Two Images of Russian Beloved Lady in the Works by Oscar Wilde: Vera and the Russian Princess

Abstract

In his first play, Oscar Wilde turns to the image of a selflessly loving Russian girl Vera. Years later, in The Remarkable Rocket the author associates the theme of true love with a Russian girl’s image again. The purpose of the research is to reveal the resemblance of Vera Sabouroff and the Russian Princess at the level of their common semantic features in the following categories: physical appearance, attribute objects, elements of nature, colour and zoomorphic (ornithomorphic) symbolism. It has been revealed that Vera and the Russian Princess are similar in their essence. Both are compared to cold snow, have a resemblance to Snegurochka (the Snow Maiden) and, like her, are transformed by love. The two female images are characterized by Oscar Wilde with a combination of three colours: white, red, and gold. In both cases, the white colour (the implied snow-white one in Vera’s case) symbolizes the theme of innocence and the frozen state of human soul. The red colour contextually means self-sacrifice for the sake of love in Vera’s image and the soul’s awakening to love (as a feeling unknown before) in the Russian Princess’s case. The gold colour symbolizes the soul’s revival (as part of the morning sun metaphor) in Vera’s image and precious fidelity (the golden swan as a metaphor) in the Russian Princess’s case. While examining ornithomorphic symbols, conceptually close personal qualities of the two female images have been revealed: capacity for self-sacrifice (Vera as “nightingale”), fidelity and devotion (the Russian Princess’s swan). The plot and chronotope of the two works have a number of common features. It has been revealed that in both cases the implied moral message is identical: immortality of love and symbolic communion with true love as the sacrament of life. Thanks to the identification with Vera Sabouroff (who selflessly takes care of prisoners exiled to Siberia’s mines), the Russian Princess’s name and implied mental nature have been decoded. Russian Princess might have been a reference to the Decembrist’s wife and therefore may symbolize an ideal of unconditional female devotion. Closeness and sympathy of Oscar Wilde’s Irish mentality to the Russian mentality has been examined as the reason for his repeated appeal to the latter. The results of the research deepen our understanding of the two rarely studied female images in Oscar Wilde’s work and widen our understanding of the Russian culture influence on the world’s literature.