Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze Oscar Wilde’s subversion of traditional fairy tales in terms of three aspects: portrayal of characters, implication of moral senses, and representation of endings. I’d like to use Grimm’s fairy tales as typical examples to represent traditional fairy tales in order to do some comparisons with Wilde’s works.
Oscar Wilde's fairy tales subvert the flat characters in traditional fairy tales, creating a number of unique characters and dialectically showing the development of characters; broke the concept of unity between inner and outer beauty in traditional fairy tales, revealing its humanitarian and moral orientation, and conveying its aesthetics. Moreover, Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales showed both children and adults the real world through revealing the hypocrisy of Victorian era and the contradictions between the real world and the illusive world. Then this thesis furthers its analysis by demonstrating the contribution Wilde made to children’s literature.

Keywords: Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales, traditional fairy tales, aestheticism, settlements of conflicts, moral-oriented endings

摘      要

本文从人物分析，道德观，寓意式结局三个方向展开论述，分析了王尔德唯美主义童话对以格林童话为代表的传统童话的颠覆。王尔德的童话颠覆了传统童话中模式化的扁平人物形象，创造了一批独特的人物形象，辩证地展现了人物的发展历程；突破了传统童话中美与善的相统一的概念，流露了其人道主义的道德倾向，传达其美学观；没有回避现实世界的冲突矛盾，而是将童话与现实相结合，有意无意地揭示了维多利亚时期上层社会的伪善，同时突破了传统童话完满结局的矛盾解决方式，从而揭示了王尔德对儿童文学的贡献，及其作品在童话发展中的重大价值。

关键词：王尔德童话; 传统童话; 唯美主义；矛盾处理；寓意结局

1. Introduction
Oscar Wilde was a gifted playwright, poet, and aesthete in the 19th century England. He was born in Dublin in 1854 and studied at Trinity College in Dublin before leaving his native Ireland to study at Oxford University. His talent was recognized when he received the Newdegate Prize for his outstanding poem, “Ravenna”. After leaving college, his first volume of poetry “Patience”, was published in 1881, followed by a play, “The Duchess of Padua” two years later. It was around this time that Wilde sparked a sensation. And he was illustrious for preaching the importance of style in life and art, and of attacking Victorian narrow mindedness.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), his only novel, caused controversy as the book evidently attacked the hypocrisy of England. The book was later used as incriminating evidence at Oscar Wilde's trail for its homosexual implication.