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Every one should have their hands told once a month so as to know what not to do. Of course, one does it all the same, but it is so pleasant to be warned.

Oscar Wilde, Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime

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Oscar Wilde’s Study of Duty

Of course, Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, like most of Wilde’s work, was never meant to be taken philosophically. Rather, Wilde always wrote to poke fun at the trivialities of the shallow minded Victorian high-society. The story itself is short and sweet; It leaves you with a smile on your face... but only if you do not linger for too long. 

if you look too closely, the tinge of tragedy becomes a little more apparent. Plot wise, Wilde makes it pretty obvious where the story is headed, it is perhaps this obviousness; that the character is going to run right into his fate while trying to escape it, that makes the story more appealing. 

Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex comes to mind. Although, Wilde’s short story is no where as gut-wrenching as the Greek tragedy, similarity lies in the socio-psychological concept of the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’. 

A self-fulfilling prophecy is one that the person, himself, wills into existence. His sheer belief in the truthfulness of the prediction or the predictor, forces him, albeit unknowingly, to align his behavior in ways that in turn fulfill the prediction. 

Wilde’s protagonist has murder inscribed in the lines of his palm. He is a good man and it is made obvious that he should simply shrug off the palm reader’s prediction. However, after a delirious night full of contemplation, ironically, it is the goodness of his heart that motivates him to commit the crime and fulfill the prophecy.

And as a sweet little punch in the gut, at the end, Wilde reveals the palm reader to have been a fraudster all along.

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Nietzschean Gratitude

I agree that Nietzschean philosophy is notoriously over-simplified and is often fed in bite-size pieces. Honestly, the malleability of his writing is both beautiful and ugly at the same time. It is unfair, and problematic, to reduce a mind like Nietzsche’s down to a few quotes and I shall refrain from doing that.

Speaking of Gratitude, Nietzsche says, gratitude is a form of revenge. Revenge here does not imply to hurt or harm, it is instead a reaction to someone doing something to/for you.

Essentially meaning, if you do not show gratitude you are not powerful (psychologically), or that you are less powerful than the other person. Think of it as a milder form of revenge.

Additionally, A powerful man will always show gratitude but will never be obliged. To feel obliged is to feel bound, and a powerful man is competent enough to 

know that he does not need to please the other person, or to grovel in front of the other person. Gratitude shows self-respect. If someone intrudes into your sphere and does a good or a bad thing, you will show gratitude and intrude their sphere in return.

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