TSQ-IV
The presence of the palace of the Prince and the Princess at the edge of the garden makes it likely that the garden signifies the sephira Tipharet (or Beauty).
...a chariot from the Prince and the Princess... may directly signify the trump card 'The Chariot' (VII).
TYK-II
The (second) dream reveals the death of the black (?) (sic) slaves who fish for pearls for the royal sceptre.
The second dream shows the young King a slave galley run by a black master. The youngest of the slaves is forced to dive for pearls till he dies finding what is truly a pearl of great price, "fairer than all the pearls of Ormuz [. . .] shaped like the moon, and whiter than the morning star".
The young King’s second dream corresponds to the albedo phase. This is evident through the presence of ‘feminine’ alchemical signifiers: water, pearls, the full moon, the morning star.
The narrator remarks that, after witnessing the suffering of a pearl diver, ‘The young King tried to speak, but his tongue seemed to cleave to the roof of his mouth, and his lips refused to move’ (89). This indicates the completion of the nigredo phase in the introverted approach to alchemy, where his speech reveals the misery that he ignored.
For example, those beautiful pearls are obtained at the price of slaves’ lives.
Within this dream there is time movement; a galley is journeying on a sea. A long voyage is semantically encapsulated in the adverbial phrase ‘. . . At last they reached a little bay . . .’; the painfully slow movement of dream events is conveyed in adverbial phrases like ‘. . . followed slowly . . .’, ‘. . . crept wearily . . .’and ‘. . . beating monotonously . . .’ The young slave looking for pearls surfaces ‘. . . after some time . . .’ and the painfully dragging length of time realized in adverbial phrase ‘. . . again and again . . .’, or adjectival modification,’. . . each time . . .’ and ‘. . . the last time . . .’ The protagonist wakes up and the real world time has moved further towards the day, the time expressed with a preposition and captured metaphorically this time in ‘. . . and through the window he saw the long grey fingers of the dawn clutching at the fading stars.’ The prepositional phrase ‘through the window’ orients the reader towards the two time scales on which this tale is moving: the dream time that is inside the room and real world time that is glimpsed outside the window.
It begins like the earlier similar sentence with a stylistically marked and at the beginning of the sentence that is chronological in its semantic import. The second and is also chronological, after falling asleep he dreams and third additive and serves as a lead into the description of his second dream. The dream this time is located away from his land takes him to wild seas, ships, galley masters and slaves. The dream narrative is made of predominantly additive and chronological and relations. The next two passages comprise of seven descriptive sentences containing five additive and one chronological and-conjunctions. The Young King finds himself on a galley being rowed by ‘a hundred slaves’. The master of the galley is painted with two additives: ‘On a carpet by his side the master of the galley was seated. He was black as ebony, and his turban was of crimson silk. Great earrings of silver dragged down the thick lobes of his ears, and in his hands he had a pair of ivory scales.’ The second passage describes the slaves and their plight with three additive and one chronological and relations:
"The slaves were naked, but for a ragged loincloth, and each one was chained to his neighbour. The hot sun beat brightly upon them, and the negroes ran up and down the gangway and lashed them with whips of hide. They stretched out their lean arms and pulled the heavy oars through the water."
When this oriental galley reaches its destination we get the description of the place in two sentences. The first one contains a chronological and joining the two clauses. The second sentence contains a chronological and an additive and-conjunctions; ‘At last they reached a little bay, and began to take soundings. A light wind blew from the shore, and covered the deck and the great lateen sail with a fine red dust.’ The wildness and cruelty of the site is established by a violent attack on the galley crew that seems to have no link with the movement of the action in the dream except to
introduce an element of fear. The clip contains action and we find it narrated with three chronological and-conjunctions in three sentences. The fourth sentence contains and as part of a phrase:
"Three Arabs mounted on wild asses rode out and threw spears at them. The master of the galley took a painted bow in his hand and shot one of them in the throat. He fell heavily into the surf, and his companions galloped away. A woman wrapped in a yellow veil followed slowly on a camel, looking back now and then at the dead body."
Having got rid of the raiders, the crew gets to work and we get three passages in which they carry out their operation. Ten chronological, one additive and one phrasal and conjunctions are used to describe the activity:
"As soon as they had cast anchor and hauled down the sail, the negroes went into the hold and brought up a long rope-ladder, heavily weighted with lead. The master of the galley threw it over the side, making the ends fast to two iron stanchions. Then the negroes seized the youngest of the slaves, and knocked his gyves off, and filled his nostrils and his ears with wax, and tied abig stone round his waist. He crept wearily down the ladder, and disappeared into the sea. A few bubbles rose where he sank. Some of the other slaves peered curiously over the side . . .
After some time the slave rose up out of the water, and clung panting to the ladder with a pearl in his right hand. The negroes seized it from him, and thrust him back . . .
Again and again he came up, and each time that he did so he brought with him a beautiful pearl. The master of the galley weighed them, and put them into a little bag of green leather."
The impact of this spectacle is so much more overwhelming than the first dream that the Young King is unable to speak. His predicament is shown in one sentence comprising of three clauses joined by two conjunctions, one of them an additive and; ‘The young King tried to speak, but his tongue seemed to cleave to the roof of his mouth, and his lips refused to move.’ The world of the galley is ruthlessly going on; so is the natural world. An additive and a phrasal and-conjunction describe the scene; ‘The negroes chattered to each other, and began to quarrel over a string of bright beads. Two cranes flew round and round the vessel.’ The final haul of pearls ends in his death. Two additives describe the precious pearl that he brings up and one additive and three chronological and applications narrate the process of his miserable and ruthless death:
"Then he came up for the last time, and the pearl that he brought with him was fairer than all the pearls of Ormuz, for it was shaped like the full moon, and whiter than the morning star. But his face was strangely pale, and as he fell upon the deck the blood gushed from his ears and nostrils. He quivered for a little, and then he was still. The negroes shrugged their shoulders, and threw the body overboard."
