The Happy Prince
“The Happy Prince“ practically kicks off with a metaphor. One of the town leaders describes the statue of the Prince, but keep in mind this particular Councillor is a player on the move.
“He is as beautiful as a weathercock, only not quite so useful.”
A weathercock, by the way, is one of those weathervanes in the shape of a rooster.
The Sphinx
The end of the “The Sphinx without a Secret” reveals the meaning of the title. Of course, one still needs to read the story to know exactly to whom the “she” here refers.
“She had a passion for secrecy, but she herself was merely a Sphinx without a secret.”
Vintage Wilde
Wilde is an acknowledged master of the epigram; a short pithy saying like “I can resist everything except temptation.” Give the man a word limit and ask him to produce poetry and poetry is what you shall receive. Such as the metaphor describing winter that appears in “The Selfish Giant.” This is a line of expository prose that would be a highlight for most writers, but it merely another day at the office for Wilde:
“The Snow covered up the grass with her great white cloak, and the Frost painted all the trees silver.”
What are Fireworks Like?
In “The Remarkable Rocket” a young princess asks the prince what fireworks are like. The King, as he is wont to do, jumps in and answers the question in a most remarkably accurate and metaphorical manner:
“They are like the Aurora Borealis only much more natural.”
Metaphor as Plot Device
“The Fisherman and the Soul” is a kind of gender reversal of “The Little Mermaid” in which a fisherman is willing to make a sacrifice in order to live with a mermaid under the sea. Just as in the famous fairy tale, a rather devious witch is pulling the strings here and the sacrifice is his soul. Her instructions involved a metaphorical phrase that becomes a recurring motif through the story:
“What men call the shadow of the body is not the shadow of the body, but is the body of the soul.”
