4. The Philosophical Language 17

4.1 Truth of Life 17

4.2 Truth of Social Reality 18

5. Conclusion 20

References 21

1. Introduction

In the age of Victoria in the nineteenth century, Britain was the first country which goes through the first industrial revolution and accumulated much more fortune than ever before. In the meantime, people of all classes seek wealth with the intensification of overseas colonization. In the later period of Victorian times, people began to suspect and doubt the existing social rules and moral standards. Facing the following result of depression and unrest, some ideal artists and scholars started to oppose realism and challenged Victorian values. The slogan “Art for Art’s Sake” became widely popular and aesthetic movement emerged. One of the leaders, Oscar Wilde, began his writing career.

1.1 Oscar Wilde and His Fairy Tales

Oscar Wilde (1854 ~ 1900)，is one of the greatest British writers and artists, with his plays, poetry, fairy tales and fiction famous. He was born in a noble family. His father, William Wilde, was a famous surgeon while his mother was a popular writer who wrote poems and political comments. His mother gave him the early-aged enlightenment in literature. When studying in Oxford University, he revealed his early brilliance by winning a prize with his poem “Ravenna” and became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy of aestheticism. Inspired by Waller Pater (1839-1894) and John Ruskin (1819-1900), the two professors in Oxford University, Wilde built his view of life and art view of aestheticism, and his stronger passion for literary creation. Wilde supported Waller Peter’s avocation “Art for Art’s Sake” and pursued it firmly. As an outstanding aestheticism figures, he is the main body of the aesthetic movement of the 1880s and the pioneers of the 90's decadent movement. In his whole life, he wrote various literature creations, including plays, poems, prose, essays, stories and fairy tales. He was famous for his plays at first. “Vera”, “A Woman of No Importance”, “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “An Ideal Husband”, all these were warm welcomed by the public. Compared to the public’s focus on his plays, his fairy tales seem to be neglected. However, there are still some researchers found his sparkles in fairy tales. The English magazine Elegance equated him with Hans Christian Andersen as his contribution to fairy tales and admired his fairy tales were production of pure English. 

In May 1888, Wilde published his first fairy tale collection, The Happy Prince and Other Tales, including “The Happy Prince”, “The Nightingale and the Rose”, “The Selfish Giant”, “The Devoted Friend” and “The Remarkable Rocket”. In November 1891, his second fairy tale collection A House of Pomegranates published, which includes “The Young King”, “The Birthday of the Infant”, “The Fisherman and his Soul” and “The Star-child”. 

Although Wilde's fairy tales are not rich in number, with only 9 works, his unique characteristics cannot be ignored, especially his epigrams. Anyone who has ever read his works must be impressed deeply by his unique style which is so glary and fascinating, so sharp and penetrating. His fairy tales not only have such common features as purity, exaggeration and imaginativeness, but also his distinctive specialty. Meanwhile, these elements may make children hard to understand. In fact, Wilde’s fairy tales are not only aim for children but also for adults. His readers could be naïve or sophisticated, young or old, their pleasures shaped by different features of the texts, but, in common with Wilde, they were to have an aesthetic sensibility, the capacity to experience “wonder and joy” or to delight in strange “simplicity”’(Vanty, 2005: 88). The fairy world is simple, but the material—the words, expressions and sentences are complicated. Moreover, Wilde’s fairy tales are also reflection of his thought. Therefore, there are a lot of his opinions about aestheticism and moral sense. In addition, the wide application of writing techniques such as irony makes his fairy tales has a higher literary value but also difficulty of reading.