Silesian University in Opava
Faculty of Philosophy and Science

Pointless sacrifice in
The Nightingale and the Rose

English Literature 2

Name: Kocurová Michaela
Field of study: English + Czech language and literature
Class: second
Semester: summer
Year: 2012/2013 The Nightingale and the Rose is a short story written by Oscar Wilde. The story begins with a young Student crying because the daughter of the Professor told him that if he brought her red roses, she would dance with him at the ball, but there are no red roses in his garden. When a nightingale overhears what is the Student saying, she comes to a conclusion that he´s a true lover and that he knows the true meaning of Love. „‘Here, indeed, is the true lover,‘ said the Nightingale. ‚What I sing of, he suffers: what is joy to me, to him is pain. Surely love is a wonderful thing.‘“ So she makes a decision to find a red rose for him. Even before her search we get to know another characters from nature - a Green Lizard, a Butterfly and a Daisy. They think that the Student´s weeping for a red rose is ridiculous, only the Nightingale understands him and thinks about the mystery of Love. So she finds a white rose tree, a yellow rose tree and finally a red rose tree but it´s damaged after the winter and it shall have no roses at all. There is just one terrible way how to build the rose: „'If you want a red rose,' said the Tree, '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 must pierce your heart, and your life-blood must flow into my veins, and become mine." The Nightingale decides that the cost of her life is worth the cost of true love so she sacrifices her life. Another morning the Student finds this red rose and hurries to give it to the daughter of the Proffesor. But she rejects him saying: „I am afraid it will not go with my dress and, besides, the Chamberlain´s nephew has sent me some real jewels, and everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers.“ The student angrily throws the red rose into the gutter and a cart-wheel runs over it. This story has poetic nature and seems to be considered a fairy-tale as well. It contained a range of vocabulary and many wonderful detailed descriptions. Wilde used a lot of similes, f.e. “as red as the feet of the dove”, “His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom”, “as yellow as the hair of the mermaiden who sits upon an amber throne”. There are also used some metaphores, f.e. “Flame-coloured are his wings”. It´s obvious that the personification is used, since the animals and plants talk and think, f.e. “and the Lizard, who was something of a cynic, laughed outright”. I also noticed use of the triads – three creatures from nature sneering at the Student´s pain, three rose trees and three conditions which must be fulfilled in order to build the rose. Unfortunatelly, I can´t see any deeper aim in that. Oscar Wilde is well-known for using the symbolization (f.e. the title of his masterpiece „The Importance of Being Earnest“). In this story we can find the rose and the bird. The rose symbolizes beauty, passion and perfection which is the possible key to happiness. The bird is the symbol of immaterial beauty and unappreciated art, and the election of a nightingale in this story has a deeper meaning as it´s a lonely and shy bird. This Nightingale is willing to die in exchange for fulfilled human love. We can notice that all characters in the story have their „real names“. Maybe it´s because Wilde wanted us to treat them equally – the Nightingale is as important as the Student. If we think about this story as a love story, we assume the Student to be a lover – a hero who would go to the end of the world to get what he wants. But it´s not like that at all - our Student gives up very easily after just one try. So we find out that there was no love but he just had a crush on her. We might also expect the girl to be sensitive and loving, but this woman character is very materialist, ungrateful and quite cruel. “The Student looked up from the grass, and listened, but he could not understand what the Nightingale was saying to him, for he only knew the things that are written down in books. But the Oak-tree understood, and felt sad, for he was very fond of the little Nightingale who had build her nest in his branches.“ I think this part clearly delivers us the message, that the Student lives in his own little world which contains only wisdom from the books - and that is not enough. He´s very narrow-minded. Unlike the Nightingale and even the Oak-tree, he isn´t able to care about the other creatures in this world and he won´t even try to think about hidden meanings in the bird´s song. He´s left for the life controlled by the logic. When he finds the built red rose, he appreciates it with quite cold-hearted sentence: „It is so beautiful that I am sure it has a long Latin name.“ There is a also big irony in what the Student says after the Nightingale finishes singing her last song for the Oak-tree:“She has form, that cannot be denied to her; but has she got feeling? I am afraid not.“ In fact this humble bird shows more feelings and sensitivity than him. He also expresses that he despises art and artists. Common people would be delighted by a wonderful bird song, but he´s critical and he doesn´t see and appreciate the beauty of the nature. „In fact, she is like most artists; she is all style without any sincerity. She would not sacrifice herself for others. She thinks merely of music, and everybody knows that the arts are selfish. Stil, it must be admitted that she has some beautiful notes in her voice. What a pity it is that they do not mean anything, or do any practical good!“ That is another example of obvious irony, because selfish characters in this story are people, not animals. The only thing the Nightingale asks the Student to do in return for her sacrifice is to be a true lover for "Love is wiser than Philosophy". But as we know, he didn´t put a lot of effort in fulfilling this task.
In the end he comes to the conclusion, that „Love is a silly thing that is not half as useful as Logic“ and he returns to reading his books.
Well, so much for the sad needless sacrifice. Painfull death of one little bird who had sincere feelings, who was altruistic and prepared to lay down her own life for faith in true love.
„Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?“ I think we should learn a lesson from this tale – we shouldn´t judge people according to what we expect them to be like and we should think twice before we sacrifice something, because sometimes, in this world, it isn´t worth it.