High Society and Snobbery Theme Analysis

“The Remarkable Rocket” takes place amidst characters of high society and roundly mocks them. From the royal wedding and the Courtiers to the bundle of fireworks and their pre-flight discussions, Wilde depicts the upper class and its ceremonies and posturing as hollow, offering neither function nor beauty to the world. Through his satire of society people, Wilde insists that their preoccupations and judgments are largely meaningless.

Wilde’s depiction of high society is rife with posturing that is treated with great gravity but actually means nothing at all. During the royal wedding, a clever young Page twice makes comments that delight the audience and become the talk of the Court. In response, the King twice declares that the Page’s salary be doubled, causing even more delight—despite the fact that the Page makes no money at all. A doubled salary of zero is still zero, and the King has not actually bestowed any real reward. Despite this, the whole Court is pleased. Likewise, when the King plays the flute terribly, the Court feigns delight, cheering him on as if he were an expert musician. Through these instances, the story suggests that all of the Courtier’s expressed happiness during the wedding is similarly hollow.

While the fireworks are waiting to be lit, they too are constantly trying to prove their own sophistication and status in a microcosm of what is taking place at Court. Fireworks yell “Order, Order!” or “Bahumbug” to prove their expertise in the law or their pragmatism. Similarly, a briefly humiliated firework tries to prove his own importance by bullying some of the smaller fireworks. The sheer ridiculousness of fireworks adopting courtly customs underscores how silly such customs are in the first place. Even the Duck, the most practical character in the story, took a stab at public life and politics until she realized that for all of her condemnations and calls for reform, nothing actually happened. While this demonstrates the simple pragmatism of the Duck, it is also seems to be a sharp jab at the impotence and inefficiency of politics in Victorian England. While all of the ceremony and posturing of high society is treated with great gravity, it has no actual value beyond inflating the egos of those involved.

The story highlights how high society offers no function or value to the rest of the world in the way that the “provincials” or middle class do. The King and the Courtiers are never described as fulfilling any role or function, while the fireworks briefly flash into the air and die providing only a moment’s worth of diversion. Neither the Court nor the fireworks, both of which represent the upper crust, accomplish or meaningfully contribute anything to society. The Duck, whom the Rocket meets while he is sinking into the mud, is unimpressed by the fact that the Rocket can soar into the sky and explode, since she sees no function in it and no way that the Rocket can contribute to society. If he were gone, no one would be bereft. The only time that the Rocket offers value to someone is when he is mistaken as an odd-looking stick by two boys who promptly use him as kindling to boil water. Only by being ripped away from high society and repurposed is the Rocket ever afforded the opportunity to contribute in the smallest way to society, and even then, he is so delusional that he does not realize or appreciate it. The Duck’s trading of public life for domesticity is a clear value statement on Wilde’s part. The duck is both the kindest character and the most productive, providing for her family. Such kindness and simplicity could not co-exist with the masquerading and scheming required for public life and politics. Contrarily, the Rocket considers work to be the pastime of people with nothing to do, and believes that his service to the world is merely in presenting himself to the public; he is thus the most insufferable and useless character in the story.

More than offering no clear function or value to the world, high society often actively disrupts it with its penchant for vacuous, self-absorbed behavior. In the story, the Rocket and his haughty demeanor, though more or less suited to high society and certainly derived from it, are a disruptive nuisance to the residents of the countryside. Every character that he interacts with finds a reason to quickly leave, even though the Rocket insists on shouting at them after they have left. Even the Dragonfly, who had been peacefully sitting on a stalk of grass, is driven away by the Rocket’s arrogance. The Rocket is a nuisance to everyone he meets. The Frog and his glee club, though not necessarily a part of the Court or High Society itself, certainly echo its sentiments of self-absorption and delusion. Though the Frog believes that everyone loves their all-night croaking, it is in fact a dreadful nuisance, disrupting the farmer’s wife’s sleep.

Wilde uses this story to unabashedly mock the upper crust for its lack of contributed value to the rest of society. Rather than calling for the abolition of the wealthy or powerful, Wilde settles for highlighting the absurdity of all their pomp and circumstance. Once again, Wilde seems to be making fun of himself as well, since he ran in such wealthy and sophisticated circles, often being invited to dinners and events as a token celebrity.