Despite the increasing scholarly interest in Oscar Wilde, his fairy tales are
overlooked to a large extent. However, the fairy tale genre was treated with much
earnestness in Wilde's day and Wilde himself attached much importance to his fairy
tales, too. Wilde's nine fairy tales are a reflection o f his Aesthetic thought. One of the
distinct features of Wilde's tales is his focus on various sufferings, which is closely
related to his Aestheticism. Therefore in this thesis I try to explore Wilde's fairy tales
and focus on the Aesthetic sufferings depicted in them.