The Young KingOscar Wilde

ContentsThe Author

The Writing Style

The Fairy Tale

The Main Character

Question for discussion

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde

Born 16 October 1854Died 30 November 1900 (aged 46) Period Victorian era Nationality Irish

Occupation Writer, poet, playwrightGenre Drama, short story, criticism, dialogue, journalism Literary Aestheticismmovement

WorksNovel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)Play The Importance of Being Earnest (1898) Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) A Woman of No Importance (1893) An Ideal Husband (1895)Fairy stories House of Pomegranates (1891)Poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)Essays and more

The Young King

A House of Pomegranates

published in 1891a companion to The Happy Prince and Other Tales

ContentsThe Young KingThe Birthday of the InfantaThe Fisherman and His SoulThe Star-Child

“intended neither for the British child nor the British public”

illegitimate shepherd son

of the recently dead

king's daughter

in awe of the splendor of

his new home

Dream 1: a group of starving peasants

working at looms to weave

his robe

Dream 2: one slave was sent underwater to find pearls for

the scepter and dies

Dream 3: all servants in

search of his crown’s rubies

were killed

a much higher being has officially

crowned the young king

The nobles, peasants and

bishops rebuke him.

The young king dressed as a

son of shepherd in his

coronation day.

a young man of marvelous and foreign beauty

He had shown signs of that strange passion for beauty.

the slim, fair-haired Court pages, with their floating mantles, and gay fluttering ribands

Writing Style

beauty

sadness

Character

the young king

Saint Paul

Dedicated to beauty

Care about people

Jesus hater

Preacher

What Makes a Real King

Chamberlain: For how shall the people know that thou art a king, if thou hast not a king’s raiment?

Nobles: The people wait for their king, and thou showest them a beggar. He brings shame upon our state, and is unworthy to be our master.

A peasant: To toil for a hard master is bitter, but to have no master to toil for is more bitter still.

Bishop: The burden of this world is too great for one man to bear, and the world’s sorrow too heavy for one heart to suffer.

The dead staff blossomed, and bare lilies that were whiter than pearl. The dry thorn blossomed, and bare roses

that were redder than rubies.

And the people fell upon their knees in awe, and the nobles sheathed their

swords and did homage, and the Bishop’s face grow pale, and his hands

trembled. “A greater than I hath crowned thee,” he cried, and he knelt

before him.

What Makes a Real King

Thank You!