Déborah Scheidt
Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa
Abstract
In this paper we examine the articulation of the tragic mode in Oscar Wilde‟s collection of fairy tales The Happy Prince and Other Stories, especially in “The Young King”, “The Selfish Giant” and “The Birthday of the Infanta.” By “tragic mode” we mean, in this context, the vestiges left by Greek tragedy and its development, the Elizabethan tragedy, in a piece of nineteenth century fiction. Several thematic and structural elements, as suggested by Richard Palmer – tragic heroes, tragic villains and martyrs, issues of fate, guilt, will, self-recognition, death and suffering, as well as the recurrence of paradox, tragic structure and poetic elevation of the language – lead us to conclude that the tragic mode is present and very effective in Wilde‟s fairy tales.
