PASSION-FLOWERS TO BE EMBROIDERED ON IT

PASSION-FLOWERS TO BE EMBROIDERED ON IT... but why passion-flowers?
A symbolic analysis of this subplot by Yoshinobu Umetsu

[···] Wilde deals more successfully with the burden of human suffering. 
[···] Rather than replicating socio-economic reality, he sets the tale in another world, [···].
Only once, and with skillful indirectness, he traces the problem (of human suffering) to its origin.
[···] a gown for one of the queen’s maids of honor. On [···] way [···], passes first over the cathedral, and then over the palace. And [···] overhears the maid’s murmur in conversation: “I hope my dress will be ready in time for the State-ball ... I have ordered passion-flowers to be embroidered on it; but the seamstresses are so lazy.”( p. 287) The flower’s symbolic significance is ironically suited to unfeeling materialism and indicates the great spiritual distance that separates palace from cathedral. This indirect method of criticism blends more smoothly into the tale’s core than the political speeches (in “The Young King.”) By concentrating on simple solutions rather than the complexity of the problem, Wilde uses this style with greater effect, creating a more unified, harmonious work of art.


Yoshinobu Umetsu


... unas pasionarias en un vestido que lucirá una camarera de la reina en un baile, ...
En contraste, la mujer que usará el vestido, y a quien su amante le expresa la maravillosa fuerza del amor al ver las hermosas estrellas, se queja de la pereza de las costureras, [···]