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Oscar Wilde - Young King

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Oscar Wilde's ‘The Young King' is the tale of a young man's metamorphosis, through a dream quest, that opens his eyes to the heart rendering struggle of the poor, who are exploited by the rich and the powerful to satisfy their own selfish needs. The change that takes place in the Young King reflects his attainment of the virtue asked for in Christ's message.
The story begins with "the night before the day fixed for his coronation" and the young king, "being but sixteen years of age" sits alone in his opulent chambers adorned with rich and beautiful things. The boy who had been bought up by a peasant in the forest had a great love and fascination for beauty. Similarly "All rare and costly material things had certainly a great fascination …show more content…

He continued to walk until he "saw an immense multitude of men toiling in the bed of a dried up river. They swarmed up the crag like ants …. They hurried about calling to each other and no man was idle." From the darkness Death and Avarice, personified, arrive. Death asks Avarice for a third of the men. Avarice refuses saying they are her servants. When death asks her for a grain of corn she refuses again. Death then kills a third of Avarice's men with Ague. Avarice is angry and asks why death was here in this valley? To which death reminds Avarice that she still hasn't given death a grain of corn. Avarice refuses again. Death then calls forth Fever, which kills every man it touches. Avarice again pleads with Death to leave her valley, but Death says not until Avarice gives him a grain of corn. Avarice refuses once again. Death then calls Plague who kills every man remaining. The Young king weeps and later finds out that these men who now lay dead were seeking rubies for the king's crown. He wakes up with a loud cry as "bright sunlight was streaming into his room" The Chamberlain came in and his robe, crown and sceptre was brought to him for his coronation. But when he saw them, he was reminded of his dreams. Of the toil, the sweat of the workers of how they were exploited, how their "children fade away before their time" and the faces of those they love become hard and evil. He remembered the death of the young

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