The Nightingale and the Rose (Fairy tale)
"The Nightingale and the Rose" is a poignant fairy tale by Oscar Wilde, first published in his 1888 collection, "The Happy Prince and Other Tales." The story follows a young student who laments his unrequited love, overheard by a nightingale that perceives his sorrow as a testament to true love. In a selfless act, the nightingale sacrifices her life to create a red rose for the student, believing it will win the affection of the woman he desires. However, when the student receives the rose, he dismisses its value after the woman rejects him for a more material gift. This tragic turn highlights the themes of love, sacrifice, and the often superficial nature of human desires. The tale serves as both a traditional fairy tale and a deeper commentary on the Victorian era's values, contrasting knowledge and practicality with the transcendent nature of love. Wilde's use of anthropomorphism invites readers to reflect on human traits such as vanity and ignorance, making the story resonate with audiences of all ages. Ultimately, the narrative critiques the disconnect between genuine emotion and societal expectations, inviting a broader exploration of the nature of love and art.
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The Nightingale and the Rose (Fairy tale)
Author: Oscar Wilde
Time Period: 1851 CE–1900 CE
Country or Culture: Ireland; Western Europe
Genre: Fairy Tale
Overview
Oscar Wilde’s “The Nightingale and the Rose” first appeared in his 1888 collection of stories entitled The Happy Prince and Other Tales. In this tragic tale, a young student lies on the grass in a garden and laments aloud about love. A nightingale overhears the young man and imagines him to be the epitome of true love. Sacrificing her life so that he might have a single red rose to give to his love, win her heart, and thus achieve true love, the nightingale thrusts herself against a thorn and sings to the moon and the garden until she dies. The student does not understand her song or her sacrifice, however, and though he takes the rose, he tosses it carelessly in a gutter after the woman rejects it and him. The student thus dismisses his hope for love and, unknowingly, dismisses the nightingale’s sacrifice and her life as well. He then returns to his studies of logic, metaphysics, and philosophy.
The story draws on the typical themes and traditions of the fairy-tale genre, incorporating elements of magic and anthropomorphism that are frequently found in such tales, but it also addresses topics found in philosophy and metaphysics and thus bridges the divide between adult and children’s literature by providing content that reaches both youthful and more mature audiences. In this sense, “The Nightingale and the Rose” can be read either as a simple fairy tale, tragic though it may be, or as a meaningful treatise and commentary on the author’s belief in the disparity between life and art and his interpretation of the Victorian principles of disciplined education and the morality of love. It attends to both the cultural trends of the era and the ideals of aestheticism on which Wilde expounds in his critical writing. The Victorian era was a period of heightened learnedness, and Wilde’s fairy tale addresses this erudition in the context of weighing the value of knowledge in the balance between life and love. Through the anthropomorphic characters in his tale, Wilde also touches on human traits such as vanity, selfishness, and ignorance.
“Be happy,” cried the Nightingale, “be happy; you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart’s-blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty.”
“The Nightingale and the Rose”“The Nightingale and the Rose” is not only a fairy tale for children; it is also an allegory for the social change occurring during the Victorian era and an interpretation of Wilde’s opinions of the shifting of social focus from practical knowledge to book learning and from romanticism to vanity and superficiality. The ideals expressed within the story align with much of Wilde’s critical writings, providing a platform for further exploration of Victorian aesthetics and an examination of Wilde’s interest in the interrelatedness of life and art.
Summary
Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale “The Nightingale and the Rose” begins with a lament from a character Wilde names “the young Student.” The reader learns that the object of the student’s love will dance with him if he brings her a red rose, but there is no red rose in his garden. As he suffers aloud, he is overheard by a nightingale in a nearby tree. His grief continues, and the nightingale sees his pale, tear-stained face and hears his painful sighs, and the bird begins to perceive him as the most sincere lover she has ever seen. His is the love she has been singing of night after night when she chirps to the stars.
The young man continues and explains to no one in particular that the prince will be giving a ball the following night, and it is there that he must bring the red rose to secure a dance with the woman he desires. But he despairs of finding a rose in time or of gaining the attention of his love. The nightingale is overcome with pity for him, and although all the other creatures in the garden are confused by the weeping and find it ridiculous, the nightingale senses the man’s sorrow and is intrigued to learn more of the love he professes to have.
The nightingale then spreads her wings and flies among the trees and bushes of the garden to try to find a red rose to give to the young student. But there is no red rose to be had. The trees that are blooming have only white and yellow roses to offer, and the one that produces red roses and grows beneath the young man’s window has been damaged by the cold winter and cannot produce any flowers. Despairing, the nightingale cries out that all she wants is a single red rose to give to the student so that she may learn of love. The rose tree then answers, telling her that there is a way, but it is a terrible way.
The tree tells the nightingale that to get the red rose, she must “build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with [her] own heart’s blood” (Wilde 165). The nightingale must press her breast against a thorn on the tree while singing to the tree and bleeding her life-blood from her heart into its roots. The tree will then grow the rose and the bird’s blood will stain it red. The nightingale balks at this and is initially unwilling to give up her life for a single rose. Her life, she says, is too dear to her, and there are so many luxurious pleasures that she would miss if she were dead. But she considers too that love is greater than life and that the heart of a man can contain more love than her tiny heart ever could.
The nightingale then flies back to where the student is lying in the grass, still crying and bemoaning the sadness of his plight. She sings to him and tells him to be calm and happy because she will create a rose for him with her song and with the blood of her heart. She asks that in return the student be a true lover because love is beautiful, sweet tasting, and wiser and stronger than philosophy or power. Although the student hears the nightingale’s song, he does not understand its beauty or its meaning because she sings in the language of birds and he only knows the things that have been written in books.
The nightingale’s song reaches the oak tree, who asks her to sing one last song because he will miss her when she is gone. She sings a beautiful melody, and the student hears it and takes down notes on its loveliness, but because he is a student of only what is taught in books and not of nature and art, he criticizes the song for having too little feeling and meaning, however beautiful it may sound. He considers her voice and her song wasted because without meaning, they have no purpose and therefore cannot do any good. Then he goes to bed thinking of his love, and he thinks no more of the nightingale.
When the moon comes out, the nightingale begins her song with her breast against the thorn that pierces her heart. She sings of the love of a boy and a girl, and a rose begins to form. The rose tree tells the nightingale to press the thorn deeper into her heart, and she does as she continues to sing. She sings of the passion of the boy and the girl, and the rose turns faintly pink. She feels the pain of the thorn in her heart, and she sings of a love that cannot be undone by death but continues eternally. The rose turns bright red; the tree calls out to the nightingale that the rose is finished, “but the Nightingale made no answer, for she was lying dead in the long grass, with the thorn in her heart” (167).
At noon the next day, the student arises and looks out the window to see the bright red rose on the rose tree. Excited by its sudden presence and by the thought that it must have a long Latin name, he plucks the rose and runs to the house of the professor to find the professor’s daughter who is his heart’s desire. He reminds her that she has agreed to dance with him if he gives her a red rose. But she scoffs, saying that the color of the rose will not match her dress and that anyway, another man has given her valuable jewelry, which is worth more than a flower. Realizing her shallowness, the student tosses the rose into the gutter, where it is crushed by a cart.
As the student walks away, he gives up on true love:
“What a silly thing Love is,” said the Student as he walked away. “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 age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to Philosophy and study Metaphysics.” (167)
He then returns to his studies and, the reader assumes, gives no further thought to the nightingale, the rose, or love.
Bibliography
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