The Forms of the Interaction between “Civilization” and “Nature” in the Fiction by Oscar Wilde: The Exchange and the Ritual of Sacrifice

Abstract

Most of Oscar Wilde’s works focus on the high society (including the royalty), which is portrayed as artificial, imitative, and ludic. These characteristics are epitomized in the process of collecting (artificial) rarities (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Salome, The Young King), or in the passion for performance and mystification (The Birthday of the Infanta, The Sphinx Without a Secret, The Importance of Being Ernest). As opposed to the “high society”, Wilde shows the natural (or ancient) milieu, which is firmer and healthier, but devoid of aesthetic perfection. Paradoxically, the high society represents external, corporeal, aesthetic form of life, while the natural milieu means the spiritual and ethic one. Wilde shows the aesthetic or ethic perfection as a fatal and dangerous phenomenon, since fully expressing themself in one, the person has to abandon the other. As a result, a good-looking person becomes a paragon of immorality, while a morally upstanding one looks too much ugly). Wilde is interested in the technique of the interaction between the opposites, rather than in the depiction of the absolute corporeal or moral perfection. The article aims at showing the two forms of interaction between “the civilization” and “the nature”. The positive model shows a profitable exchange: one side gives exactly as much as the other side receives (i.e. the rescued Hare for the rescued Star-Child; the peace of the Canterville Ghost for Virginia’s fortunate marriage). This is the case when the characters, who have some problems with their bodies (the transparent Ghost or the serpent-like Star-Child) gain the distinct shape, as if passing from the ancient to the modern state. In the cause of mutually beneficial exchange, the happy end (in Wilde’s terms) is possible. In the negative model, we can clearly see the imbalance between the two sides: one side gives more, but receives less, while the other becomes the figure of worship. Gradually, the influence of one of the sides grows: the “predator”, like the vampire, consumes and exhausts their “victim”. Instead of the modern exchange, the relationships between “the civilization” and “the nature” transform into the ancient ritual of the sacrifice, or idol worship (Basil, Nightingale, Jokanaan), with the members of this process returning to the ancient - formless - state.