The Nightingale And The Rose - Oscar Wilde

The Nightingale And The Rose - Oscar Wilde


          Today I am going to write about a short story which is one of my favourite. Children may found it a fairy tale, but it is not a fairy tale at all, it gives very rational idea. You might also finds it fairy tale, but it was in syllabus of my third year of graduation and our professor has told us while teaching this story that this is not a story that should remember only for exam, but you should remember this story for lifetime. And this story is,

              "The Nightingale And The Rose"

                By 'Oscar Wilde'

           This is a simple story about love which end is very sad. The language is also very simple.

            Story starts with the sentence of one unnamed boy, "She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red rose" cried the young student, "but in all my garden there is no red ros."

            So by this sentence we can find that the boy has proposed a girl for dance with him but the girl demanded for a red rose for dancing with the boy, but it was winter and there were no roses. By this demand it is clear that the girl does not love the boy and she doesn't want to dance with the boy. But boy was very sad and was weeping in his garden.

          In his garden on the Oak tree there was living one Nightingale who heard the boy weeping and consider him a true lover. Nightingale describes how priceless thing love is. She says,

           "Surely love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the market place. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold."

          So, it makes clear that for Nightingale love is above than all the things. So she decided to bring a red rose for the boy. There are also characters like Green Lizard, Butterfly and Daisy. They laughed when knowing that the boy is weeping for a red rose. But Nightingale flies away and comes to the grass plot. There was rose tree, so Nightingale asked for a red rose but his roses were white. Then Nightingale came to another rose tree but his roses were yellow. The rose tree directed him to his brother who had grown under the student's window. Nightingale went there and asked for a red rose in exchange of sing sweetest song for him. His roses were red but winter had chilled his veins, frost had nipped his buds and the storm had broken his branches, so there had no roses. But there was a way. The rose tree says,

            "If you want a red rose, you must build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with your own heart's blood. You must sing to me with your breast against a thorn. All night long you must sing to me, and the thorn mist pierce your heart, and your lifeblood must flow into my veins, and become mine."

            Nightingale accepts it and says,

            "Yet love is better than life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?"

            Nightingale sung last song for Oak tree which had fond of Nightingale. When Nightingale finished the song the boy thinks that she has form, but she has not feelings. How stupid that boy was.

            And when moon was in his full size Nightingale went to the rose tree, set her breast against the thorn. As Nightingale pressed her breast closer against the thorn her song became louder. And last thorn touched her heart and she dies. And there was a red rose, "Like the rose of the eastern sky. Crimson was the girdle of petals, and crimson as a ruby was the heart." But Nightingale was not alive to watch it.

            At noon the student opened his window and saw a red rose. He plucked it and run to the professor's house and offered it to the girl but she denies saying that it will not go with my dress and Chamberlain's nephew has sent real jewellery for her and jewels cost far more than flowers. The student becomes angry and threw the rose into the street where it fell into the gutter and cart wheel went over it.

           The boy says in a way to home,

           "What a silly thing love is! It is not half as useful as logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and as in this as to be practical is everything. I shall go back to philosophy and study Metaphysics."

            So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read.

            So this is the end of the story. How sad end it is. Nightingale's sacrifice of life in vein because of one stupid boy and one stupid girl. For Nightingale love is everything but for the boy love was a silly and unpractical thing.

            So this was the story which I liked most, hope you also may like it. As I always suggest, read original text for true feelings and better understanding. And I am sure after reading it, you will tell others to read it as I did.