Oscar Wilde analyzed by Nino Kirvalidze, 2018
... by a balcony of that beautiful maid-of-honour of the Queen speaking to her lover about the Court-ball, and complaining that ... to embroider passion flowers on her dress. Wilde displays the selfish nature of the rich. Ironically, the lovers speak about the power of love though it is obvious that they are not aware of its true essence which is not merely love of pleasures but sacrifice and self-denial for the sake of spiritual perfection that leads to true happiness. Wilde does his best to make this concept clear. His use of irony to reveal hypocrisy is poignant.
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...the palace, as the only serious concern of the upper classes seems to be their dancing, the romantic atmosphere with the stars above and the approaching Court-ball. The lady there turns out to be the Queen’s maid of honour ... and she cold-heartedly criticizes and does not appreciate the value of the labor ...
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...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
...
The second couple in the tale are also heterosexual. The lovers on the balcony do not seem to be successful in their relationship and have communication problems. The man is romantic and passionate whereas the maid-of-honour is portrayed as being cold, selfish, vain, and loveless. For example, the man romances the girl saying: "How beautiful the stars are, and how wonderful is the power of love!"; however, she replies that she is worried her dress will not be ready for the State-Ball and complains ... Richard Jacobs predicts that the indifference of the maid-of-honour and her inability to understand the lives of those who work for her will break down the lovers' relationship and the girl will be to blame. The relationship between the lovers ... is similar to some measure. The female character conveys an attitude towards life and is unfocused on the fundamental needs of her relationship.
It is interesting to note that prior to the twentieth century, it was fully acceptable for men to express themselves romantically with poets such as Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth as their role models.
Hence, I (Layla Bseiso) disagree with Richard Jacobs who writes that Wilde inverts the usual stereotypes of the "manly male" and the "romantic female" rendering the last as materialistic, callous, and aggressive. Wilde is merely presenting the Victorian society stereotypes rather than expressing a mysoginistic attitude of his own.
(Layla Bseiso, Högskolan Dalarna)
-- And the romantic couple on the palace balcony are a surprise. Readers usually expect the comment about the lovely stars and the wonderful power of love to be attached with 'she said to him' but it's 'he said to her', inverting the usual stereotypes of the manly male and the romantic female. Not only that but, in a particularly sharp and even brutal piece of manipulation by Wilde, the beautiful girl is shown to be not only unromantic, and not only materialistic and callous, but her coldly aggressive remark cruelly contradicts what we ourselves know to be the case, ... on this girl's dress. So this relationship presumably will break down and it will be the young woman's fault, because she's a - well, choose your own term of abuse.
(Richard Jacobs) --
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