Madonna Mia… The Ideal of Beloved Lady in Oscar Wilde’s Early Work

Abstract

The analysis of Russian characters in the world’s literature is of special interest to researchers. The relevance of the work is also related to the fact that Oscar Wilde’s early plays have not been studied well enough. The purpose of the paper is to reveal how the sacred ideal of madonna (beloved lady) inspired by D. Alighieri’s work is incarnated by the female protagonists of Oscar Wilde’s two earliest plays Vera Sabouroff and the duchess of Padua. For this purpose, four main features (based on Vita Nuova by D. Alighieri) were selected: Sacredness, Eternity, Moral Purity, and Nobility (including Compassionate Love). Qualitative and quantitative analyses were used to explore their representation in the images of Vera Sabouroff and the duchess of Padua. It has been revealed that in Oscar Wilde’s earliest plays the woman represents a sort of guardian angel and mediator between man and God. Her compassion grows into instinctive maternal tenderness and self-abnegating love, which shows capacity for intense devotion. It has been concluded that the images of Russian peasant Vera Sabouroff and Paduan duchess Beatrice can be considered as two special interpretations of the madonna ideal inspired by D. Alighieri. The mission and existential function of this ideal is to preserve and strengthen the connection between the Divine, Eternal, Morally Pure, the artist’s work and his worldview. The paper introduces the concept of Oscar Wilde’s Russian madonna. The definition comprises Vera Sabouroff’s semantically rich image which harmoniously combines the sacred ideal of beloved lady (inspired by D. Alighieri’s work) and mental traits of female portraits from the 19th century Russian history, folklore, and literature (namely, from the works by Fyodor M. Dostoevsky, Ivan S. Turgenev, Alexander S. Pushkin, and Nikolay A. Nekrasov). The author probably became acquainted with Russian literature in his adolescence thanks to his mother Lady Wilde (Speranza), who had translated into English Alexander S. Pushkin’s poems. The paper opens up prospects for further re-evaluation of Vera Sabouroff’s place in Oscar Wilde’s artistic worldview. The research broadens our understanding of the Russian culture influence on the world’s literature.