A House of Pomegranates, Oscar Wilde

I have a particular love for Oscar Wilde. His fiction is most often poetic and romantic. I have read A House of Pomegranates. It is a real shame that his life was cut short by stints in prison for having sex with men.
most, if not all, of his short fiction. In fact, this is the second time I am reading

A House of Pomegranates follows in the footsteps of The Happy Prince and Other Tales, which was a r
emarkable piece of romantic fiction. Although not nearly as famous for fairy tales, nor as prolific, as say Hans Christian Andersen, he nonetheless had a great talent for it. Perhaps if he had not been persecuted for his sexual preferences, we might have a great deal more of his work to appreciate today.

The Young King

"The Young King" is the first story in this short collection of fairy tales. A young man goes from rags to riches. Once a poor sheepherder, he is recognized as the king's heir to the throne. He is morphed into a new kind of man: no longer the ragged caretaker of sheep, he comes to love the finery which goes with his new found wealth.

This goes well for him until he has a dream. In his dream, he becomes a witness to the human cost of his gains. For his robe, he has this dream: a sweat shop filled with 'Pale, sickly-looking children... faces pinched with famine... a horrible odour filled the place... the walls dripped and streamed with damp...' When the heir to the throne asks why the man doesn't just leave his job, he replies,

...the rich make slaves of the poor. We must work to live, and they give us such mean wages that we die. We toil for them all day long, and they heap up gold in their coffers, and our children fade away before their time... We tread out the grapes, and another drinks the wine. We so the corn, and our own board is empty. We have chains, though no eye beholds them; and are slaves, though men call us free...

His next dream takes him to a ship sent out to find pearls. Malnourished men row the ship, and when come to a stop, collapse into sleep still manacled. A diver is sent to find pearls. He dives and rises, each time with a pearl, until at last he comes up with one which is 'fairer than all the pearls of Ormuz.' But the cost of this pearl is his life. His death resulted in no ceremony: simply kicked back into the water while the ship returns with the prize pearl.

Finally, he is confronted by a scene between Avarice (greed) and Death: Death demands a grain of corn, but Avarice always refuses. The result is the deaths of all the subjects of Avarice.

Up to the point of his dream, he had no clue as to the sacrifice required by so many to acquire the materials required for his lavish raiment. Being recently a common person, he could no longer live with the inhuman treatment of those who were sacrificed on the behalf of raiment. He therefore refuses to wear them. Refusing them leads to mockery by all: both those who sacrificed their lives, to the soldiers, to the courtiers and lords.

He makes his way to the church where he is to receive his crown. While there, the soldiers are ready to arrest and perhaps kill him, when god intervenes and gives him heavenly robes. It's a fairly shallow ending, to be honest. Or, at least religiously romantic: something I have no taste for.

The Birthday of the Infanta

There are some curiosities about this short fiction. One being that the mother of the Infanta had died before. The King of Spain loved her so much that he had her preserved. He would 'kiss her painted face' in hopes of bringing her back to life. 

The infanta (or daughter of the king) of Spain has a birthday. A part of her entertainment is a an ugly little dwarf. The dwarf does not know that he is ugly. All the children love his entertainment and everyone laughs at him. Everyone mocks him except the birds, who remember his kindness to them.

He comes across a mirror and discovers how ugly he is. He then understands that all the children were laughing at him. The shock is so great that it kills him.But as the dwarf lies on the floor dying in agony, the infanta and her friends come upon him and are moved to even greater amusement:

...when they saw the ugly little dwarf lying on the ground and beating the floor with his clenched hands, in the most fantastic and exaggerated manner, they went off into shouts of happy laughter...

The ending is particularly catching when the Infanta declares, "For the future let those who come to play with me have no hearts."

Of course, why wouldn't the dwarf have seen his image in some still pond or pool of water?

The Fisherman and His Soul

 Of the stories in this collection,  this one is the most romantic fairy tale.

A fisherman goes out and finds a mermaid of great beauty. Upon seizing her, she promises to sing for him that he might catch many fish. But, as she does so, he falls in love with her so hard that he willingly gives up his soul that he might be with her.

The soul never wanted to leave the body, and demanded a heart before it went away. Being denied this, it knew not of love or compassion. It therefore wanted to tempt the fisherman to take back his soul.

The soul found riches and wisdom, but the fisherman cared for neither of these things, but only the love he had for his mermaid. At last, however, the soul tempts him by telling him of dancing girls. This offer is a ruse, however. The soul bids him to do evil acts which the man regrets. At last he is ready to abandon his quest to see the dancers and goes back to the sea. He wants to rid himself of his soul once more, but it is too late and the reattachment is irreversible. He therefore contents the rest of his days singing for his lost mermaid. The mermaid herself dies and washes on the shore. He goes to her only to be swallowed up by the sea and killed. 

The story is filled with lovely poetic language and imagery.

The Star Child 

This is the last short story of this collection.

A child is delivered by a shooting star. This is a disappointment to two poor men who had been seeking a pot of gold. His wife reluctantly welcomes him into the family and the poor couple take care of him as if he was their own. But, he is cruel to everyone and everything around him. Eventually his own mother comes upon him, but he refuses her on the basis of her ugliness. As a consequence, he has his gift of beauty replaced by repulsiveness.

He is cast out and spends years searching for his mother and forgiveness. On coming to one castle or kingdom, he is tormented and sold to a wizard who would have him as a slave. He redeems himself while under the evil wizard's control by giving to the poor what he needs to avoid severe punishment and even win his freedom.

He is then returned to his former glory. Immediately, the people revel in his beauty and declare him their new monarch. He then finds his mother and cries at her feet for forgiveness, whereupon her beauty is restored. He then discovers his father who was in fact the beggar upon whom he had sacrificed himself for, and his beauty is restored.

He lives a short life, just three years. It is remarked that those who came after him ruled evilly.

I don't think that it's Wilde being superficial, but rather showing how superficial people are: that how we treat one another depends on how we look. The only reason that the main character is good is because he had an opportunity to live in the shoes of the poor and ugly.

How unfortunate it is that we are still mired in such a superficial mind-set. We still mock and bully those who are ugly and elevate those who are beautiful. It's hard to estimate whether or not we will change.