KidLit Forum

Hello!
I can't attend the seminars so I try to keep up by posting here

I enjoyed reading "The happy prince" as every time I read Oscar Wilde, and I was also prepared to find a lot of sayings and words of wisdom. I believe this fairy tale is very complex, and kind of atypical, starting with the love story between the Swallow and the Reed, and then the friendship between the same little bird and a statue. The only prince we find here is a (almost) dead one.
I think this story shows us that even in real life happen to be connections or bonds (between things around us) that we might not be aware of.
To start with, the happy prince was in fact not so happy, but that is one of the things no one except the little bird knew. Awakened from ignorance, the prince saw people can also suffer, and he wanted to help his subjects who had so long neglected; he was helped by the little swallow, who was heading to Egypt, looking a warm place to spend the winter. The Prince begged the little swallow to stay one more night not once, not twice but three times (with a formula: "Swallow, swallow,little swallow, will you not stay with me one night longer?"), in order to help him deliver people in need little presents: the ruby from his sword hilt and the sapphires from his eyes (great sacrifice). The little swallow gave us a nice panoramic view (geographical) of the surroundings (the cathedral tower, the palace, the river, the ghetto etc), while the prince gave us a panoramic view of social issues (the single mother who worked hardly for her sick child, the fact that talent is not always enough to make a living, the issue of exploited children seen in the little match girl) and we found also aesthetic and political issues.

I think this is a nice story about sacrifice, but I felt the prince a little selfish in not letting the swallow go.

The Happy Prince is, beyond the love story between the swallow and the prince’s statue, a visible problem of social and political issue. This happened because of the fact that the Prince is more close to his people in time when he is a statue than when he was in life.
During his life, he lived in his palace and he “didn’t know what tears was”, but now when he is a statue, he “can see all the ugliness and all the misery” of the city. Sitting in the middle of the city, he could see all the pour people which need help, so, she decided to help them, helped by the swallow which take to people the precious parts of his statue.

In the other hand, the social and political life can be observed in the end when, people from the lead, decided to destroyed the statue because this is no more beautiful. It is very superficial; the people care about what is outside, and they didn’t even want to look inside to see the soul and the kindness from the inner part.

The end of the story is very good placed because the Happy Prince arrived where he belong and deserves.

As we say in the class both the Happy Prince as a child and as a statue closed, like in a prison. He had contact with the people inside as it is said in the story:
"I lived in the palace of Sans-Souci, where sorrow is not allowed to enter. In the daytime I played with my companions in the garden, and in the evening I led the dance in the Great Hall. Round the garden ran a very lofty wall, but I never cared to ask what lay beyond it, everything about me was so beautiful.”
“but I never cared to ask what lay beyond it” – this is when I felt that this Happy Prince was not so innocent. Well was part of aristocratic class and if he was to live he would have never known what kind of life do villain have.
The fact that the prince had “thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires and a large ruby on his sward hilt” he was considered to be happy, although people of the town needed money.
And we can ask ourselves who established the taste of beauty in those days?
And as a matter of fact in who is the arbiter of beauty in nowadays?
When the prince had no gold and stones on him he was considered useless but his heart was finally happy.

As our colleague Larisa has already said I think that the story deals with political and social aspects of that particular time and Oscar Wilde emphasized these aspects in almost every little episode of the story. For instance, "the love story" between the swallow and the reed is considered " a ridiculous attachment" by the others swallows but not because of their different condition but because the reed "has no money and far too many relations".
It's also interesting to see how individuals are only interested in their own problems: a lover who opens himself to a girl who's only concerned that her dress won't be ready for the ball, "the old Jews bargaining with each other, and weighing out money in copper scales" and a poor mother suffering at the bedside of her suffering son.
This story also teaches us a lesson about appearances: the Happy Prince is considered to be the happiest "creature" although he's not, the swallow seems a little shallow at the beginning ''I don't think I like boys,' answered the Swallow. 'Last summer, when I was staying on the river, there were two rude boys, the miller's sons, who were always throwing stones at me. They never hit me, of course; we swallows fly far too well for that, and besides, I come of a family famous for its agility; but still, it was a mark of disrespect.'' but indeed it is good-natured.