The Nightingale and the Rose
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Finagle
Wild was an Irish poet and write. After writing in different forms throughout
the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights. He is famous for
his epigrams, plays, novel as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and
early death.
Oscar Wilde’s parents were successful
Anglo-Irish Dublin intellectuals; Wilde has read great writers and proved
himself as an outstanding classicist. His prominent works were “English
Renaissance in Art” which is a book of poems and lectures in United States,
another one was his master piece “The Importance of Being Earnest”. His last
work was “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”, a long poem commemorating the harsh
rhythms of prison life.
The Nightingale and the Rose
This short
story is about a sacrifice of nightingale and desire of a boy. The boy is in
his professor’s party and dance with his daughter but her daughter put a
condition that if the boy will bring a red rose than only she will dance with
her. There are interesting dialogues like when boy could not find the red rose
he said,
“On what little things,
Does the happiness depend!”
When he was
weeping because he was not able to dance with his love, four characters from
nature has started talking about him. They were a little green Lizard, a
Butterfly, a Daisy and Nightingale. When they come to know that a boy is
weeping for a red rose they found it ridiculous. Only a nightingale was not
laughing because she was able to understand the feelings of boy.
Nightingale could not find the red rose,
but rose tree has given her a solution that she has to give her heart blood and
sing to the rose tree with her breast against a thorn, and her heart blood will
flow into the veins of rose tree. Nightingale has done that, the rose was there
on next morning but she was not there to see it.
Next morning boy went to see the girl and
offer her a red rose but the girl denied to take it by saying that the rose
doesn’t match with her dress and accepted a real jewel necklace which was a
gift for her by a rich boy. Boy has argued with her for convincing her, but he
failed. At last he thought that
"What a silly
thing love is"
and he threw the
rose in gutter where a cart wheel went into it and again he starts reading
books, he preferred logic and philosophy than emotions of love.
The story
is very tragic on the part of nightingale, or we can say nature. The boy seems
selfish and self centred that he doesn’t care about the sacrifice of a bird and
just threw the rose in gutter. He was ditched by a girl and dropped the idea of
love but he didn’t get inspired by Nightingale who was the true lover. In
another words, for him “love” was getting the person he loves, but the real
meaning is “sacrifice” for the one you love and care.
There is a paradox in story, Nightingale
sacrifices and girl demands. The girl was rational and practical that she
chooses a jewel necklace rather than a rose. Boy was infatuated by girl and his
infatuation blinded him that he was not able to see the sacrifice of bird. We
could say that the nature is still kind and lovely but human beings have become
more rational.
Love is
not easy to understand, a boy was an immature school boy and for him love is
not his cup of tea. The story contains underline satire on love and sacrifice
that it does not matter how much you love or you sacrifice for someone, there
is no value of it. People always look the world by putting themselves at the
centre and forget your emotions and feelings towards them.
Here is the
animated version of the story:
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