SLA Junior Seminar 10: The Sphinx Without a Secret

'She had a great love of secrets and mysterious.' (p.58)

Oscar Wilde is favored of creating strange story that doesn't sit right with me. The Sphinx Without a Secret is one of them. Surely, I have read the same story a few times due to a uncomprehending story. Nevertheless, I have not yet reached the answer of his intention.

It started from a man's love for a woman. Lord Murchison sees Lady Alroy being in a yellow carriage in a street. She is emanating an aurora of sophisticated but somehow mysterious thing. He falls madly in love on account of not being able to describe the perfect woman with any words. He asks her out to get the whole of herself, and then they become a couple at last. However, the mystery comes to live actually. Sometimes she appears to be cautious about staying together and looks around to see if anyone is near them. Moreover, she is off to the last house in a street frequently. But alone. He doubts if she deals with another man or something threatens her. Gradually, he can not believe what she says and left the country. During his break, an accident happens to her, and then he can not fix the problem and mystery forever. (I would like you to enjoy the ending.)

Anyway, why does Lord Murchison feel love a woman who wants to veil her identity? I suspect he is not lured by the woman herself, but the mystery that is similar to the sphinx. To say more, it means he loses his wife woefully despite the fact that he has not yet known who she is... 

Wilde, Oscar. The Canterville Ghost and other stories. (2000). Oxford, UK: Penguin Books.