Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fiction reflects the nature of life, where good outcomes bring happiness and bad outcomes bring sorrow.
This quote by Oscar Wilde highlights the inherent structure of storytelling in fiction, where narratives typically resolve in a way that aligns with moral expectations. It suggests that fiction serves a purpose in illustrating the contrasts of good and bad, ultimately reinforcing a sense of order and satisfaction in how stories conclude.
Themes
FictionHappinessStorytellingMoralityGoodBad
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote to introduce a discussion on the role of fiction in literature classes.
More from Oscar Wilde
All quotes βLondon is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don't know.
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When one has never heard a man's name in the course of one's life, it speaks volumes for him; he must be quite respectable.
Oscar WildeRead
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
Oscar WildeRead
A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
Oscar WildeRead
His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
Oscar WildeRead
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