An Essay on Oscar Wilde’s Short Story "The Birthday of the Infanta"

This story fascinates the reader with its colorfulness and succeeds to create a very vivid and realistic scene, making you believe that you are standing there, right beside the little Dwarf and seeing and feeling everything yourself.
“The birthday of the Infanta” may seem like the same old story about the Beauty and the Beast, but it is actually not a love story. Although there is the presence of love, because the little Dwarf is in love with Infanta, this story is more about the Dwarf’s perception of the world and himself that suddenly collapses and leaves nothing but ruins. This is a story about intolerance, indifference and also about a hope that fades.
This Oscar Wilde’s piece of work is called a short story; however the language and the stylistic devices used almost suggest a fairytale. As fairytales were originally transferred orally, the definition of them still implies the feeling of the presence of the narrator as if he was telling the story to us in person. …