The next long sentence beginning by a stylistically marked chronological and joined by five more chronological and-conjunctions give us the reason and the conclusion to the whole adventure. The sentence gives the indifferent attitude of the galley master to the death adds to the cruelty of the scene:
"And the master of the galley laughed, and, reaching out, he took the pearl, and when he saw it he pressed it to his forehead and bowed. `It shall be,' he said, `for the sceptre of the young King,' and he made a sign to the negroes to draw up the anchor."
The Young King’s unasked question is answered to the worst that he fears. The conclusion to this narrative is similar to the first dream , the sentence begins by stylistically marked resultative and-conjunction, contains another chronological and that imports him back to the reality of the waking world and the third additive and links the passing night that is now close to dawn. In one sense the additive and conjunction serves to establish the temporal parameter of the tale at this point:
"And when the young King heard this he gave a great cry, and woke, and through the window he saw the long grey fingers of the dawn clutching at the fading stars."
THE LOVELIEST OF THE QUEEN'S MAIDS OF HONOUR
A BEAUTIFUL GIRL AND HER LOVER
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 that the seamstress is "so lazy". 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... 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.
Jacobs writes that Wilde inverts the usual stereotypes of the "manly male" and the "romantic female" rendering the last as materialistic, callous, and aggressive.
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...
Wilde is merely presenting the Victorian society stereotypes rather than expressing a mysoginistic attitude of his own.
The woman described as "the loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour" is supposed to appear smart "at the next Court ball" in "the satin gown". Wilde satirizes the injustice of
how a woman shines in society at the expense of anothe
r. The noblewoman's worry is about the look of her dress.
The ballroom music of the time (18th century)... the young noblewoman who is going to wear the ball dress... the noblewoman insensitively complains about the seamstress's laziness...the vanity of the noblewoman...
... the
ostentatious limits...
...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 honor for whom the seamstress is embroidering the flowers, and she cold-heartedly criticizes and
does not appreciate the value of the labor the seamstress pays to her struggle.
the pampered princess ... is concerned that her dress 'will be ready in time for the State-ball'
...
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, ...............................
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.
It’s worth mentioning that the author uses examples of parallel constructions in a figurative It’s worth mentioning that the author uses examples of parallel constructions in a figurative
way, and it makes his writing style more expressive and more impressive:
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 that the seamstress is "so lazy". 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) --
way, and it makes his writing style more expressive and more impressive:
It’s worth mentioning that the author uses examples of parallel constructions in a figurative
way, and it makes his writing style more expressive and more impressive:
THE ART PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY
On the basis of ... ugliness, the Art Professor at the University recommends the removal...
By presenting the Art Professor, who says "As...is no longer beautiful...is no longer useful", as a follower of the art for art's sake creed, Wilde locates this selfish character specifically within the nineteenth century.
As I mentioned above, Wilde supported the attitude of "art for art's sake", and sought aestheticism as long as he lived. He considered the Art Professor at the University, who supported "art for life's sake", a trivial person.
to the dictum of the art professor at the University that, since ‘... is no longer beautiful, ...is no longer useful.’”
The upper classes in the fairy-world show no understanding for beauty without purpose, and art for art’s sake.
Wilde, through the posture of the art professor, provides a compelling argument for his belief that art is useful in itself, and should not have to serve a higher purpose.
Even the art professor who is expected to value the inner beauty of objects notes that ... is no longer beautiful, thus no longer useful.
Characters appearing in the fairy tale
the Art Professor
[was] no longer beautiful [was] no longer useful", as stated by the Art Professor.
For these people, the true value ... lay in the former glory, with its jewels and gold...
...no longer beautiful and therefore no longer useful...
On the one hand, Wilde promotes the idea that art is merely art, the
l’art-pour-l’art principle that was also demonstrated by his mentor Walter Pater. This can be seen in the fact that the people only enjoy and value... when it is beautiful. The value... then becomes merely superficial, only the way it looks matters and it has no use in any way. The moment ... has lost its superficial value, it is no longer art and has to be taken down. Wilde also displays this sentiment in the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, when he says that “all art is quite useless.”
... the superficial sphere of art seems to be most important on earth...
...b
ut the narrator never seems to favour ... Pater’s philosophy ... :
the story takes no sides, but rather it illustrates the debate between opposing philosophies.
...is also said not to be useful anymore, because ... has lost ... beauty.
..., showing that the social value of art is ignored and that it is merely appreciated when it is useless and beautiful.
the dominance of the superficial in life in line with the philosophies of Walter Pater.
a lo que le sigue una crítica ante la afirmación del profesor de estética según la cual lo que carece de belleza es inútil; De este modo, al amor en el dolor se le suma la idea de la muerte que cuestiona una vez más el esteticismo y la utilidad. Más que una crítica a la afirmación de la acción sin interés, cuestiona el sentido del común.
Walter Pater, indeed, may have been the inspiration behind the character of the Art Professor at the University (and also for Lord Henry Wotton!). A great man of letters, I recommend his novel
Marius the Epicurean (isn't the title tempting?), about a young gay man from the Roman provinces during the cosmopolitan, eclectic reign of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. A queer novel, a philosophical novel, and a sensitive young lover of a hero to enjoy.
PS. Updated in December 2017
According to the notes by John Sloan in Oscar Wilde's Complete Short Stories, the Art Professor at the University and his remark about beauty and usefulness is:
an allusion perhaps to William Morris (1834-96) who in his lecture 'The Beauty of Life' (1880), published in pamphlet form the same year under the title 'Labour and Pleasure versus Labour and Sorrow', stated: 'Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'
