Monday 10 September 2012


                                   The Happy Prince

                                                   Oscar Wilde

                                 
                 

                                                                  Question # 1
                                    What type of life did the Happy Prince lead?

                         The Happy Prince lived in the palace of Sans-Souci where he led a life full of pleasure and delights. There was a wall around the palace that made it impossible for him to have a look around to know the true realities of life. His whole life circled around different joys. He led the dance parties in the palace and led the hunting parties in the forests. He did not know what the cares and worries were. He remained engrossed like all the other members of royal families in his pursuit of pleasure. He was so happy that his courtiers gave him the title of the Happy Prince and happy indeed he was. So he lived and so he died. After his death his statue was erected on a high column above the city so he could see the ugliness and misery spread around him and for the first time he became aware of the life led by poor people.

                                                              Question # 2
                                What did he see from the high column above the city?

                          Happy Prince stood high above the city and could survey the whole city from that high position. He could notice all the misery and suffering of poor people. He could see the deprived people dying without a morsel of bread. He could register the agony of sick and helpless kids. The sapphires in his eyes reflected to him the miserable young men who were pining under the slabs of want and hunger. His mortal eyes were closed after his death but his eyes made of sapphire could take these dismal scenes directly to his soul. His heart made of lead was wrung with helplessness because he was tied to a pedestal and could not move. He wanted to relieve the people of their wretched state of life but could not do so. His heart wept with his feelings for the poor folks and their hard life. So there, above the column, he was in a better position to survey the true meaning of living in this world and then he understood the cost of existence paid by the poor and downtrodden majority of human population throughout the world.

                                                      Question # 3
                       How did the little swallow help the Happy Prince? 

                    One day there came a little swallow to take rest in the feet of Happy Prince. The winter had started and all the other swallows had flown away to Egypt by this time of the year but the little swallow was left behind because he had been in love with a little marine plant that was the most beautiful reed. His attachment with the reed was gradually weakened by his sense of loneliness as his friends and family had flown away and moreover the reed was very silent by nature. He loved to travel but the reed was a homespun creature and did not like to travel so he left her and decided to follow his clan to Egypt.
          Though when the little swallow came to the city it was already night and he had no choice but to sit under the feet of the Happy Prince. As soon as he prepared to sleep a large drop of water that was followed by some more drops fell on him and drenched him fully. The swallow was astonished as there was no cloud on the sky but when he looked up he was even more astonished to see the statue of the Happy Prince crying. He asked the Happy Prince about the reason of his woe, and the Happy Prince told him about the sufferings of people that had harrowed his heart. He wanted to help these helpless people but couldn’t do so as his feet were fastened to a pedestal.
                   The Happy Prince told the swallow that he could see a sick boy and his helpless mother through an open window. The boy was tossing with fever and asking for oranges but the poor mother had nothing to give him. The Happy Prince requested the swallow to stay with him for one night and take the ruby out of his sword hilt and convey it to the unfortunate house. The swallow hesitated as the winter was setting in swiftly and it was impossible for a swallow to stay alive in such conditions.  The repeated requests of the Happy Prince however melted his heart and he was ready to comply with his demand so he took out the ruby and consigned it to the sick boy’s home.
The next day when he tried to set out for Egypt again the Happy Prince detained him by telling the story of a distressed student whose room was very cold and he was very hungry. The prince was so sad about it that the swallow was compelled to stop again at the risk of his life. The Happy Prince urged the swallow to pluck out the sapphires from his eyes but the swallow hesitated. The Happy Prince insisted so much that he plucked out the eye and delivered it to the young student. In the same way, the other sapphire from his eye was given away to the girl who had thrown her matches in gutter next day.
           At this stage the little swallow decided to stay with the Happy Prince because he had become blind by then. He flew round the city and told the painful stories of poor people’s distress to Happy Prince who asked him to leaf out the gold from his statue so that the misery of people can be lessened to some extent. During all this time the swallow had become very weak and cold. One day he flew up to the shoulder of the Happy Prince and asked him to let him kiss on his hand as he was going to the House of Death. After saying these words he fell dead in his feet. In this way he laid down his tender life to alleviate the misery and sufferings of poor people.

