Morality in Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales
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Abstract
This research aims to examine the moral issues presented in seven of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales from two collections: The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891). This research framework employs literary criticism with a focus on moral critique. The results showed that Wilde explores the concepts of both morality and immorality in his fairy tales, such that moral people either gain rewards or do not gain them. Likewise, immoral people are either punished or not punished. There are five main moralities in the fairy tales; namely, self-sacrifice, repentance, generosity, compassion, and empathy. Regarding poetic justice, self-sacrifice, and generosity, they can either be rewarded or not, while repentance, compassion, and empathy are consistently recompensed. In terms of immorality, Wilde argues that selfishness and cruelty can either be punished or not. Moreover, immoral people tend to take advantage of naively moral ones.
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ต้นฉบับที่ได้รับการตีพิมพ์ในวารสารคณะศิลปศาสตร์ มหาวิทยาลัยแม่โจ้ ถือเป็นกรรมสิทธิ์ของมหาวิทยาลัยแม่โจ้ ห้ามนำข้อความทั้งหมดหรือบางส่วนไปพิมพ์ซ้ำ เว้นเสียแต่จะได้รับอนุญาตจากมหาวิทยาลัยฯ เป็นลายลักษณ์อักษรReferences
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