Theme of Love in Novel Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
Love is possibly the most powerful four-letter word known for humans. That is a feeling and emotion which is really remarkable that makes it nearly impossible to put the meaning into words. Despite the complexity, many authors have dared to write about love in their masterpieces. Therefore, Wilde is one of such talented writers, who connected different evocations of objects, feelings, and colors, with the creativity and critical view, due to highlights a universal topic such as love, which can clearly be recognized in the brief stories such as The Selfish Giant, The Fisherman, and his Soul and The Happy Prince. Furthermore, Oscar Wilde was a victim of love and according to the way of thinking the purest love that exists in this cruel world was the urbanistic love. Nevertheless, society of that time saw it necessary to condemn Oscar Wilde not only for the sexual relations with other people from the same sex. Besides, they were against the way of working and they were jealous about the prodigious, public, and affronted apologetic discourse.
Moreover, the masterpieces of Oscar Wilde may create turmoil at the time of reading due to the particular use of imagery, language, and symbols. Further, taking into account the ability of Wilde, it can be observed in the way that manipulates language and surpasses expectations. For instance, one of the strategies that Wilde used at the time of writing, it was the use of the paradox to absorb the credibility of common beliefs. Likewise, the most characteristic aspect of Wilde is suggesting that it is not exactly writing in a particular style to be confusing or smart. In addition, Wilde is mostly writing that way to make a larger point. In this way, Wilde was struggling to reinvent the way that usually wrote. Furthermore, the particular style was a principle of Hellenistic limitation, which results in a style as triumphantly modem as one of Godwin's chairs.
Nonetheless, the stories A House of Pomegranates collections and The Happy Prince are flattered as fairy stories, they are stories written for parents, to tell, to their children. Particularly, the role of adults was to charge children, whose bases where significant in the plot. In addition, the story, The Selfish Giant presents the goal of the kid is to teach the giant how to be the best parent, and the reward of the giant for his humanity and tolerance is a divine death revelation. In that way, the children cared for can be magically and mysteriously converted into an icon of Christ helping the giant go to Paradise.
Additionally, it is important to highlight that the style of Wilde in fairy tales was eruptive and presented a special fondness for complex phrases and eccentric word combinations. Moreover, Wilde specially wrote the short stories in the metaphorical form to attack those who criticize this type of style. Besides, Wild present criticism in form of dialogue or story, and that style was full of paradoxes. Therefore, the type of dialogue that Wilde liked most was the argumentative one, although no evidence of argumentation can be found in the dialogues.
To conclude, Wilde sacrificed the whole life in search of perfection of beauty. Furthermore, the main topic proclaimed was an ostentatious and bright lifestyle, while being in favor of maverick visions where homoerotic tendencies could be seen. In addition, the deliberation about the way of working was often adversary, due to the sexual orientation which was going against the mainstream of Victorian values. Besides, the values were tightened to moral intransigence and usefulness. Nevertheless, Oscar Wilde is one of the precursors and brilliant literary writers for many poets, due to the origin of a new aestheticism in literature.
References
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- Beibei, G. (2018). Oscar Wilde’s Aestheticism. Journal of Arts and Humanities, 7(2), 24-32.
- Davis, C. (2009). Oscar Wilde's The Disciple: A Reflection. The Explicator, 67(2), 133-135.
- North, M. (2010). The Picture of Oscar Wilde. PMLA. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 125(1), 185.
- Selleri, A. (2018) Oscar Wilde on the Theory of the Author. Philosophy and Literature, 42(1), 49-66.
- Wilde, O. (1997). The Happy Prince and Other Tales. London, UK: David Nutt.
