Wilde criticizes the lives of the wealthy, who do not help the poor. He juxtaposes the happiness in a wealthy fantasy to the of harshness in reality. When the king is getting married, hundreds of heretics being burned at the stake at the same time on his wedding day. Also, during the festivities of the Infanta's birthday, Wilde shows that even the children's thoughts are corrupted. The have fun watching the violence of sham bullfight as one boy cuts of the bull's head. Then, when they are older, they will watch real bullfights for amusement, where live animals are tortured and killed. Both the children and the adults cry over the situation of the wooden puppets, but are spending money on one child for her birthday rather than helping their real subjects. The last line of the Infanta is shockingly heartless and insensitive because she hopes that people have no hearts, so she can get what she wants.
Although the king and the dwarf seem like opposite characters, they share similar emotions in their pursuits of love. The king loves his wife and wants to please her, but she dies and his love ruins state affairs, such as alliances with other countries. He could be considered dead because he is consumed by his sorrow and stays in the castle. The Infanta thinks the sun shines brightly on her, but from the king's perspective the sun is pitiless and mocks him. Similar to the king, the dwarf is completely infatuated with is love for the Infanta. He desperately wants to please her by taking her to the forest. In the end, he dies because of his broken heart.
Wilde focuses on nature throughout the fairytale, especially flowers. The Infanta has a white rose, and white symbolizes innocence and purity. From the beginning of the story, the Infanta as a dislikable character. Yet, she is arrogant and selfish, which at first could be dismissed because she is just a young child. She throws the rose to the dwarf because she is actually not innocent, while he is ignorant of his ugliness and hatred in the world. The flowers represent the wealthy, who are beautiful in appearance, but cruelly judge and want to harm the dwarf. Although the birds and lizards see his inner beauty, they are still not much better than the flowers. They do not understand him and do not try to, but rather pretend to know what he is saying by looking wise. Even the philosophical lizards say he is not so bad when they close heir eyes. The dwarf does not know their thought, so he is happily ignorant and believes everything is wonderful. Then, he tears the white rose to pieces because he loses his innocence. He dies of his own realization of reality.
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