THE HAPPY PRINCE BY OSCAR WILDE - A REVIEW
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As a child, I remember reading ‘The Happy Prince’ and falling
in love with the writing style of Oscar Wilde, born Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie
Wills Wilde, a writer whose initial foray into writing was unsuccessful. After
facing a bleak writing career, in 1888, he wrote his volume of short fiction
titled ‘The Happy Prince’ followed by ‘Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime’ and ‘A House
of Pomegranates’ both in 1891. These three volumes along with the unusual
themed ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ (1891) finally caught the public eye,
winning him the reputation of an original writer with extra ordinary talent.
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‘The Happy Prince’ has remained a favourite tale of mine for its lyrical quality and its beautiful theme. The statue of the Prince loomed on a high column high above the town.
“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.”
The statue of the Happy Prince was admired by all in the
city.
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One night a little Swallow flew into the city. He had been in love with a beautiful Reed with the slenderest waist.
Wilde’s nuanced humour comes out in various parts of the
story. While the Swallow courted the Reed, the other Swallows made fun of him.
“‘It is a ridiculous attachment,’ twittered the other
Swallows, ‘she has no money, and far too many relations,’ and indeed the river
was quite full of Reeds.”
When he asked her to go away with him, the Reed shook her
head because “she was so attached to her home.” Wilde’s love for puns is also revealed
here.
The Swallow was so upset that he flew away. He travelled
for a day and by night he reached the town of the Prince. When he saw the
statue, he alit between its feet and prepared to sleep when he suddenly felt large
drops of water falling on him. When a third drop fell, he looked up.
“The eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears, and
tears were running down his golden cheeks.”
The little Swallow’s heart was filled with pity. He
looked at the beautiful, though tearful, face and asked him who he was.
“‘I am the Happy Prince.’”
The Swallow wondered why he was crying. The Prince told
him his story. When he was alive with a human heart, he lived in the palace of
Sans-Souci where there was no sorrow. Everything was beautiful and he was happy
all the time. His courtiers called him the Happy Prince. When he died, his
statue was placed on a column high above the city from where he could witness
all the ugliness and the misery of the city. Hid leaden heart was heavy and he was
moved to tears.
The statue continued talking. He spoke about a poor house
where a weary seamstress sat embroidering passion-flowers on a satin gown for a
lovely lady to wear. However, her little son was ill in the next room with a
fever. He was asking for oranges, but his mother had no food to give him, only
river water. The Prince made a request to the little Swallow.
“’Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, will you not bring
her the ruby out of my sword-hilt?”
The Swallow wanted to fly to Egypt to be with his friends, but the Prince begged him to stay for one night and be his messenger. The Swallow agreed reluctantly and carried the ruby to the poor woman’s house. He placed it by her thimble, fanned the sick boy’s forehead with his wings and flew back to the Prince, feeling warm because he had done a good action.
The next day, the Swallow was all set to fly to Egypt when
the Prince asked him if he could stay for one night longer. The Prine wanted
the swallow to pluck out one of his eyes made of sapphire and give it to a starving
young man in a garret who was trying to finish writing a play. The Swallow
began to weep but he did as the Prince asked him to do.
On the third day, as the Swallow set to fly away, the
Prince said, once again,
“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, will you not stay with
me one night longer?”
This time he bade the Swallow to pluck out his other
sapphire eye and hand it over to a little match girl who had dropped all her
matches in the gutter. She was afraid that her father would beat her if she
took home no money.
The Swallow was extremely sad. He knew that if he plucked
out the second eye, the Prince would be blind. Yet, he did what he was told to
do. When the Swallow returned, he said to the Prince that he would stay with
him now that he was blind. The next day, he sat on the Prince’s shoulder and
told wonderful stories of the things he had seen on his travels.
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However, the Prince wanted to the Swallow to fly over his
city and tell him about what he saw there. As the Swallow described the lives
of the poor people he saw, the Prince had another request.
“’I am covered with fine gold,’ said the Prince, ‘you
must take it off, leaf by leaf, and give it to my poor; the living always think
that gold can make them happy.’”
The swallow picked off leaf after leaf, and gave it to
the poor, who were happy and laughed. As the days went by, the season changed
and winter set in. The poor Swallow grew colder and colder, but he would not desert
the Prince. The day came when he knew he was going to die. “’Goodbye, dear
Prince!’ he murmured, ‘will you let me kiss your hand?’”
The Prince replied that he was happy that then Swallow
was flying to Egypt finally, but the Swallow said, “I am going to the House of
Death.” He kissed the Prince on his lips and fell down dead at his feet.
At that very moment, a crack sounded within the statue as
the Prince’s leaden heart snapped into two.
The next day, the Mayor suddenly caught sight of the Prince’s
statue and remarked that the statue looked shabby. As he went closer, he saw a
dead bird lying at his feet. The statue was pulled down because he was not
beautiful anymore. The people melted it in a furnace, but the leaden heart
would not burn. So, they threw it in a dust-heap where the dead Swallow was
also lying.
“’Bring me the two most precious things in the city,’
said God to one of his Angels; and the Angel brought Him the leaden heart and
the dead bird.”
God commended the Angel for having chosen rightly. He decreed that in His garden of paradise, the little bird would sing for evermore, and in His city of gold, the Happy Prince.
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