In a satirical context, a caricature is widely considered to hold a negative connotation. Caricatures, after all, are imitations in which certain traits are amplified for comedic and ironic purposes—sometimes with malicious intent. In Oscar Wilde’s short story The Model Millionaire, the character of Hughie Erskine is held up to be a caricature of an middle-upper-class gentleman in love. In The Model Millionaire, Wilde describes him as “wonderfully good-looking…as popular with men as he was with women…and [having] every accomplishment except that of making money”. He goes on to call him “a delightful, ineffectual young man with a perfect profile and no profession”. Wilde intends Hughie to be a sympathetic creature, with a good heart but not a brilliant head, whose love is hampered by his lack of funds. This prototyping can lead to readers classifying Hughie with more flat, non-developmental characters—but Wilde shows where Hughie’s virtues lead to sati...