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摘要
死亡是地球上所有生灵的最终归宿。千百年来人们不停地寻找方法脱离对死亡的恐惧，思索死亡。爱尔兰作家奥斯卡·王尔德也不例外。他有生之年共写了九篇童话，其中八篇涉及死亡主题。该文想找出王尔德对于死亡独特的阐述方式以及他钟爱死亡主题的原因所在。
笔者希望此文对死亡主题的探讨可以帮助读者找到活着的价值与生命的珍贵。
关键词：奥斯卡·王尔德，童话，死亡，爱，悲剧
Death Theme In Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales
Chapter I Introduction
In Wilde’s whole life， he has written nine pieces of fairy tales. In eight out of nine of these fairy tales， no matter in the description of the plot or the ending of the stories all involved death. Compared with Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales and Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales， Wilde’s works are lack of happy-endings. In Wilde’s fairy tales， the good protagonists often do not get good reward， instead， die in loneliness and indifference. Therefore， death ending becomes an important characteristic of Wilde’s fairy tales.
Chapter Ⅱ The tragic death and its value
2.1 Good will be rewarded bad—rewriting traditional fairy tales
In the story The Happy Prince， the prince sacrificed all the poor when he became a statue and saw his people suffering. The little swallow also lost his last chance to Egypt and died for helping others. But their sacrifice completely didn’t receive people’s recognition and appreciation， instead， people’s loathing and abandon. In The Nightingale and the Rose， the nightingale sacrificed his own life and the most beautiful singing in exchange for a red rose and the student’s pure love. But professor’s daughter even didn’t really look at it and the student also threw the rose in the gutter and walked away. In The Birthday of Infanta， the little Dwarf with a kind and loving heart died because he realized he was just an ugly monster to please and amuse others. Though the Infanta had pretty faces， she had no heart and was ugly inside. （Wilde， 1891）
Those deaths in the stories all have the same pattern which is completely different from traditional ones. Those protagonists with kind heart can never be treated nicely by society and others and this also reflects Wilde’s disappointment to the English high society.
2.2 Truth， goodness and beauty behind the darkness and death of the story
Tough compared with traditional fairy tales， Wilde’s seems more pessimistic， we can still see clearly what the writer praises and what the writer criticizes. We can also see the writer’s own personality and aesthetic orientation.
2.2.1 Goodness vs Evilness
In the stories， good characters share some features in common， such as self-sacrifice， compassion and tolerance. Bad characters also have the same features such as indifference， selfishness and ignorance. Wilde gives top priority to tolerance and suffering which we can see obviously from The Happy Prince， and The Nightingale and the Rose. The characters all go through physical and mental torment and sacrifice themselves for others. The pursuit of goodness is also the pursuit of love. Wilde regards true goodness as willing to sacrifice anything for love. “For Wilde， the artist’s role was to find the proper means to let the beautiful be illuminated against the harsh background of society’s dark hues of regimentation.”（Zipes， 2008， p.213） The contrast between goodness and evilness in the stories and especially the tragic deaths of good characters wakes up people’s humanity with deep regret. 2.2.2 Beauty vs Ugliness
As a faithful advocate of aestheticism， Wilde has expressed his value of beauty in his fairy tales to the full. “Pink and pearl was her great gauze fan， and in her hair， which like an aureole of faded gold stood out stiffly round her pale little face， she had a beautiful white rose.”（Wilde， 2008， The Birthday of the Infanta， p.101） The contrast between beauty and ugliness can be seen most clearly in The Birthday of the Infanta and The Star-Child. But from the description of beauty and ugliness in these two stories we can see Wilde put beauty in a relatively independent position， independent from moral concept and utilitarianism. Wilde once said： “It is better to be beautiful than to be good， but it is better to be good than to be ugly.” For artists like Wilde， the pursuit of beauty never stops. The similar plot also appears in the end of The Young King. Goodness begets beauty， just like evilness begets ugliness.
Chapter Ⅲ Conclusion
Death theme is what we see merely from the face of Wilde’s fairy tales. Behind those darkness and death narratives is the pursuit of truth， goodness and beauty. Death is only physical death but people’s spirit can never die. No matter how ironic the reality is， love is better than hate， goodness is better than evilness， dying for truth is better than living with heartlessness.
Death itself is not fearsome because all men are mortal. The pursuit of truth， beauty and goodness will always continue at any cost until one day our world becomes heaven.
Bibliography
Ackroyd， P （1983）. The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde. HarperCollins
Raby， P. （2001）.The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Wilde， O. （1888）. The Happy Prince and Other Tales. London： David Nutt.
Wilde， O （1999）. De Profundis. London： Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Wilde， O. （2008）. Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde. Gyles Brandreth & Jack Zipes （Ed）. New York： New American Library， a division of Penguin Group.
