Oscar Wilde. the devoted friend

OSCAR WILDE. "THE DEVOTED FRIEND"

The aim of the lesson is to teach you to analyze a tale, to single out the details and devices that help the author to make his attitude clear to his readers.

1. Reproduce the following information, enlarging upon it (speak about the things that make O. Wilde's story a fairy-tale and the features that prevent it from being one.)

O. Wilde's tales are not meant for children only. As a matter of fact it was for grown-ups that he wrote them. O. Wilde never called the stories he wrote fairy-tales, though there are some features of tales in them (such as..........). But at the same time we are frustrated in our hopes: goodness doesn't win a victory over evil; the moral the writer seems to preach doesn't change this cruel and indifferent world.

2. If you are to tell the story to a little child you are sure to introduce some changes into it. For example you may leave out the story of the water-rat and the duck; you may omit some details, not mention the end or change it somehow. In a word you should make it more of a fairy- tale.

So, make up a summary of the tale as if you were telling it to a little child.

3. The miller’s ideas about friendship strike us as something quite contrary to our usual understanding of it. But when we come across such things in life (in the tale things are only a bit exaggerated) our reaction is almost the same as that of Hans and some other characters of the tale, i.e. we aren’t shocked at them and even begin to take things for granted, consider such an attitude a usual state of things.

Sum up the miller’s ideas about friendship and provide examples that show the other characters’ attitude to his understanding of friendship and to the way he treats his best friend - Hans.

4. O. Wilde’s tale is built upon contrasts. We do have the opposition of good and evil; selfishness and disinterestedness; greed and generosity. Speak about the ways in which the author shows these oppositions. (You may deal with the words he uses to characterize people, descriptions he gives us, the attitude he defines and actions he mentions, etc.)

Explain using your analysis what forces dominate in the story: the Forces of Good or the Forces of Evil. Why does Wilde give us such a correlation of good and evil in his tale?

5. It is not by chance that Wilde gives us a story within a story. Explain why he uses this very form of writing a story. What would the tale lose if there weren’t any story of the Water-rat and the Duck? Is there any connection between the stories as far as the main idea of the tale goes? What is it?

6. “Once upon a time there lived many different paints. They were all very beautiful and happy. They enjoyed life immensely, but suddenly there came black paint and conquered the whole world. Everybody grew afraid and tried to hide away. Only one fair paint didn’t run anywhere, but stayed where it was. It was in love and didn’t want darkness. So it began fighting against the black paint spreading its fair paint on it until there was practically no fair paint left. But darkness still dominated everywhere. And at that moment the other paints began to shoot spreading their colour on the dark paint……”

Why does O. Wilde choose the form of a fairy- tale to tell us his story? Is there anything in the tale that gives us a chance to hope for the better? Explain.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-05