The Story the Devoted Friend as Revealing Exploitation of the Poor Working Class or Society by Drawing a Comparison and a Contrast Between the Characters of Little Hans and the Miller

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One of the favorite themes of the Victorian writers is the comparison between rich and poor, working class and their masters and small farmers and rich millers. The story the devoted friend is written by one of the famous story writer Oscar Wilde who pulls down this theme at the micro level he uses a different angle to represent these two classes. As everybody takes it a fairytale or a fable the story is told by an animal he tells the story of an unknown small town but when one goes deep down, he/she becomes amazed that this short story covers a large theme of the whole English society. It is a story about two friends one is poor Gardner Hans and other is a rich Miller. Hans is representing the whole poor working class on the other hand; Miller is revealing the reality of the whole industrialists. Both are representing the whole England north and south .This same theme is discussed in the novel North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell in which she discusses the innocence and sincerity of the south and selfish, egoism of the north .Here in the Devoted Friend the character of the Miller is selfish he takes the advantages of Han’s sincerity .Miller uses his extreme selfishness to manipulate his devoted friend he is a hateful person in the eyes of the readers. he uses his friend’s all energy to his own self and in return give him nothing but a false promise to give him a broken wheelbarrow he wants to take away all his devoted possession he plucks Han’s flowers and fruit , to make Hans’ happy he says,” generosity is the essence of friendship”. Miller is a true representative of the rich Millers who used to take away everything from poor workers; they suck their blood to maximize their wealth .These industrialists were extremely selfish, their aim was just to get more and more by squeezing workers’ all energy. They didn’t have a drop of love for their innocence workers

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