" There is no redemption for Hofmannsthal's hero, who is a kind of re verse mirror image of his models. Hofmannsthal's merchant's son shows no desire for social or sexual pursuits. His pleasures are limited to contemplation of his Precious collections hardly a young man's occupation-and his erotic daydreaming about his younger servant girl is halfhearted at best' Rather than explore the world, he will only lose himself in it. [...] Isolation from his fellow human beings, lack of empathy for their plight, in particular those less fortunate than himself the protagonist's social inadequacy is stressed more forcefully in the story than in the verse play as the merchant's son meets his demise in the slums of the town. This social dimension of Hofmannsthal's rewriting of the Nights resonates with another palace story by his contemporary Oscar Wilde, the fairy tale titled "The Happy Prince" first published in 1888. [...] While the young merchant's son in Hofmannsthal's "Tale of the 672nd Night" treasures his exotic collections and disdains human affection, in Wilde's story the statue of the happy prince (his good self-there verse of the Dorian Gray pIot, in which the picture is charged with evil) conversely dismisses exotic valuables, does not want to hear the swallow's tales about Egypt, and prizes only deeds of kindness."  
JULLIEN, Dominique. Translating Destiny: Hugo von Hofmannsthal's 'Tale of the 672nd Night", New York University Press, 2013, p.178-179.