The Birthday of the Infanta is one of Oscar Wilde’s fantastic and truly meaningful fairytales written for adults rather than for children.The author took inspiration from the famous Velasquez’s painting “Las Meninas”.
The short story is about a hunchbacked dwarf found by courtiers of King Philip IV of Spain in the woods and brought to palace for the amusement of the Infanta, on her twelfth birthday. Her birthday is the only time she is allowed to mingle with other children; she enjoys a lot the many festivities arranged to mark it, especially the dwarf's performance who,indeed, dances as he usually does in the woods, unawared of his audience's laughing at him. Amused, the Infanta asks for a second dwarf’s performance after dinner. The poor dwarf mistakenly believes the Infanta can love him since she had given him a white rose, so one day he tries to find her, passing through a garden where sundials and fishes ridicule him . Inside the palace, he searches through the rooms eventually stumbling upon a grotesque monster that is miming his movements. When he realizes that the monster is his own reflection, he understands that the Infanta does not love him at all .So he falls down kicking and screaming. The Infanta and the other children come upon him and thinking it to be another act of his funny performance, start laughing and applauding him, while the Dwarf’s heart is actually and dramatically stopping . The Infanta demands more entertainment but in vain: the poor Dwarf’s heart has stopped.
To tell the truth, I was shocked how ugly may be soul of a young girl. The Infanta hasn't got compassion to others. She is indifferent to feelings of others, she just want to have fun. The Infanta is protective, cruel, violent and selfish. Everybody think that she can't be such an awful person, because of her beautiful and pretty face.
On the contrast, there is the character of Dwarf. Everybody disgusts him because of his ugliness. However, he doesn't understand it, because he is naive and ingenuous. When he is dancing on the birthday of the Infanta, he even doesn't understand that everybody laughs at him but not with him. The Dwart is very kind and romantic. I'm sure he is faithful friend. He loves nature and helps animals.
In my opinion, the main idea the author is trying to convey is that the appearance doesn't say about a good soul and kind heart. The themes of the tale, sure, are the human's soul, the relationship between
father and daughter and social dividing.
What about my attitude of the tale I don't really like it, because it is too dark and tragic for me. The fairy tale is not for children. You should be a grown-up to understand the conception of the story. But I should say that the fairy tale gives much food for thought. "Don't judge a book by its cover".
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