Deconstruction Of Binary Oppositions In Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales

Oscar Wilde is unconventional in many ways with his unorthodox artistic views,unique daily dressing and unparalleled literary works. Among his unparalleled literary creations, The Happy Prince and Other Tales and The House of Pomegranates which are collections of all his fairy tales demonstrate his unconventionality through subverting the binary oppositions in traditional fairy tales with the spirit of deconstruction.To present Wilde's spirit of deconstruction in fairy tales, two main perspectives with five pairs of binary oppositions are studied in the first parts of this thesis. What makes fairy tale a distinctive literary genre is first studied. Focusing on genre study,two pairs of binary oppositions, plot and character as well as good and bad are explored. Through detailed descriptions of characters' appearance and mental worlds and delayed development of plot, Wilde devotes more efforts to characters which subverts the tradition in classic fairy tales. Another perspective centers on the social function of fairy tales which have played a supportive role for traditional patriarchy.Three pairs of binary archetypes are studied, soul and body, male and female, and heterosexual love and homosexual love. In Wilde's fairy tales, body is given more importance and power, females are described with initiative and crucial influence and homosexual love is presented with happiness and greatness. Inferior parties in traditional binary oppositions are endowed with equality and respect, thus traditional hierarchical order is destroyed and harmony is achieved. Textual analysis combinedwith comparison is employed to demonstrate the way Wilde overturned the traditional archetypes.After analyzing how Wilde subverts binary oppositions in traditional fairy tales,this thesis dwells on exploring reasons that make Wilde's fairy tales full of the deconstructive spirit. Two major factors, Wilde's beliefs in aestheticism and his homosexual identity, are proposed as crucial powers shaping these unconventional Wildean fairy stories. To make the analysis more convincing and vivid, important biographical details are provided.Through the analysis in above chapters, the conclusion that Wilde overthrows binary oppositions in traditional fairy tales and thus demonstrates his spirit of deconstruction is achieved. This thesis is a breakthrough in demonstrating Wilde's spirit of deconstruction through making a systematic analysis of all his fairy tales and the genre study of the fairy tale contributes to the complete research of Wilde's fairy tales.