mercoledì 15 giugno 2011

The young king

I think, as the person commenting our last post, that this story is the tale of a young man's metamorphosis. As in "The Picture of Dorian Gray",  where Wilde uses the duplicity or ambivalence, typical of that novel,  in a very new way, in this story, he adopts a kind of  a gradual transformation similar to that of a butterfly. In fact, at first the character wears (or better  will wear) a beautiful robe for his coronation day, but, after a series of dreams, during the night before that event, he realizes something deeply important and in the cathedral something happens.
"He was sixteen and it was his coronation day the next day. He was very happy because he had a beautiful coronation robe of gold, a crown of rubies and a sceptre of pearls"
Then at the end, through an important mysteriuos brief meeting, there is a change.
"the young King prayed silently in front of the altar  [...] At that moment a ray of sun shone into the cathedral [...] The sun made a beautiful robe around him [...] The Glory of God filled the cathedral. the people knelt down [...] They didn't have the courage to look at his face because it was the face of an angel"
When there is a transformation, a change, it is never mysterious , there is always something that causes it .
In the three dreams we can find it and at the same time it is a  strong criticism to the Victorian society or  a profitable stimulus  for its redemption.
Would you like to comment on this idea?  What do the dreams convey to the central character? What do the dreams represent?

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