírka pohádek Šťastný princ a jiné pohádky je dílem Oscara Wilda a dodnes je předčítaná dětem, ale mají ji v oblibě i dospělí. Sbírka byla zkoumána z mnoha perspektiv. Cílem této práce je analyzovat jednotlivé příběhy z hlediska Wildovy kritiky Viktoriánské společnosti. Wildovy pohádky kritizují společnost pro její materialismus, který utlačoval jiné názory na svět, a pro její pokrytectví a sobectví, čímž se vyznačovaly především vyšší společenské vrstvy. Materialismus a pokrytectví spolu se sobectvím horních vrstev společnosti způsobili, že společnost se stala sociálně i ekonomicky nespravedlivou a rozdíly ve způsobu života chudých a bohatých byly obrovské. KLÍČOVÁ SLOVA Oscar Wilde, pohádky, Viktoriánská společnost, materialismus, pokrytectví, sobectví, chudoba, propast mezi bohatými a chudými, nespravedlivá společnost, překrucování reality Ševců 4 ABSTRACT The book The Happy Prince and Other Tales, written by Oscar Wilde, is still very popular among children as well as among adults. The book has been analysed from various points of view. The aim of this thesis is to analyse Wilde’s social criticism that individual stories contain. Wilde’s fairy tales criticize the Victorian society for materialism which suppressed other views of reality, and hypocrisy and selfishness which were ascribed to the upper or middle class. Materialism and hypocrisy and selfishness enforced the economic inequality and human suffering caused by the huge gap between the poor and the rich. KEYWORDS Oscar Wilde, fairy tales, the Victorian society, materialism, hypocrisy, selfishness, poverty, huge gap between the poor and the rich, unjust society, distortion of reality Ševců 5 LIST OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................6 OSCAR WILDE – LIFE AND SOCIETY ...........................................................................................................9 SOCIAL CRITICISM IN THE HAPPY PRINCE AND OTHER TALES ................................................................ 19 Materialism ....................................................................................................................................... 20 Hypocrisy and Selfishness .................................................................................................................. 29 Huge Gap between the Poor and the Rich ........................................................................................ 39 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 48 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................................... 51 Ševců 6 INTRODUCTION Oscar Fingal O´Flahertie Wills Wilde, who lived during the Victorian period, was a man of many faces and abilities. He was a playwright, a novelist, an essayist, a journalist, an aesthete, and a keen critic of the society. Megan Becker-Leckrone claims that Wilde perceived the criticism as an art, because he believed that “’fine imaginative work’ is actually critical” and that a critic does not criticize, he only describes the true reality. Wilde as a critic used “dizzying paradox, the witty exaggerations, carefully staged dialogues and complex narrative frameworks . as performative demonstration” (Becker-Leckrone) of serious ideas. Wilde used similar tools for the criticism of the Victorian society. His work parodied the Victorian society in order to highlight social problems besetting the Victorians, because the Victorians did not perceive them as problems, but rather as unchangeable social conditions. The aim of my thesis is to present Wilde’s social criticism depicted in The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888). I have chosen to analyse this book of fairy tales, because it was written during the years when Wilde wrote his main critical works1 and many of the reviewers of Wilde’s time “praised highly the artistic qualities . of The Happy Prince and Other Tales” (Aransáez 176). However, many of Wilde’s later critics ignored Wilde’s fairy tales, because they “appear somehow anomalous” (Killeen 1), for Wilde is characterized as a subversive artist but fairy tales are usually conservative. It means that they are supposed to reflect and support (conserve) values of the society. Jack Zipes claims though that fairy tales, especially Wilde’s, have “subversive potential” (Fairy Tales 105). In other words, Wilde’s fairy tales challenged Victorian values and therefore fairy tales fit into Wilde’s canon. Wilde probably chose the genre, because fairy tales seem to be a perfect space where to put your ideas and influence minds of others, but still 1 Becker-Leckrone claims that they were written between the years 1885 and 1891 and consisted of six major essays, such as “The Truth of Masks” (1885), “The Decay of Lying” (1889), “Pen, Pencil and Poison” (1889), “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.” (1889), “The Soul of Man Under Socialism” (1890), and “The Critic as Artist” (1890). Ševců 7 your ideas are not so obvious to everyone. As McCormack nicely said that all those stories “while posting as innocent, were dangerous” (102). Fairy tales also provide Wilde an opportunity to educate children in a different way, because they were educated at school according to Victorian values which did not sued Wilde (Aransáez 216; Zipes, Fairy Tales 106). Those critics who notice Wilde’s fairy tales debate whether the stories are fairy tales or folk tales2, and whether they are intended for children or not. Jarlath Killeen, the author of Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, which is probably “the first full-length study of Oscar Wilde’s two collections3 of children’s literature” (1), refutes the opinion that The Happy Prince and Other Tales is rather a book of folk tales than fairy tales, and claims that Wilde’s book is a collection of fairy tales intended for children and their parents as well, because Wilde supposed that parents would read the book to their children (12), thus the stories could influence minds of children same as their parents. Cristina Pascual Aransáez also agrees that stories in the book are fairy tales and that Wilde chose the genre, because it became popular and provided him a space where to criticize the values of the Victorian society inconspicuously (175-176), for he was aware that the society had a potential to quash those who stepped out of the line (Becker- Leckrone). Zipes has the same opinion as Killeen and Aransáez and adds that Wilde designed fairy tales to reflect social problems and to deal with social taboos of the late Victorian society (Oxford Companion 550; Fairy Tales 119). Moreover, each story of the book expresses Wilde’s protest against social injustice and inequality (Zipes, Oxford Companion 551; Fairy Tales 123). The Happy Prince and Other Tales was interpreted in various ways. For instance, Gary Schmidgall or John-Charles Duffy analysed it from the sexual or political points of view (Killeen 2 Fairy tales are written by a single identifiable author, in comparison, folk tales are mostly oral and emanate from communities. Fairy tales developed from folk tales and adapted some motifs and signs from them. For more see Zipes, Jack, editor. The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. Oxford, OUP, 2000, pp. xv-xxxii. 3 These are The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891). Sometimes these two books are published together as The Happy Prince and Other Stories. This thesis analyses only The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Ševců 8 17). Killeen argues that Wilde’s fairy tales are based on Irish oral stories, traditions, and Catholicism. Aransáez focuses on the importance of a reader, and Zipes presents Wilde’s fairy tales as an attempt to subvert the Victorian society and sets Wilde’s fairy tales into the historical context. This thesis analyses the book as a critique of the Victorian society as well. To be concrete, it tries to present that Wilde’s fairy tales emphasize the social injustice which existed within the Victorian society, because many of the Victorians did not see it as a problem at all, and that it was predominately caused by the materialistic vision of the world and selfish and hypocritical behaviour of the upper and middle class.4 As far as the structure of the thesis is concerned, it is divided into two parts. The first part served as an introductory for the second one. In the first part, the life and personality of Oscar Wilde, and the Victorian period and its values are introduced. I decide to mention these for Wilde’s life and work seem inseparable and are highly influenced by the period he lived in as Arthur Ransome, Becker-Leckrone and other authors point out in their works. And therefore, it is important to introduce historical context
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