Oscar Wilde intended this as a children’s tale, but its melancholy
tone and philosophical depth make the tale much more than a children’s tale.
The Prince is called the Happy Prince, because in his life time he was always
surrounded by pleasure. But is pleasure equal to happiness? After he dies, a
golden statue of him is erected in the city square. Now stepping out of the
royal walls and faced with the wail and woe of ordinary people, the Happy
Prince feels obliged to help those who have been previously neglected by him.
He asks a swallow for help, the help being that the swallow bring the worthy
parts of the statue to those who mostly need money. By and by, the statue is
literally stripped down to an ugly clump of clay, which in the end is pulled
down and thrown into furnace.
The Prince is like an omniscient loving figure that sees everybody
and pities everybody, a figure with the power to save people; while the swallow
is like any common person in our society, who can’t get the panorama of the
world’s misery but who comes in contact with the concrete misery of people
around every day. But after all, the Prince is only a statue, whose resource
will be exhausted anyway, and the swallow is not exactly the same as us, who
don’t want to and can’t afford to sacrifice ourselves.
I recommend this story to those who want to see something simple
but profound, and who has an innocent but resilient heart.
For the story, please go to http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/HapPri.shtml
Oscar Wilde is one of my favorite writers! I think he is like an innocent and talented boy playing with the English language. He has a magical power to make the language beautiful, poetic and significant. Take the sentence in the Happy Prince, “The eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears, and tears were running down his golden cheeks.” It rhymes, and it sounds like a poem. And “There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint.” The rhythm of this sentence is so great that it sounds like a piece of music. My favorite Chinese writer Xiaobo Wang once said, great literature works should sound great, and I think Wilde perfectly did it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was attracted by the idea that it was at first written for children. Despite its beginning and ending, the story does look like a tale for children. Its language is simple, and it tells a simple story. But I think with its ironic beginning and ending, the Happy Prince is no more a tale for kids only; it is a tale for adults alike. Sarcastically, instead of the mayor and the town councilors, who should be responsible for people’s welfare, it is the Prince that cares about people around him. This sounds rather ironic to me.
Here are my favorite lines from this story. Wilde played with the language, and revealed to me something true:
'Dear little Swallow,' said the Prince, 'you tell me of marvellous things, but more marvellous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery. Fly over my city, little Swallow, and tell me what you see there.'
Thank you for recommending such a lovely story!