Oscar Wilde's Essays and Fairy Tales: Aesthetic Morality

Abstract

MA Thesis on Oscar Wilde's aestheticism as displayed in his essays The Decay of Lying, The Critic as Artist and The Soul of Man Under Socialism. The research presents an analysis of Wilde's aestheticism, which argues against morality and Christianity, and then uses this analysis for a research on Wilde's fairy tales The Devoted Friend, The Happy Prince and The Fisherman and His Soul as the genre conventions of fairy tales dictate that a moral should be contained within. The research shows that Wilde presents a philosophy that argues for aesthetic morality.