HAPPY PRINCE
THEME The happy prince is a beautiful story written by one of the most influential writers of the Victorian era, Oscar Wilde. It is a story about love, care, sacrifice, charity and lot more. It is about all those positivity that a human is inherently supposed to portray or all those that not all humans show. One of the prime lessons of the story is that outward beauty is nothing but just a show. Real beauty is the inside beauty i.e. love, sacrifice and charity.
This story narrated in a conversational style provides a fantastic read. The story reveals the author’s genuine concern for the hapless poor people. The story has a number of messages in it but they are hidden It exposes the vested interests interests or the selfish attitude attitude of the authorities concerned (councilors).It (councilors).It issues an indirect message to the authorities concerned that they should strive hard to mitigate the evils and sufferings of the poor people.
The story also tells the sad tale about the everlasting divide between the rich and the poor which keeps on increasing as time passes. It was because of this that on one side many poor lives could n’ t get enough to live in, t he rich made merry and celebrated. Had this divide not been, maybe the prince wouldn’t have been thrown away.
,Oscar Wilde clearly shows that the literature is not meant for entertainment alone, but it should also reflect the problems of the society and offer solutions also, if possible, wherever necessary.
Style of Writing Oscar Wilde’s story had the ability to hold any ones rapt attention throughout the story and leave an ever lasting impression. His penchant for narration of the story was unique and classic. He has an ability to infuse a number of messages in the same story but not openly. He brings in both humor and satire about the great distinction of rich and the poor and he shows this very vividly. He had an excellent sense of imagination which is evident from the conversation of the happy prince and the sparrow. The story had a fairy tale like theme where we see the prince and the sparrow selflessly helping the poor and the needy and the sparrow even lost his life in doing it.
Synopsis
The short story revolves around a golden statue called ‘The Happy Prince’ studded with precious stones in the eyes. Another important character in the short story was a bird namely ‘Swallow’. The bird ‘Swallow’ was planning to go to Egypt. On the way it took asylum between the legs of the ‘The Happy Prince’. But Swallow was shocked to see ‘the Happy Prince’was shedding tears. The prince was not happy even though he had precious stones and his body was made of gold. He was very much concerned what was happening happening around him: 1)The 1)The sufferings of a writer, writer, 2)Sufferings of a poor girl not able to pay her tuition fees and 3 )The sufferings of the poor people who could not afford to eat and live.The Happy Prince requested and ordered ‘Swallow’ to take his precious stones to help the poor and needy.He also ordered ‘swallow’ t o take all the gold from his body to help the suffering poor people. Now ‘The Happy Prince’ was really happy; but having lost all his gold and precious stones, his body was merely made of lead, a less valuable metal. He had lost his vision also having lost his precious stones from his eyes.Now, the bird ‘Swallow’ took pity on him, gave up her idea of going to Egypt, decided to stay with the ‘Happy Prince’ who had lost his vision.But having exposed to the chilly weather, ‘Swallow’fell ill and she was about to die.Having lost his vision and not knowing her actual condition the ‘Happy Prince’ asked her to go to Egypt. But Swallow replied that she was going to the ‘house of death’; after all death was the brother of sleep. The next day morning, the bird Swallo w was lying dead dead on the ground; ‘the ‘the Happy Prince’was Prince’was a mere statue of lead without his precious stones and looked desolate. The councilors noted down the condition of the Happy Prince. They decided to replace the Happy Prince with their own statue. But God honored the Happy Prince and Swallow in a befitting manner for their selfless service.
Characters THE HAPPY PRINCE He began his life as t he prince of San souci where sorrow and tears were not allowed to enter and the prince continued to live like this until he died and his statue was erected. Then was the time he realized the real truth of human life and how diverse humans were from each other. With the help of the sparrow he selflessly gave away all the riches he had and from being a beautiful statue he became an ugly one. But we know that even though he lost his outer beauty and radiance he gained inner glow and his heart became the purest o f all. THE SWALLOW Swallow was a failure who was made fun of and left behind by his colleagues, because he was in love with a coquettish reed on the riverside. When he arrived in the city to rest, he was urged by the happy prince to help the poor by taking the ruby, gold etc. The sparrow did not hesitate too much and with a kind heart did the noble job with passion. Despite the bone chilling cold of Europe he didn’t even think of the fun his friends would be having in Egypt but braving the cold he continued to help the poor till his last breath.
Although these two characters were completely different from one other in their origins and personal histories, they felt an attraction as they became aware of the importance of human nature and love. This development, which was full of sorrow in the story, obtained the desired results in? expressing the process of how both the Prince and the Swallow were able to gain humanness for themselves.
CONCLUSION In this story, the ecstasy of love was expressed in various ways. First, unconditional love must be given to everyone. Human love offered to oppressed people as well as physical love between the same sex has to be admitted, accepted and praised. Second, love develops in proportion to the maturity of our self-consciousness and our understanding of human nature. Third, love brings us more warmth as we love others at a deeper level. Finally, I dare say that Oscar Wilde must have wanted to write that all kinds of love should be celebrated, accepted by God, and continue forever.
