THE HAPPY PRINCE - OSCAR WILDE “The Happy Prince” Prince” is a short story st ory written by Oscar Wilde and published in May 1888. The overriding theme of these stories is an appreciation apprecia tion of love, charity and compassion. If you read carefully you can find Wilde’s original Wilde’s original characteristics such as aestheticism and homosexuality even in the juvenile literature. However, that fact does not detract from the literary value of this story at all. Rather, it makes the story stor y religiously deeper and more touching. First I would like to start with wit h the beginning: Wilde didn’ didn’tt use such commonplace expressions as "Once upon a time, there was a happy prince," or or "There was once the statue of the Happy Prince…." Instead Instead of using these expressions, he placed an impressive adverbial phrase unexpectedly at the beginning of the story, and tried to emphasize that the statue of the Happy Prince was standing up high and was beautiful. [1] High [1] High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt. He was very much admired indeed. [2] "He is as beautiful as a weathercock," remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; "only not quite so useful," he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not. We can find many similes in this story; these expressions are not conventional, but are unique and interesting. This story was written more than a hundred years ago and alt hough the style of this story is a little bit old-fashioned, some new and unique ideas were expressed here. In the second part [2], the Happy Prince is described as follows: "He is as beautiful as a weathercock." This is something unusual to comparison. A weathercock is simpl y an instrument that indicates direction and it is not suitable for expressing the marvelousness of the Happy Prince. In addition, the word "weathercock" is usually used in such express ions as, "as changeable as a weathercock," meaning "it turns around frequently like a weathercock" or "he changes his mind? often. We can recognize another comparison – comparison – The The Happy Prince with an angel figure: [3] "He looks just like an angel" said the charity children as they came out of the cathedral in their scarlet cloaks and their clean white pinafores. "How do you know?" said the Mathematical Master, "you have never seen one." "Ah! but we have, in our dreams,"? answered the children; and the Mathematical Master frowned and looked very severe, for he did not approve approve of children dreaming. Wilde uses biblical allusions to strengthen s trengthen his tale and make it unforgettable. For example, according to the Dictionary of Phrase and Fable , "an angel is a messenger who serves God in Heaven and is sent to a human human world after devoting its life to God. In God. In fact, the word "angel" originally came from the Greek word "angelos" or messenger. The dictionary includes such examples as "a supporter who provides money; that is to say, a sponsor." So, we
can imagine that the Happy Prince exhibited these chara cteristics of caring and giving from this simile. This sentence is a prove for mentioned above: [4] The eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears, and tears were running down his golden cheeks. Also, another allusion is representation of Swallow. According to that , "a swallow is a bird that belongs to the goddess, Aphrodite, in Greek mythology." The author also used the so called anaphora (repetition of a phrase), when The Happy Prince wanted from little Swallow to help him: [5] "Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “will you not bring her the ruby out of my sword-hilt?” (this is repeated 6 times, near the end of the story).
I would like to refer to the part [6], in which Wilde uses a strange simile. We think it unnatural for an ordinary author to depict a young man's lips as "his lips are red as a pomegranate." We easily should find a feminine image and sexual atmosphere in this simile: [6] “ … far away across the city I see a young man in a garret. He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in a tumblerby his side there is a bunch of withered violets. His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes.” The homosexual imagery of this story just before the death of the Swallow when the Swallow bids farewell to the Prince, [7] "Good-bye, dear Prince!, will you let me kiss your hand?" The Prince answers, "You must kiss me on the lips, for I love you." Also, have you noticed that Wilde used capital letters at the beginning of some common nouns? We should regard this as unusual, and simultaneously, we should understand that Oscar Wilde wanted to express a particular meaning by using them as he did. Referring to the words that are written in bold print above and below: "The ruby has fallen out of his sword, his eyes are gone, and he is golden no longer." said the Mayor; "in fact, he is little better than a beggar!" "Little better than a beggar," said the Town councillors." "And here is actually a dead bird at his feet!" continued the Mayor. "We must really issue a proclamation that birds are not to be allowed to die here." And the Town Clerk made a note of the suggestion. So they pulled down the statue of the Happy Prince. "As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful," said the Art professor at the University. Then they melted the statue in a furnace, and the Mayor held a meeting of the Corporation to decide what was to be done with the metal. "We must have another statue, of course," he said, "and it shall be a statue of myself." "Of myself," said each of the Town Councillors, and they quarreled. In the whole text we can distinguish one metaphor[8]: “So he [the Swallow] flew round and round her, touching the water with his wings, and making silver ripples.” The ripples are not actually made of silver, of course. They merely look like silver, so this is a metaphor. Also I could locate alliteration [9](repetition of initial consonant sounds) and I’ll give the following examples: - "Charity Children"; "Mathematical Master"; "lady-love"; "Palace of San-Souci" .
We can see personification [10](human abilities and traits are assigned to non-human beings): - "'Shall I love you?' said the Swallow"; - "The eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears, and tears were running down his golden cheeks". The fact that the Swallow is talking in the same way is personification. In the text there is an irony[11]: "Who are you?" [The Swallow] said. "I am the Happy Prince." "Why are you weeping then?" The end of the story also is ironic as the statue of the Happy Prince becomes ugly in appearance but it achieves the spiritual beauty. The bird loses his earthly existence but gets t he cheerful eternal life and becomes a timeless symbol of love and sacrifice. Also the irony of whole text lays in the title and it makes you laugh at yourself for thinking you'd read actually about a happy prince.
Pun[12]: The description of the reed, which is full of double ambiguities about plants “[...]The Reed shook her head, she was so attached to her home. ” Double Entendre: The description of the Reed is full of these. We can differentiate some kind of enumeration [13] in the way of following people, which Happy Prince and Swallow helping Climax[14] in “The Happy Prince” is when the prince became blind, so the Swallow decided to stay with him and replaced his empty eyes, to watch t he city and tell the him what its sees. Another thing which I noticed is that at the end of the story the reader can see the heroic sacrifice. In fact that is the reason of the cliché [15] end of the story where it is the final kiss between bird and statue (like the typical ending fairy tales) and “they lived happily ever after”. To sum up I will conclude with one of the most touching sentences in the st ory of The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, which says: “ As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful ”. Hence, the prince is more of a martyr than any other thing. Once his gold was all gone, he was considered nothing.
Written by: Maria Kireva; Bulgarian and English Faculty number: 100331041
