Wilde’s Fairy Tales: A Morphological Analysis of “The Young King” and “The Happy Prince”

Abstract

Oscar Wide is eminent literary figure known predominantly for his immortal plays and his brilliant wit. His fairy tales remained in relative obscurity. A surge of literary investigation of has arisen with recent interest in his fairy tales from various perspectives. This paper examines the structure of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales. For this purpose Vladimir Propp’s morphological model is taken as tool of investigation. Any ambiguities found are pointed out. The aim is to establish their structural proximity to the fairy tale text type.