Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince”

The Happy Prince

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s “The Happy Prince” begins by introducing the statue of the Happy Prince. People of the place admire at the statue of the Happy Prince and decide to live happily like the statue. A swallow crosses the place where the statue is, in order to meet his friends in Egypt to spend the winter season.

When the swallow is about to sleep, between the feet of the statue, tears of the Happy Prince fall on the swallow. It mistook it as a raindrop but when it knows it as tears of the statue, it talks to the statue. The Happy Prince says that he weeps because he cannot bear the sufferings of the poor and the needy. When he was the prince, he did not understand the pain of the people. But after death, as he stands as a statue, he could see the misery of the people.  The Happy Prince requests the swallow to help him by giving his eyes, which is precious stones, to the needy people.

When the Happy Prince gave away his sapphire eyes, he could not see any more. Then the swallow decides to stay and help out the requests made by the Happy Prince. Therefore, he asked the Swallow to fly over his city and told him what he saw there. The Swallow flew over the great city and told the Happy Prince about the condition of the rich and the poor. The poor were hungry and homeless. When the Happy Prince listened to this, he asked the Swallow to give his gold covering to the poor and the needy.

As the weather gets colder and colder, and the swallow could not resist the climate and it dies On the other hand, the Happy Prince’s loss of all of his ornaments stands as an unattractive statue.  Once, the mayor and the town councilors pass by the stature of the happy prince. They are shocked to see it without ruby, sapphires, and gold covering. It looks ugly without them. They pull it down and decide to make another statue. The heart of the happy prince does not melt in the furnace and the workers throw it on the dust heap where the dead swallow is already lying. An angel comes and takes both the heart and the dead Swallow to God as two precious things.