"The Fisherman and His Soul" is the deepest, most complex, and highly significant among the fairy tales written by Wilde, with the theme of the conflict between beauty and guilt and pain. The choice of temporary, perishable happiness at the expense of the immortal soul is hubris and is punished with unimaginable agony. The contemplation that permeates the fairy tale recalls "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and the boundary contradiction that sealed the author himself - the coexistence in his life and work of a rebellious aesthetic philosophy on one hand, and on the other hand, a profound contemplation of moral responsibility and the anguish of existence.

Katerina Schina