The happy prince
By- Oswar Wilde
- The story – The happy prince is written by Oscar Wilde. It is the story about a prince statue covered with gold leaves and precious gems and was placed above a tall column, high above the city and its whole body was covered by gold leaves, his eyes with two rare sapphires and his sword handle had a red ruby. One night, a swallow bird flew upon the city.
Swallow’s friends went off to Egypt and he decided to go there as well. He flew all day long and arrived in the city at night. After reaching the city,the bird took shelter underneath the statue and decided to sleep at the statue’s feet; some water droplets fell upon him and he inspected about the same and realised that the statue was crying. He then inquired about the statue about it. To which he informed him that when he was alive, he lived at a palace and he didn’t know what tears and sorrow are. He was called as the happy prince by his courtiers due to the same reason.He also told the bird that he lived as well as died in happiness. But now that he has died,he now can observe the whole city, noticing how many people are suffering from misery. He turned very sad after noticing the misery and suffering of the needy people. The prince now started telling the swallow a few stories. In the first story, he is informed that there’s a poor woman’s house , the window of which is kept open and could be seen the woman sitting on the table. The face of the woman seemed tired and thin and her hands were rough and red due to the prickliness of the needle. The woman was a seamstress. And she was embroidering flowers at the gown of the queen’s maid of honour and at the corner of the room, her child was lying ill with fever and was asking for oranges from his mother but his mother doesn’t have anything to give him except water. The prince then asked the bird to take out the ruby from his sword and gave it to her. The bird did as instructed. After reaching there, he observed the child was suffering from fever and was turning from one side to another and the mother had also slept. The bird went and put the ruby on the table. After that, he went towards the boy and flapped his wings so the boy could feel a little better and he dozed off now. The next day, the bird thought of going to Egypt but at night, he went to the prince and asked permission to leave for the same but the prince requested him to stay for one more night and asked him to take out a sapphire stone from one of his eyes and offer it to a poor playwright who couldn’t complete his play as he had no money for the firewood as well as for food.The bird refused to do the same but the prince ordered him to do it. So, the bird took the sapphire out of the prince’s eye and flew to the playwrightThe bird entered the room through a hole in the roof but the playwright didn’t notice that.He Just Saw the sapphire lying on the dried flowers and thought some admirer of his work had sent that as a gift to him and was happy thinking that now he could complete his work. The prince again asked the bird to stay with him for another night and asked to give the other sapphire stone to the match girl who had lost it in the drainage as he told him that her father would beat her if she didn’t take any money back with her. But the bird refused to do the same as it would make him visually impaired but again the prince instructed him to follow his instructions which he did. He plucked the gem and slipped the gem into the little girl’s palm. The bird then decided to not leave the prince alone. The bird then told him about everything that was happening in the city. After which the prince instructed him to remove the gold leaves of his body and gave them to the poor and needy people. The bird followed the orders and took out the same and gave it to the needy people till the statue became ugly and dull. Soon, winters arrived and the bird felt cold. Despite this, he didn’t leave the prince alone. The bird was aware of his death. And he said goodbye to the king and asked if he could kiss the prince’s hand? The prince thought that he was going to Egypt and told the bird to kiss on his lips rather than on the hands as he loved the bird. The bird informed that he was not going to Egypt rather than the house of death and said that death is the brother of sleep. He kissed his lips and fell at his feet and died. After his death, an unusual sound is heard from the statue. It was the sound of the breaking of the statue’s heart made of lead. The statue was not as beautiful as before. When the councillors and mayor saw it, they removed it from there.
They then melted the statue but the heart didn’t melt. Then they threw the heart where the body of the dead bird was thrown. God asked one of his angels to bring the most precious things of the city. The angels brought two things- The dead bird’s body and The prince’s heart. God then said that the bird would always sing for him in his garden and the prince would admire him.