StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde - Book Report/Review Example

Cite this document
Summary
This paper “The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde” investigates a unique fairy tale that is being carried out to explain and present the significance of charity, unselfish love and devotion by showing the Prince giving away his valuables to aid the poor. The story shows how love and sacrifice can commend us to God. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96% of users find it useful
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde"

Download file to see previous pages

It is evidently clear from the discussion that the Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde teaches a lesson concerning the importance of love and sacrifice in an individual’s life. Wilde makes the Prince’s heart look really amazing as he sacrifices his property, eyes and even beauty just to help the poor. Interestingly, he achieves internal beauty even after being sent to the furnace simply because he is no longer outwardly beauty and therefore appears ugly to the onlookers who look at his physical body instead of his inner heart.

Wilde portrays love and sacrifice as saving forces in this carnal world that is full of corruption, poverty, and hypocrisy. Also, there is a huge cavity created between the haves and the have-nots but the kings and rulers are never aware of poor people’s sufferings. The most precious issue mentioned in the fairy tale by Oscar is the misery people (the poor and the children) since they create an opportunity of offering help to them by sharing riches and happiness with others. The poor and the children seem to touch people’s hearts and bring people together.

For instance, the Swallow is so much touched by the Prince’s sacrifice and passion towards the poor people. The Swallow decides to remain and stand strongly behind the Prince despite the sufferings he undergoes such as loss of eyes and the fact that the prince remains ugly. Poverty and children have been depicted in a very beautiful manner. For instance, the son of a tailor who suffers from fever and is thirsty and asks for oranges, however, the tailor is too poor to buy oranges. This makes her poverty very touching and serious because it reaches an extent that her son cannot get even the cheap fruits that most people can afford.

There is also another incident of a poor writer who is both cold and hungry. There are also children sitting in dark lanes wearing starving faces. This story helps in showing the need for showing compassion and sympathy to the poor and the children. Any action towards eradicating poverty and children happens to earn people respect and admiration to God. By assisting the poor, someone gets appreciation and love from God. The poor and the children act as real God’s children and therefore He would always appreciate and bless the empathizers of both the children and the poor.

From the Christian’s point of view, poor people and children stand a better chance of enjoying life in heaven compared with the rich. The Prince receives beauty and happiness as well as sufficiency in life just by helping the poor. The poor and the children are also good because they help us express our inner feelings and character. Helping the poor and young children is a show of charity and is a chance that everyone seeks. Wilde seems to depict the rich people as bad people who do not care about others.

After the Swallow was sent by the Prince to report on the happenings in the city, he reported very surprising events. The condition of the rich people was quite terrible compared with the poor. The rich make merry in their magnificent houses yet the poor are begging long the street (Wilde 5-9). Starving children especially the two boys who were both homeless and hungry was another sad scene that the Swallow reported to the Prince. Wilde claims that the rich enjoy their lives without caring for the ugliness and the misery of the city’s poor population and the children. 

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/literature/1488701-the-happy-prince
(The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words. https://studentshare.org/literature/1488701-the-happy-prince.
“The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/literature/1488701-the-happy-prince.
  • Cited: 4 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

Definition/ Argument

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Beauty in oscar wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray The Picture of Dorian Gray is oscar wilde's only published novel, which appeared in June 1980 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine as its lead story.... At first, Dorian is not bothered about his good looks, remarking, “I do not want a life-sized portrait of myself” (wilde 17).... Basil even describes Dorian as being “worse, even, than those who talk against [him] fancy [him] to be" (wilde 161)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The Nature of Beauty in Oscar Wildes Picture of Dorian Gray

Name The Nature of Beauty in oscar wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray" Introduction oscar wilde's "Picture of Dorian Gray" book, a complicated but simple tale, is a story of a man's undying wish for permanent youth; it talks of our egotism and playfulness, and of the risks of going against the principals of life.... At the studio of the painter, Basil, was Lord Henry who heard Dorian's wish to remain youthful and grants him the wish (wilde 26)....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Sinful Consequence of Eternal Youth and Beauty

The boy has had such a profound effect on Hallward's soul that it has influenced all his work, and he tells Lord Henry, "He is all my art to me now" (wilde 11).... ord Henry likes to play with the idea of morality, teaching Dorian that "the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it" (wilde 21).... He explains the route of hedonism, beginning by convincing Dorian that "youth is the one thing worth having" (wilde 24), that beauty is more important than thought (wilde 25), and that his life will be completely worthless without these two qualities....
11 Pages (2750 words) Essay

Wilde & Shaw: Two Satirical Responses to Social Class

oscar wilde and George Bernard Shaw, two satirical authors, pondered questions through their works "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime" and "Pygmalion" respectively.... … This discussion talks that by analyzing the similarities and differences present in wilde's and Shaw's mindsets, one can gain a better appreciation of how immensely complex elitism is in general, both in what causes it and how it can be eradicated.... Lady Windermere sums it up by saying, "lions are only good for one season; as soon as their manes are cut, they are the dullest creatures going" (wilde, 18) ....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

The Desperate Need to Be Moral within Society

hellip; oscar wilde, in The Importance of Being Earnest and William Shakespeare, in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, venture into nature of society and how it effects the individuals within that society.... Shakespeare and wilde assert that deception is a symptom of a corrupt society not a character flaw. The plot of The Importance of Being Earnest centers around deception.... While this play is a comedy, wilde's point is clear: only through deception can people exist in Victorian society....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

The Lesson of Love in Oscar Wildes The Happy Prince

Oscar Wilde in his classic fairy tale "the happy prince" chisels a breathtakingly idealistic image of love, which sparkles with numerous facets to it, like a well-cut diamond.... Both the happy prince and the swallow are in their own state of sadness and loneliness when they meet.... the happy prince has led a pleasurable life but now stands as a statue, who is forced to witness the misery of the people of the city.... Both the swallow and the happy prince are unaware that their coming together is going to add meaning to their existence-a meaning that the happy prince could not find when he was alive and a meaning that the swallow could not sense in his short liaison with the Reed....
4 Pages (1000 words) Book Report/Review

Comparison of Christopher Marlowe's and Oscar Wilde's Plays

Faustus” and oscar wilde's “The Importance of Being Earnest".... Faustus” and oscar wilde's play "The Importance of Being Earnest".... The characters in wilde's play also pull off a series of tricks but are able to redeem themselves by being earnest in the end.... In wilde's comedic play of manners, two men are involved in long-term deceptions of their peers as a means of escaping the strict social customs of their time....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Summary of short story

While the children were talking they heard a thunderous sound which made them leapt and leave the garden Summary of Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant The Selfish Giant by oscar wilde is a short story about a giant who went away for vacation for seven years.... the happy prince and Other Tales.... When the giant saw the children he scared them away from his garden, built a high wall, and posted a notice that says, ‘trespassers will be prosecuted' (wilde 1910, 46) Because of the giant's selfish act, spring went away and the winter ‘elements', snowflakes, hail, wind, and frost, came in....
2 Pages (500 words) Book Report/Review
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us