Wilde’s the Happy Prince and Other Tales and a House of Pomegranates

Literary mildews of the legers Concern of Wilde on brea faggot Christianity and artisticism 1351 In a celebrated statement to W. B. Yeats, Oscar Wilde called Walter Paters The conversion my golden book I never travel anywhere with erupt it. ( n1) Nor is Paters influence limited to a exclusive book. Marius the Epicurean alike had a safe impact on Wilde, and during his impri newsment, Paters Greek Studies, Appreciations, and imaginary number Portraits were among the few books he asked for and received (Letters 399).Pater also had a powerful influence on Wildes justt tales, which critics have not so far focused on. The fairy tales of The expert Prince and Other Tales and A House of Pomegranates go bad many another(prenominal) influencesHans Christian Andersen, Blake, Carlylebut Pater is a chief influence on many of them. In De Profundis, Wilde wrote of Marius the Epicurean that in it Pater seeks to fabricate the artistic life with the life of organized religion in the deep, sweet and austere sense datum of the word. But Marius is little more than a spectator an ideal spectator indeed, . . . nevertheless a spectator merely, and perhaps a little too much in use(p) with the comeliness of the vessels of the refuge to notice that it is the Sanctuary of Sorrow that he is gazing at. (Letters 476)In many of the fairy tales, Wildes concern is exactly that of Pater in Mariusto blend Christianity and the artistic life or aestheticism. In others, he is more concerned with the destruction to The Renaissance, with its insistent advice that we should devote our lives to the cloak-and-dagger economic consumption of the best objects of artadvice which he potently rejects. The Happy Prince, for instance, belongs to the latter group. When we first ascertain the knowing prince, he is a ravishing statue, gilded all over with flimsy leaves of fine gold, his eyes are twain lambent sapphires, and a great(p) loss ruby is fixed on his sword-hilt (271). Hi s place as an aesthetic object game above the city symbolizes the isolated, carefree, pleasure-seeking life he led before his death, when he lived in a graceful palace that is itself a work of art. E very evening, he disunite us, I led the dance in the Great Hall (272).The happy prince, past, begins his conception as an aesthete, a follower of Paters advice in The Renaissance that to burn always with this touchy, gem-like flame, to mention this ecstasy, is success in life. . . . We have an interval, and then our place knows us no more. several(prenominal)(a) spend this interval in listlessness, some in high passions, the wisest, at to the lowest degree among the chelaren of this world, in art and song. . . . Of such wisdom, the poetical passion, the desire of apricot, the bed of art for its deliver sake, has most. 123) Even as a child, the happy prince devotes himself instinctively to a Pateresque life of art, song, and cup of tea, but in doing so he locks out Chris tian sweetness and purity. When he becomes a statue, the happy prince gradually recognizes all the distressingness and sorrow that exists in the city to a lower place him, and he develops into a Christian, a child of light. His heart overflows with drive in and pity, and he sacrifices his aesthetic glory to help others. In this, he is aided by a take who undergoes a similar pattern of development.Finally, he strips himself of all his beauty, and his leaden heart cracks when the consent dies, but both are correct now to enter Heaven. Christianity and aestheticism do not blend in The Happy Prince Paters Renaissance is seen as an early, selfish exemplify that homosexual beings should outgrow. The large problem of the infanta in The birthday of the Infanta is that she does not go beyond the private aestheticism Pater recommended in his goal but trunk monstrous in her icy beauty and cold palace, with its many objects of art.In The Young King, on the other hand, Christianity a nd aestheticism blend estimabley. The young king, the son of an artist, is disowned at first by his gramps the old king, but is later acknowledge as heir to the throne and brought into the palace. From the very first moment of his recognition, we are told, he had shown signs of that strange passion for beauty that was fate to have so great an influence over his life. . . . The wonderful palaceJoyeuse, as they called itof which he now found himself lord, seemed to him to be a new world fresh- fashioned for his occupy . . he would run down the great staircase, with its lions of gilt bronze and its pure tones of bright porphyry, and wander from room to room, and from corridor to corridor. (213-14) This crucial release reveals the young king as a disciple of Paters Renaissance, constantly in a state of ecstasy, burning with a hard gem-like flame as he in private enjoys the manifold beauties of his palace of art. But as his nature develops, he becomes terribly aware, done three successive dreams, of the pain and darkness that accompanied the acquisition of such splendiferous objects of art.He becomes a Christian, embraces poverty, and goes to his coronation in rags. The land mocks and opposes him, from the people to the nobles to the bishop, but he presses on and enters the church. The nobles follow with drawn swords, intent on killing him, but God intervenes and crowns him And lo with the painted windows came the sunlight streaming upon him, and the sunbeams wove aggress him a tissued robe that was fairer than the robe that was fashioned for his pleasure. The dead staff blossomed, and bare lilies that were whiter than pearls.The alter thorn blossomed, and bare roses that were redder than rubies. (221) The young king enters a new aesthetic realm, refined and indescribably beautiful. Christianity in this tale is the highest work out of aestheticism the young king abandons Paters Renaissance and discovers a higher, religious Epicureanism, much as Ma rius does when it dawns on himin the Divine Service chapter of the cleanthat Christianity is the most beautiful thing in the world (303). Like Marius, in his net stage of self-development, the king blends Christianity and aestheticism. n2) The protagonist of The fisherman and His Soul does the same thing. Initially, fascinated by the beautiful mermaid who sings marvelous songs and lives in a wonderworld beneath the sea, the fisherman casts away his mind and joins her. By the end of the tale, however, his heart becomes large enough to embrace in love both the mermaid and his soul without abandoning aestheticism, he becomes a Christian, and his grave blooms, prompting a mixed bag in the wrathful priest, who speaks of all-embracing love and blesses all of Gods creatures.Similarly, in The Star-Child the star-childs physical beauty returns only when he becomes spiritually beautiful along Christian lines the two go hand in hand. Over and over in the fairy tales, but oddly in The You ng King, Wilde blends Christianity and aestheticism in the stylus of Marius the Epicurean, and over and over he rejects the advice of the conclusion to The Renaissance, presenting it as an inadequate initial stage in the souls spiritual development. NOTES (n1. ) W. B. Yeats, The Autobiography of William pantryman Yeats (New York Macmillan, 1953) 80. n2. ) In this essay, I follow Gerald Cornelius Monsmans development of Marius in Paters Portraits Mythic Pattern in Fiction of Walter Pater (Baltimore The Johns Hopkins Press, 1967). Although Marius never takes the final step of officially converting to Christianity, his death according to Monsman is the prelim to a final awakening and the full experience of God.