THE HAPPY PRINCE - OSCAR WILDE

The Happy Prince is a short story written by Oscar Wilde and published in May 1888. The
overriding theme of these stories is an appreciation of love, charity and compassion.

If you read carefully you can find Wildes 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 religiously deeper and more
touching.

First I would like to start with the beginning:
Wilde didnt use such commonplace expressions as "Once upon a time, there was a happy
prince," or "There was once the statue of the Happy Prince." 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 above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the 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 although 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 simply 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 expressions 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 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 of children dreaming.

Wilde uses biblical allusions to strengthen 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 world after devoting its life to 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 characteristics 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 Ill 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 the 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 the 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 clich [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 story 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