Oscar Wilde

Materie:	Riassunto
Categoria:	Letteratura Inglese
Download:	427
Data:	06.09.2005
Numero di pagine:	2
Formato di file:	.doc (Microsoft Word)

OSCAR WILDE

The young King_
An old King, with no heirs, on his death-bed, acknowledges the child of his only daughter, born by a secret marriage, as his heir. This child lived in the forest and at first he misses that kind of life, but soon starts showing a strange passion for beauty. The day fixed for his coronation he should wear wonderful clothes and jewels, but after three dreams in which he sees slaves making them, he refuses to wear them. He doesn’t understand why people wouldn’t know him for a king if he didn’t have a king’s raiment, so he comes to the ceremony dressed as a beggar and the nobles insult him. An old bishop convinces him to ignore his dreams and to wear the king’s raiment.
CHARACTERS
-The old King(he is a great sinner)
-The young King(he is poor, then becomes a King)
-The slaves(-of his dreams-they must work to live)
-The Chamberlain(he tries in vain to make the King wear the king’s raiment)
-The old Bishop(he’s wise and gives good advices to the King)

The Birthday of the Infanta_
On the twelfth birthday of the Infanta, Princess of Spain, many rich and noble people come to her palace. Everyone has a gift for the Princess, but surely the funniest part of the whole day is the dancing of the little Dwarf. The Infanta likes his dance very much and so throws a rose to him. From this moment the Dwarf thinks that she loves him(even if that’s not true)and after the performance he tries to find her. The Dwarf passes through four chambers and there’s no trace of the Infanta. In the last room there’s a mirror where the Dwarf looks at himself and realizes how monstrous he is. The Princess enters the room and, as she sees he’s dead, starts crying.
CHARACTERS
-The King(sad and widowed)
-The Infanta(12 of age and beautiful; she reminds her mother to her father)
-Don Pedro of Aragon(King’s brother; cruel)
-The Dwarf(weak)

The Fisherman and his Soul_
One day a young Fisherman catches in his net a beautiful Mermaid. Before releasing her, he makes her promise that everyday she would come to sing to him. One day he tells her that he loves her, but she answers that he has a human soul and she could love him only if he sent his soul away. So the Fisherman goes and ask the Priest about it but the Priest says the soul is the noblest part of man, and was given to us by God so it would be a great sin to send it away. So the Fisherman goes and ask the Witch about it and she gives him all the instructions. He can send his soul away and goes into the sea. The soul asks the fisherman to give him his heart but he doesn’t accept. The soul promises to come once every year to see if the fisherman needs him. Usually the fisherman doesn’t accept to journey with his soul, but the third year it isn’t so and they set off. During the journey the soul tempts him anyway and at the end the fisherman understands his soul is an evil soul. The fisherman comes back to the bay where he lived, calls the Mermaid but she’s dead. He’s condemn to live with his soul, so decides to go into the sea and he dies as well.
CHARACTERS
-The Fisherman(young…)
-The Mermaid(beautiful…)
-The Priest
-The Witch
-The Soul(evil…)