Fairy Tales for Adults?: The Intended Readership of "The Happy Prince", “The Nightingale and the Rose”, and “The Devoted Friend” Anonymous 12th Grade

Fairy tales serve to several purposes; however, they are most commonly meant to be read to children. Sometimes to teach them a moral lesson, others to simply entertain them. Some fairy tales, like Wilde’s, are more complex; they can be interpreted in many a different way and therefore function on quite a few levels. Due to the supposed inappropriate nature of his stories, plenty of them were labelled as unsuitable for children. This is the reason why over the years numerous of critics have discussed who the real target audience of Wilde’s stories is. In this essay, the possibilities of readership of all ages are debated and mentioned alongside the analysis of certain excerpts from short stories titled "The Happy Prince", “The Nightingale and the Rose”, and “The Devoted Friend”.

Wilde is known for giving animals and plants human characteristics – personification is used in every single story of the collection. This is quite common in fairy tales; however, Wilde’s flora and fauna are very much preoccupied with pragmatism, social structures, and over all typical human concerns which is why the stories appeal to readers of all ages. Anyone can find an element that they like and have it be a reason to enjoy the cleverly-written...