# the Star-Child — Children’s Stories character guide

> the Star-Child in Children’s Stories by Oscar Wilde.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Star-Child

**First appearance:** 0008-the-star-child

## Snapshot

A radiant child found in a winter forest and raised by a poor Woodcutter, whose startling beauty curdles into cruelty toward everyone he deems beneath him.

## Who they are

Taken in against the Woodcutter's wife's better judgment, he grows up white and delicate among swarthy village children, and his beauty becomes his excuse for contempt. He calls his playmates servants, stones the blind and maimed, and studies his own face in the priest's well with a lover's devotion. His foster parents' rebukes and the priest's gentle lessons glance off him, setting up the fall that his vanity is quietly earning.

## In the story

### [The Nightingale and the Rose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/children_s_stories_se/chapters/the-nightingale-and-the-rose)

Not present in this chapter.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/children_s_stories_se/characters/star_child
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/children_s_stories_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/children_s_stories_se/characters