Student Question

What three literary terms most significantly shape Oscar Wilde's story "The Young King"?

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The most obvious literary technique in this story is the foreshadowing employed in the Young King's dreams. Prior to these dreams the Young King, and once rude/poor peasant, quickly embraces his new life of wealth, luxury, and prestige. He gives no thought to those who make such a luxurious life possible. Being poor all of his life, he seems to forget the humility of that past life and becomes thoughtless in his new world. However, this criticism is too quick because the Young King was evidently plagued by guilt. That guilt, lying in his subconscious, manifested in his dreams. Waking up and remembering these dreams, the Young King has a moment of clarity. He becomes humble and refuses to adorn the luxurious robe, crown, and raiment because he believes, and rightly so, that these expensive things were produced by the work, suffering, and sacrifice of those much poorer than he. The dreams foreshadow what the king will do at his coronation. He gives up the riches for his old, ragged clothes. 

This is an example of unintentional Socratic Irony. With Socratic Irony, one adopts another person's point of view in order to eventually ridicule that person or prove that person wrong. The Young King adopts the point of view of the noble class, but not with the immediate Socratic intention of eventually showing them the error of their ways. In this way, this is also dramatic irony because the Young King initially unwittingly adopts the noble persona; he initially falls in love with being wealthy. Only, later does he use his noble position in order to challenge that idea. Overall, this is an interesting example of unintentional (more dramatic irony) and then intentional Socratic Irony when he uses his noble position to criticize the noble's elitism. 

In this parable, the robe, crown, and jewels all symbolize wealth. This symbolism of clothing serves to show class distinctions. It shows how superficial clothing and the price of clothing are. This is perhaps the most significant allegory of the story. The jeweled crown, robe, and raiment symbolize wealth and nobility. But, the lesson of the allegory is that these symbols are superficial; they are symbols used by the noble class to differentiate themselves from the poor. Using clothing, the story is an allegory about class distinctions, thus making the reader think about how upper classes use symbols, signs, (clothing) and of course money in order to keep the lower classes down. In this way, the story uses symbolism to expose symbolism (which is also ironic). 

The allegory is complete when the Bishop, nobility, and the poor refuse to look upon the Young King: 

And the young King came down from the high altar, and passed home through the midst of the people. But no man dared look upon his face, for it was like the face of an angel. 

It seems that the nobility and poor finally understand what the Young King has been trying to say. But, it also seems like they do need a spiritual sign (again, they need some symbol) to "see the light" - that the Young King was right to criticize the elitism of the nobility. However, we might also assume that since they do not judge him with their eyes (in the end), they have learned the lesson. With their eyes averted, they finally "see" (understand) the angelic spirit of his gesture. 

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What is the most important literary term shaping "The Young King" by Oscar Wilde?

It is challenging to make a case for only one literary element being the most important in this story, but I will make an argument for symbolism being the answer.

Symbols abound in this story, ranging from blatant to subtle or historical, and include;

  • the forest: freedom
  • Porphyry, Lions, the robe, crown and scepter: Traditional symbols of royalty.
  • Adonis/Hadrian's slave/Endymion: possibly symbols of antiquity, i.e. outdatedness, the past, implying the King is becoming enraptured by dead men and myths rather than paying attention to his own people and time

I think the most important symbols are not the contents of the king's dreams, bu the dreams themselves. Dreams are commonly used as semi-ambiguous prophetic plot devices, speaking on behalf of a character's subconscious mind. If we choose to interpret that the dreams are in fact just dreams, and not some sort of divine revelation, then it may be concluded that the dreaming is symbolic of the king's inner nature, i.e. his subconscious mind chastising and correcting him.

There is also abundant Christian symbolism toward the end of the story, most particularly the briar crown and its close appearance to Christ's crown of thorns.

Taken as a whole, I believe the story is a message in symbols. The boy-king represents mankind, a child of high but corrupted parentage (his parents were Adam and Eve). He is raised in poverty, which inadvertently guards him against sin; he is then seduced by worldly pleasures, not realizing the suffering that he brings to others until his innate human empathy begins to curdle his joy. Neither do many of his subjects realize the blasphemous idol-worship they are engaging in. The king realizes the wisdom in his heritage, and eschews the gaudy trappings of man, favoring the humble trappings of Christ, becoming like Christ in the end.

I think you could also make a very strong case for imagery, characterization, and point of view. Imagery is important because of the abundant details, helping us to connect with the king and the visceral experience of the dreams. Characterization is significant because of the way the dreams express themselves, particularly in personifying abstract concepts like Avarice. Point of view is important because it is different points of view, via his dreams, that reveal the king's repulsive ways (although, again, since they are his own dreams it may simply be his own, yet subconscious, point of view).

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