赫伯特·洛特曼（美），谢迎芳（译者），（2011），王尔德在巴黎，北京：作家出版社
陆扬，（1998），中西死亡美学，武汉：华中师范大学出版社
孙宜学，（2005），审判王尔德实录，桂林：广西师范大学出版社
孙宜学，（2009），凋谢的百合——王尔德画像，上海：同济大学出版社
颜翔林，（1998），死亡美学，上海：学林出版社
简介：杜亚尊（1992.5——），女，汉族，甘肃临洮，兰州大学外国语学院2013级英语语言文学专业研究生。
死亡是地球上所有生灵的最终归宿。千百年来人们不停地寻找方法脱离对死亡的恐惧，思索死亡。爱尔兰作家奥斯卡·王尔德也不例外。他有生之年共写了九篇童话，其中八篇涉及死亡主题。该文想找出王尔德对于死亡独特的阐述方式以及他钟爱死亡主题的原因所在。
笔者希望此文对死亡主题的探讨可以帮助读者找到活着的价值与生命的珍贵。
关键词：奥斯卡·王尔德，童话，死亡，爱，悲剧
Death Theme In Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales
Chapter I Introduction
In Wilde’s whole life， he has written nine pieces of fairy tales. In eight out of nine of these fairy tales， no matter in the description of the plot or the ending of the stories all involved death. Compared with Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales and Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales， Wilde’s works are lack of happy-endings. In Wilde’s fairy tales， the good protagonists often do not get good reward， instead， die in loneliness and indifference. Therefore， death ending becomes an important characteristic of Wilde’s fairy tales.
Chapter Ⅱ The tragic death and its value
2.1 Good will be rewarded bad—rewriting traditional fairy tales
In the story The Happy Prince， the prince sacrificed all the poor when he became a statue and saw his people suffering. The little swallow also lost his last chance to Egypt and died for helping others. But their sacrifice completely didn’t receive people’s recognition and appreciation， instead， people’s loathing and abandon. In The Nightingale and the Rose， the nightingale sacrificed his own life and the most beautiful singing in exchange for a red rose and the student’s pure love. But professor’s daughter even didn’t really look at it and the student also threw the rose in the gutter and walked away. In The Birthday of Infanta， the little Dwarf with a kind and loving heart died because he realized he was just an ugly monster to please and amuse others. Though the Infanta had pretty faces， she had no heart and was ugly inside. （Wilde， 1891）
Those deaths in the stories all have the same pattern which is completely different from traditional ones. Those protagonists with kind heart can never be treated nicely by society and others and this also reflects Wilde’s disappointment to the English high society.
2.2 Truth， goodness and beauty behind the darkness and death of the story
Tough compared with traditional fairy tales， Wilde’s seems more pessimistic， we can still see clearly what the writer praises and what the writer criticizes. We can also see the writer’s own personality and aesthetic orientation.
2.2.1 Goodness vs Evilness
In the stories， good characters share some features in common， such as self-sacrifice， compassion and tolerance. Bad characters also have the same features such as indifference， selfishness and ignorance. Wilde gives top priority to tolerance and suffering which we can see obviously from The Happy Prince， and The Nightingale and the Rose. The characters all go through physical and mental torment and sacrifice themselves for others. The pursuit of goodness is also the pursuit of love. Wilde regards true goodness as willing to sacrifice anything for love. “For Wilde， the artist’s role was to find the proper means to let the beautiful be illuminated against the harsh background of society’s dark hues of regimentation.”（Zipes， 2008， p.213） The contrast between goodness and evilness in the stories and especially the tragic deaths of good characters wakes up people’s humanity with deep regret. 2.2.2 Beauty vs Ugliness
As a faithful advocate of aestheticism， Wilde has expressed his value of beauty in his fairy tales to the full. “Pink and pearl was her great gauze fan， and in her hair， which like an aureole of faded gold stood out stiffly round her pale little face， she had a beautiful white rose.”（Wilde， 2008， The Birthday of the Infanta， p.101） The contrast between beauty and ugliness can be seen most clearly in The Birthday of the Infanta and The Star-Child. But from the description of beauty and ugliness in these two stories we can see Wilde put beauty in a relatively independent position， independent from moral concept and utilitarianism. Wilde once said： “It is better to be beautiful than to be good， but it is better to be good than to be ugly.” For artists like Wilde， the pursuit of beauty never stops. The similar plot also appears in the end of The Young King. Goodness begets beauty， just like evilness begets ugliness.
Chapter Ⅲ Conclusion
Death theme is what we see merely from the face of Wilde’s fairy tales. Behind those darkness and death narratives is the pursuit of truth， goodness and beauty. Death is only physical death but people’s spirit can never die. No matter how ironic the reality is， love is better than hate， goodness is better than evilness， dying for truth is better than living with heartlessness.
Death itself is not fearsome because all men are mortal. The pursuit of truth， beauty and goodness will always continue at any cost until one day our world becomes heaven.
Bibliography
Ackroyd， P （1983）. The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde. HarperCollins
Raby， P. （2001）.The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
Wilde， O. （1888）. The Happy Prince and Other Tales. London： David Nutt.
Wilde， O （1999）. De Profundis. London： Wordsworth Editions Ltd.
Wilde， O. （2008）. Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde. Gyles Brandreth & Jack Zipes （Ed）. New York： New American Library， a division of Penguin Group.
赫伯特·洛特曼（美），谢迎芳（译者），（2011），王尔德在巴黎，北京：作家出版社
陆扬，（1998），中西死亡美学，武汉：华中师范大学出版社
孙宜学，（2005），审判王尔德实录，桂林：广西师范大学出版社
孙宜学，（2009），凋谢的百合——王尔德画像，上海：同济大学出版社
颜翔林，（1998），死亡美学，上海：学林出版社
简介：杜亚尊（1992.5——），女，汉族，甘肃临洮，兰州大学外国语学院2013级英语语言文学专业研究生。