The Self and the Other in the Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was one of the most successful authors of the late Victorian Age. Wilde was involved in the aestheticism movement, which attempted to establish art as just pieces of beauty. Many people of the Victorian Era believed all works of art had a deeper meaning and purpose other than for pleasure, but Wilde worked to disprove this idea. He believed that art is self sufficient and it does not have to teach morals or to show political commitment to society, and that the artist is not obliged to explain what he or she means and can still be a good artist. Wilde, as a college student, was deeply impressed by the English writers John Ruskin and Walter Pater, who argued for the central importance of art in life. Wilde later commented ironically when he wrote in The Picture of Dorian Gray that "All art is quite useless". In 1879 Wilde started to teach aesthetic values in London. As a playwright, short story writer, poet and journalist, Wilde is one of the most famous and interesting authors nowadays. Famous not only for his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, but also for his unique fairy tales, Wilde became favorite of many people during decades. The idea of writing fairy tales came really accidentally to Oscar Wilde. He was in Cambridge for The Eumenides# when ,to entertain his friends, he had to made up a story. At this time (1885), Oscar already had a child, Cyril, and maybe because of him, the story he created then had the form of a fairy tale, but the students liked it. This story was titled later as The Happy Prince. With The Happy Prince and Other Tales, Wilde amazed everybody, as he was understood as a subversive writer, an amoral person and an enemy of the Victorian values. Counter to this understanding, the so called “Professor of Aesthetics” teaches moral in his fairy tales. Oscar Wilde creates fairy tales, unseen before; fairy tales, whose target audience can not be categorically identified. His fairy tales are

Bibliography: : Primary sources: - http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/177/ , DOA - 2/01/2010 - http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/NigRos.shtml , DOA 02/01/2010 - http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/176/ , DOA 02/01/2010 Secondary sources: - Chan, Agnes - http://agnesjournalist.blogspot.com/2008/12/literature-review-devoted-friend-by.html DOA - 2/01/2010 - Dow, Jane - http://www.directessays.com/viewpaper/19871.html DOA - 2/01/2010 - Dow, John - http://www.essaypride.com/essays.php?free_essay=5970861&title=Oscar-Wilde-And-His-Fairy-Tales DOA - 2/01/2010