A Critical Discourse Analysis of Oscar Wilde’s Short Story The Happy Prince: A Norman Fairclough Approach

Abstract

This paper aimed at investigating the theme of exploitation in the Oscar Wilde’s short story, The Happy Prince (1888). The researcher analyzed the language of different characters to see the theme of exploitation. The scholar applied Norman Fairclough’s 3-dimensional model for the analysis of the short story, The Happy Prince. Further, this study used qualitative method for the analysis of data and investigated the characters of the short story, i.e. The Happy Prince, Little Swallow, Seamstress, Queen’s Maid, Miler’s Sons, A Young Man, The Director of Theatre, Match-girl, Town Mayor, and Councilors. The researcher analyzed that how the discourse was produced by The Happy Prince and consumed by Little Swallow. It is concluded that some characters of the short story are exploited, while a few are exploitative.