There is nothing to make him special or different to any other rocket.

He doesn’t want to listen to anyone else (similar to the frog) and he thinks that he has been personally selected for the Princes wedding when the reality is the rocket himself could be any other rocket. If anything the rocket appears to be selfish. The rockets mind is clouded or awash with his own importance. He also considers himself to be intellectually superior to the other fireworks though he has achieved nothing in the story to suggest he is. Which would again play on the themes of self-importance and ego. The rocket also appears to thrive on the fact that he considers himself to be remarkable if not the best firework there is. The rocket won’t ignite because he is wet and this appears to be lost on the rocket. If anything the tears and dampness from the mud may symbolically highlight failure.

Firstly his tears dampen the gunpowder and the rocket will not go off and secondly he continues to sink into the mud which only leaves the rocket to get damper. It is also interesting that the rocket doesn’t realise that he must stay clear of water for his gunpowder to fire. There are others in the world like the frog who can better the rocket at his own game. Which may suggest that the rocket is not as unique as he would like to think he is. When he is talking to the frog he longs to be able to speak (all about himself) yet the frog beats the rocket at his own game. Though this does not seem to bother the rocket as he doesn’t appear to take on board anything that anyone says. Which again may suggest that not only is the rocket full of his own self-importance but again he may be deluded. He can rise higher in the sky and looks better than the other fireworks.

Nobody is better than the rocket in the eyes of the rocket. Which may lead some readers to suspect that the rocket is in fact delusion such is his belief in his own self-importance. He is better than anybody or anything else. It is as though the rocket’s ego is running wild. Without really listening to others or taking on board what others might say. He is wrapped up in his own self-importance. Not only does the rocket come from good lineage (in his opinion) but he also has more interesting things to say than anybody else. The most important person in the rocket’s life is the rocket himself. If anything the rocket has no time for anybody else unless they are being complimentary to him. He also feels as though he is better than any of the other fireworks. The rocket considers himself to be the best rocket there can be. Taken from his The Complete Short Stories collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realises that Wilde may be exploring the theme of self-importance. In The Remarkable Rocket by Oscar Wilde we have the theme of self-importance, loneliness, failure, ego and delusion.

The remarkable rocket