The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde

THE HAPPY PRINCE

The Happy Prince is a heart-breaking short story from one of Oscar Wilde’s collection of fairy tales, first published in 1888 as The Happy Prince and Other Tales, relating the story of a friendship which forms between a swallow and the statue of the Happy Prince through their joint endeavour to alleviate the miserable condition of the poor.

Wilde demonstrates his ability to inspire pity and sadness in the reader, as well as joy and enchantment, delivering a powerful and touching message along with a charming and intriguing plot. What makes this fairy tale particularly interesting is Oscar Wilde’s underlying social critique of the striking differences in wealth among the people of nineteenth century England and denunciation of the prevalence of abject poverty and misery. One important characteristic, equally found in Wilde’s other tales, is the ever present theme of love and loss, expressed as a sweetly sorrowful or bitter-sweet experience.

Oscar Wilde masterfully plays with contrasts and contradictions to highlight his message, namely happiness and misery, wealth and poverty, internal and external beauty, the substantial and the superficial, altruism and selfishness, love and narcissism…

As regards style, the author writes with poise and beautiful simplicity, creating vivid images through his elegant use of colourful metaphors and exotic references to Egypt’s landscape and landmarks, and never failing to evoke beauty in all its faces and splendour.

As all of Wilde’s short children’s stories, the Happy Prince is poignant, sensitive, witty, and subversive; in short, a beautiful masterpiece.

Illustration by Walter Crane

'The eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears, and tears were running down his golden cheeks. His face was so beautiful in the  moonlight that the little Swallow was filled with  pity.'


THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE


The Nightingale and the Rose is a poetic, yet cynical tale about love, sacrifice, and deception. This tale begins with a selfless nightingale which overhears a young student weeping over being unable to find a red rose to give to the one he loves. The nightingale's sympathy for the lover combined with it's naive and altruistic nature leads the bird to a heroic self-sacrifice in exchange of a single red rose for the boy to give, all for the ideal of love.


The bird's noble action will prove in vain and none of the characters will be met by a happy ending. Both the student and the readers will be deceived by the ensuing events which retrospectively render the Nightingale a tragic hero. This story is more heart-breaking than the previous because of the futility of the Nightingale's bravery, in contrast to the swallow's good deeds which lead to positive and useful results. What is more, the swallow's life is made rich by friendship and love, whereas the nightingale remains on its own throughout the tale.


This short story is not as well known as the first, but deserves just as much praise for its ability to enchant, move, and disenchant the reader. Although the end is bitter, Wilde manages to make us laugh at the young student's witty and cynical remark on the subject of love. 

Illustration by Charles Robinson

"What a silly thing Love is,' said the Student as he walked away. 'It is not half as useful as Logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to Philosophy and study Metaphysics."