Classic: Oscar Wilde
- Author: O. Wilde
- Title: The Birthday of the Infanta
- Published: 1891
- List Challenges 2018
- Monthly planning
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- #DealMeIn2018 Jay’s Bibliophilopolis
Quickscan:
- Infanta is given a birthday party by her father the King.
- He arranges whirling gypsies, an African juggler, a snake charmer,
- a mock bullfight and…a dancing dwarf.
- The birthday girl throws the dwarf a white rose!
- The dwarf is ‘éperdument amoureux’
- … and wanders through the garden…filled with happiness.
- He slips into the palace to find the Infanta and tell her of his love.
- The only thing he finds is his reflection
- …in a mirror exposing his own grotesque.
- Now he know why the infanta was laughing at him
- … he was a ‘petit monstre’.
- No spoilers…ending that packs a punch.
Conclusion:
- This story is a gem!
- All we know of the Infanta (10% of the story):
- she is the most graceful of all
- she shrugs her shoulders when her father does not attend the mock bullfight
- the Infanta laughs, applauds the dancing Dwarf, flutters her fan and
- with the sweetest smile throws him a white rose.
- This is her beautiful exterior.
- All we know of the dwarf (35% of the story):
- he has crooked legs, a wagging huge head and a hunched back.
- He has always lived in the forest and was unaware of his own grotesque.
- This is his ugly exterior.
- Yet the interior of the dwarf is loving, generous and kind.
- The interior of the Infanta is
- …stamping her foot, cries out commands and
- her rose-leaf lips curl in pretty disdain when she hears
- …why the dwarf cannot dance for her again.
Strong point: anthropomorphism (literary device)
- Oscar Wilde give plants and animals human attributes.
- They voice feelings (lesson or a moral) that the…
- Tall tulip flowers (high-society) have about the ugly dwarf.
- The milk “white” peacock says everyone knows that the
- children of Kings were Kings and the children of
- charcoal (black)-burners were charcoal-burners (class differences)
- …”and it was absurd to pretend that it wasn’t so“.
Last thoughts:
- Oscar Wilde juxtaposes the Infanta vs the dwarf.
- Ugliness inside a beautiful exterior.
- Beauty inside a grotesque exterior.
- Oscar Wilde pokes fun at the grotesque as
- …did Victor Hugo (Hunchback Notre-Dame).
- Both authors wanted to forget their own misery:
- …Wilde ‘otherness’ (homosexuality)
- …Hugo a physical deformity.
Pure Wilde inspiration and imagination!