                                                        Question # 4
                               What is the end of this fantastic story?

                         The swallow and the Happy Prince collaborated to reduce a little bit of people’s troubles by giving them jewels and gold that was gilded on the statue of the Happy Prince. During this time the Happy Prince had been blinded. The extreme winter had set in and the streets were full of silver cover of snow. The wind was extremely cold and the little swallow was without any sort of protection. He didn’t have much to eat or keep himself warm. He tried a lot to hold on but at last he knew that he was going to die. He sat on the Happy Prince’s shoulder and told him that he was going to say ‘Good Bye” to him and that he wanted to kiss his hands. The Happy Prince thought that he was going to Egypt after all but the little swallow corrected him by saying that he was going to the House of Death. He said these words and fell down dead in Happy Prince’s feet. At the same moment the heart of the Happy Prince snapped right in two. The authorities of the town surveyed and declared that the Happy Prince didn’t look any better than a beggar so his statue should be removed from the column. The Mayor and the Councillors quarrelled because each of them wanted a statue of his own at the place of the Happy Prince. They melted the body of the statue but no furnace could touch his heart so they threw the broken lead heart on a heap where the dead body of the little swallow was already lying. The God ordered his angels to bring the most precious things of the world and they took the broken lead heart of the Happy Prince and the dead little swallow to the Eden garden where they would live forever as the reward of their true love and sympathy for the helpless people. They had sacrificed their lives for the poor people so they attained the eternal life in paradise.
         
                                                       Question # 5
            This story is a social criticism wrapped in the mould of a fairy tale. Discuss.
    
                Oscar Wilde is a socially conscious writer who presents a mirror to the society and highlights its ugly reflection. Basically this story is written in the form of a fairy tale. The atmosphere, setting and the characters are unreal and fantastic. The tool of pathetic fallacy has been masterfully employed on a larger scale. The statue is made to behave like a living man and the bird also plays the role of a compassionate helper to the prince as well as the people. The attachment of the swallow with a reed also is a funny exaggeration but it affords a hidden satire when the writer talks about the reasons of swallow’s desertion of the reed. He quotes swallow’s friends and family saying that they didn’t like their union, as the reed didn’t have any dowry and had too many relations. This is truly a mirror to the lovers who have their vested interests in the matter of love. Then the swallow makes lame excuses like any disinclined lover and accuses the reed that she flirts with air and doesn’t submit to his wishes of traveling and talking.
          The town Councillor who wishes to be considered artistic and practical at the same time calls the Happy Prince as beautiful as a weathercock that is a ridiculous allusion. The Mathematical master scolds the Charity Children as he disapproves of their having dreams. A disappointed man murmurs that he is glad that at least someone in the world is quite happy. The ornithology professor has also been ridiculed at his concern for the presence of a swallow in winter and his use of difficult words in his letter to the local newspaper. The Queen’s maids-of –honour are also described as being worldly and selfish. The apathy of authorities has been mentioned indirectly by depicting the suffering of the poor people.
         The swallow wants to fly away to Egypt with his family who will be diving in the Nile and making nests in the Pyramids but he stays with the Happy Prince. In this way the writer lashes the human conscience that the hearts of a little swallow and of a statue are stimulated to see the human suffering but the people in authority don’t pay any attention to the distress of public. The life of the Happy Prince when alive is the exact description of the reality because in this world some people revel in extreme joy and pleasure while the others groan under the extreme suffering and poverty. This fantasy conveys the true purpose of the writer and depicts all the aspects of life in this world such as poverty, hypocrisy and exploitation.
                        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 the cheerful eternal life and becomes a timeless symbol of love and sacrifice. So the story “mirrors the modern life in a form remote from reality”.



4 comments:

  1. whom did the happy prince help and how?

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  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  3. What kind of world oscar wild create in happy prince???????

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  4. What kind of world oscar wild create in happy prince???????

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