The Model Millionaire - Oscar Wilde

The Model Millionaire

-      Oscar Wilde

    Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet. 

    This short story is about a young man Hughie Erskine with good profile but no profession. He was kind hearted and good looking but without money. In the starting of the story we could read...

“Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow Romance is the privileged of the rich, not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. These are the great truths of modern life which Hughie Erskine never realised. He was wonderfully good-looking, with his crisp brown hair, his clear cut profile, and his grey eyes. He was as popular with men as he was with women, and he had every accomplishment except that of making money.”

     In the very first paragraph we could read that the difference of poor and rich as well as the perspective of world towards money rather than qualities is presented. Good qualities of Hughie Erskine have described but how the only one limitation of poverty overpowers all goodness of person.

    Hughie was in love with Laura Merton and wanted to marry her, she was the daughter of a retired Colonel and the colonel has a condition for marriage that he would only allow them to get married if Hughie has ten thousand pounds of his own. Hughie tried a lot but failed and finally went to his painter friend who was painting a beggar. Hughie felt bad for the beggar and gave him a coin. At that evening his painter friend told him that the man who was the model of beggar was a millionaire named Baron Hausberg and on next day he got an envelope with a cheque of Ten thousand pounds as a wedding gift by Hausberg.

    Wilde has started the story as if money matters a lot than the goodness and kindness, but at last Hughie’s kindness brought him what he wanted. The qualities of a person are more important than the bank balance. At last Alan said…

“Millionaire models,' remarked Alan, 'are rare enough but model millionaires are rarer still.”