Este fragmento de Wilde fue traducido por Jorge Luis Borges a la tierna edad de nueve años.
La ilustración que representa a este personaje es del francés Georges Lemoine. El personaje de la más bella de las damas de honor de la Reina/una bella muchacha (the loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour/a beautiful girl) se muestra en solitario, una dama dieciochesca de espaldas, con la espalda vuelta al palacio real de estilo rococó. Omitiendo al novio (lover), y acentuando la frialdad de la bella muchacha, se da una idea clara de la personalidad de este personaje secundario.
un vestido de raso que debe lucir, en el próximo baile de corte, la más bella de las damas de honor de la Reina.
Sobre el palacio real, se oyó la música de baile. Una bella muchacha apareció en el balcón con su novio.
-¡Qué hermosas son las estrellas -la dijo- y qué poderosa es la fuerza del amor!
-Querría que mi vestido estuviese acabado para el baile oficial -respondió ella-. He mandado bordar en él unas pasionarias,
ORIGINAL DE WILDE:
From the palace, one heard the sound of dancing. A beautiful girl came out on the balcony with her lover. "How wonderful the stars are," he said to her, "and how wonderful is the power of love!"
"I hope my dress will be ready in time for the State-ball," she answered; "I have ordered passion-flowers to be embroidered on it; "
Wilde is merely presenting the Victorian society stereotypes rather than expressing a mysoginistic attitude of his own.
PS. Craig Russell's illustration!
Comic panels of the couple (my Wilde fairytale OTP!) by Craig Russell. The lover especially fits my idea of a husbando, beign a delicate sensitive guy with fair features, a visual extension of a young man expressing himself romantically, whom I totally imagine saying "How wonderful the stars are, and how wonderful is the power of love!" in the voice of Freddie Mercury... The features of the beautiful girl/loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour are more angular and her face has more of a fixed expression, reminding me of Greta Garbo...
ORIGINAL DE WILDE:
a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour to wear at the next Court-ball.
From the palace, one heard the sound of dancing. A beautiful girl came out on the balcony with her lover. "How wonderful the stars are," he said to her, "and how wonderful is the power of love!"
"I hope my dress will be ready in time for the State-ball," she answered; "I have ordered passion-flowers to be embroidered on it; "
ANALYSIS
The second couple in the tale are also heterosexual. The lovers on the balcony do not seem to be successful in their relationship and have communication problems. The man is romantic and passionate whereas the maid-of-honour is portrayed as being cold, selfish, vain, and loveless. For example, the man romances the girl saying: "How beautiful the stars are, and how wonderful is the power of love!"; however, she replies that she is worried her dress will not be ready for the State-Ball and complains that the seamstress is "so lazy". Jacobs predicts that the indifference of the maid-of-honour and her inability to understand the lives of those who work for her will break down the lovers' relationship and the girl will be to blame. The relationship between the lovers... The female character conveys an attitude towards life and is unfocused on the fundamental needs of her relationship.
It is interesting to note that prior to the twentieth century, it was fully acceptable for men to express themselves romantically with poets such as Keats, Shelley, and Wordsworth as their role models.
Jacobs writes that Wilde inverts the usual stereotypes of the "manly male" and the "romantic female" rendering the last as materialistic, callous, and aggressive.
And the romantic couple on the palace balcony are a surprise.
Readers usually expect the comment about the lovely stars and the wonderful power of love to be attached with 'she said to him' but it's 'he said to her', inverting the usual stereotypes of the manly male and the romantic female. Not only that but, in a particularly sharp and even brutal piece of manipulation by Wilde, the beautiful girl is shown to be not only unromantic, and not only materialistic and callous, but her coldly aggressive remark cruelly contradicts what we ourselves...
Wilde is merely presenting the Victorian society stereotypes rather than expressing a mysoginistic attitude of his own.
Comic panels of the couple (my Wilde fairytale OTP!) by Craig Russell. The lover especially fits my idea of a husbando, beign a delicate sensitive guy with fair features, a visual extension of a young man expressing himself romantically, whom I totally imagine saying "How wonderful the stars are, and how wonderful is the power of love!" in the voice of Freddie Mercury... The features of the beautiful girl/loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour are more angular and her face has more of a fixed expression, reminding me of Greta Garbo...
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