Oscar Wilde\u2019s tale offers a depiction of otherness that challenges us to scrutinize how we view and treat individuals that are different than ourselves. Wilde shows the cruelty and ignorance of mainstream society and how it affects allies of the community through the Dwarf\u2019s ridiculed performance and the events that follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The story starts and the nobles find\nthe Dwarf and buy him for the Infanta\u2019s birthday. It is disgusting, though not\nsurprising, that the audience reacts to the Dwarf\u2019s performance by laughing at\nhim and insulting his physical appearance. Describing the Dwarf, Wilde writes, \u201cwhen\nhe stumbled into the arena, waddling on his crooked legs and wagging his huge\nmisshapen head from side to side, the children went off into a loud shout of\ndelight\u2026\u201d . In this section, he is defined by his appearance without knowing\nwhat he looks like. This can be connected to individuals with disabilities who\ndon\u2019t know that they have one and aren\u2019t able to pick up on the ways in which\nthey are treated. When the Infanta throws a white rose to the Dwarf as a joke,\nthe Dwarf, \u201ctook the whole matter quite seriously, and pressing the flower to\nhis rough coarse lips he put his hand upon his heart and sank on one knee\nbefore her, grinning from ear to ear, and with his little bright eyes sparkling\nwith pleasure\u201d. It is easy for people to hide their cruelty with subtle\ngestures. The fact that the Dwarf was not aware of his appearance made it\neasier for the Infanta to get away with her taunts and for the Dwarf to remain\noblivious to it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What\u2019s interesting is how nature\ninteracts with the Dwarf. The flowers mocked him by saying, \u201che should drink\npoppy-juice\u201d and \u201cif he comes near me I will sting him with my thorns\u201d. These\nare violent threats and it is plausible that individuals with disabilities have\nheard variations of these phrases directed at them. Contrary to the flowers,\nthe birds and lizards accepted the Dwarf. The birds said that, \u201cthey did not\nmind his being ugly, a bit\u201d and \u201che had been kind to them[\u2026] but had always\ngiven them crumbs out of his little hunch of black bread\u201d. This shows that they\nsaw the Dwarf as more than his appearance and saw him as a caring individual. What\u2019s\ninteresting to look at is how the flowers have a negative opinion of the birds\nand lizards simply because they don\u2019t mind the Dwarf. The flowers say that, \u201cthey\nare mere vagrants like the gipsies, and should be treated in exactly the same\nmanner\u201d. They demonize them and loop them in with their hatred of the Dwarf because\nthe birds and lizards are not ridiculing him. This shows a bit of the mob\nmentality and how being an ally to individuals with disabilities can be\nfrightening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What\u2019s so disheartening about this\ntale is the moment the Dwarf sees what he looks like. While trying to find the Infanta,\nhe accidentally sees himself in a mirror and says, \u201cit was he who was misshapen\nand hunchbacked, foul to look at and grotesque\u201d. He is physically pained to see\nhimself and realizes that the Infanta was mocking him with the white rose. What\u2019s\neven more gruesome is the fact that the Infanta was only thinking of her own wants\nbecause at the end, when the Dwarf dies she says, \u201cfor the future, let those\nwho come to play with me have no hearts\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While I don\u2019t have personal\nexperience with this, I feel like there is still a stigma surrounding people\nwith disabilities. Even though this is a fictional tale, it reminded me that people\nare still capable of treating others like this.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Word\nCount: 623<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilde, Oscar. \u201cThe Birthday of the Infanta.\u201d 1891. Wikisource.<\/em> 28 January 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work. \u2013 Sammie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oscar Wilde\u2019s tale offers a depiction of otherness that challenges us to scrutinize how we view and treat individuals that are different than ourselves. Wilde shows the cruelty and ignorance of mainstream society and how it affects allies of the community through the Dwarf\u2019s ridiculed performance and the events that follow. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The story starts … Continue reading “Sammie’s Response to Oscar Wilde’s “The Birthday of the Infanta””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papJgd-fS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":985,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/984\/revisions\/985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}