Dance of Estrangement: Divisions in Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales

Abstract

Oscar Wilde never danced as a hobby, but he was keen on featuring dancers in his literary works. His fairy-tale collections provide detailed depictions of dancing, ranging from classic ballroom dance to strange, uncanny kinds. The motif of dancing in Wilde’s stories conveys the idea of estrangement in a double sense: referring to the divisions in society and the self and the idea of “making strange.” While in The Happy Prince and Other Tales, the division between social classes is allegorised via ballroom dancing, in A House of Pomegranates, the inner discord between love and lust is made clear through the descriptions of uncanny dances. In Wilde’s fairy tales, estrangement in the sense of making strange is intricately connected to a thematic interest in dividedness, thus contributing to a clearer perception of split selfhood. Masking the theme of division with the motif of dancing, Wilde explores the matter in a more defamiliarizing way than social realism would allow. This conforms to Wilde’s unconventional way of moralizing: he attempts to construct the ideal of a harmonious life by exposing the divisions in society and selfhood. As a writer knowing the danger of telling a story with an explicit moral, Wilde invites us to actively recognize the lesson rather than passively accept it.