Lord Arthur Savile’s crime by Oscar Wilde

by *somaya* on Fri May 09, 2008 11:08 am

In this story, the title character has his palm read and discovers that it is in his future that he will be a murderer. Lord Arthur wants to marry, but he decides he has no right to do so until he has committed the murder.

His first attempted murder victim is his aunt Clementina , she was a very old woman , pretending it is medicine , lord Arthur gives her a capsule of poison, telling her to take it only when she has stomach problems . Reading the newspaper some time later, he finds that she has died and victoriously returns to London, only to find out that she had died of natural causes, and had lift him some property after his considerate gift. Sorting through the inheritance, he finds the poison pill untouched and finds himself in need of a new victim. After much deliberation he takes a bomb from a friendly German, disguised as a carriage -clock, and sends it anonymously to a distant relative, the Dean of Paddington. When the bomb goes off, how ever the only damage done seems like a novelty trick, and the Reverend’s son spends his afternoons making tiny harmless explosions with the clock.

In despair, lord Arthur believes that his marriage plans are doomed, realizing the best solution to his problem, he pushes the fortune teller off a parapet into the River Thames, where he dies. The death is ruled on accident, and lord Arthur happily goes on to marry. Leaving it up to the reader as to whether the story is a result of free or destiny.