The Happy Prince

1. AISHA KOUKAB
LECTURER IN ENGLISH
DEPTT. OF HUMANITIES AND LINGUISTICS
UAF
COMPOSITION AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS
ENG-301

2. THE HAPPY PRINCE
BY
OSCAR WILDE

4. OSCAR WILDE
• Oscar Wilde was born as the second child of wealthy Irish Wilde family in Dublin in 1854.
• It has been discussed about Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) that he was son of a reputed doctor.
• Oscar Wilde was a great Irish born playwright, novelist, fictionist, and poet. It is stated that Wilde
was a provocative critic and is widely recognized due to his comedies
• He published his short fiction book the happy prince in 1888.

5. OSCAR WILDE
• “The happy prince” shows a pathetic picture of Victorian age in which poor were living a hand to
month life and rich people were exploiting all the privileges.
• He unveiled the hypocrisy of ruling class, poverty AND EXPLOITATION.

6. OSCAR WILDE
• Oscar Wilde observed the society he lived in and saw child labour, the unjust distribution of
wealth and problem of unemployment
• All were direct results of an economic system which justifies wealthy middle class’ exploitation
of working class as “progress”.

7. FAIRY TALE
• The happy prince is purely a fairytale. It has all the characteristics of a fairy tale:
 Imaginary characters
 Far from reality
 Happy ending

8. FAIRY TALE
• The fairy tale is a narrative and in prose it is about the dooms and destinies of a heroin or hero in
which he has to go through unbelievable circumstances and supernatural adventures, but in the
end, enjoys a life of festivity forever.
• Enchanted places, disguise situations and supernatural machinery are the pivotal in elements of
fairy tale.

9. AN ALLEGORY
• “The happy prince” is also an allegory
• An allegory is a story in poetry or prose with a twofold meaning; a primary or surface meaning.
• It is story that can be read, interpreted and understood at two levels, in some cases it is dealt at
three or four levels.
• It has social religious and political allegory at many levels.

10. LITERARY DEVICES
• Personification
• It is as a kind of metaphor in which the non-human qualities are attributed to a person
• The writer personified the statue of happy prince and swallow, as living human beings
• They talk with each other like human because they feel the misery of living creature which
human being is ignoring

11. USE OF SIMILE
• In simile, one object is likened to the other to enrich an image, the comparison is explicit as:
• “his hands are like withered leaves‟.
• “Lips are red as pomegranate‟.
• “As blue as the great sea‟.
• “Who is as black as ebony‟.
• “They have eyes like green beryl‟

12. SYMBOLIC CHARACTER
• Statue of happy prince is a charity figure like Christ crucified himself for humanity like that
happy prince sacrifices his beauty for the humanity.
• Swallow also sacrifices his life for the humanity.
• Woman, match girl, writer and poor boys symbolize the poverty of Victorian age.

13. SOME STYLISTIC FEATURES
• Irony
• He has shown the contrast between rich and poor people.
• “Swallow flew over the city, and saw the rich taking merry in their beautiful houses while the
beggars were sitting at the gates”.

14. SATIRE
• Satire on educational system and satire on social injustices is seen in “the happy prince”.
• Wilde mentions a professor who was surprised by seeing a swallow in the writer and he wrote a
long letter about it to the local newspaper.
• Everyone quoted it that it was full of so many words that they could not understand”.
• Though this fairy tale was written on the demand of his son yet it is full of satiric characters,
situations and issues.

15. THEME
Outward beauty is nothing. It is just a
show. The real beauties are love and
sacrifices.
Love and sacrifice are two saving forces.

16. THEME
There is great gap between the rich and
the poor, the rulers and the masses.
God loves those who love their
fellow human beings.

17. CHARACTER SKETCH
Minor Characters
The
Seamstress
The Little
Boy
The
Playwright
The Little
Match-girl
The Beautiful
Angel
Major Characters
The Happy Prince The Swallow

18. MAJOR CHARACTERS
• Former ruler who lived happily in palace of Sans-Souci.
The palace was surrounded by lofty walls so that sorrows
could not enter. The happy Prince did not bothered how
people in Sans-Souci were living their lives. After his
death, his statue was set up so high that he could see all
the ugliness and misery of the city.
The Happy
Prince
• Swallow was the bird who worked as a messenger for the
statue of Happy Prince. When the statue donated both of
his eyes, swallow stayed with him forever, he started
loving the statue of the Happy Prince.
The
Swallow

19. OTHER CHARACTERS
• The first poor in the story is the seamstress. She is
portrayed as a thin and worn face woman with coarse
and red hand. She has a baby and he is lying ill on the
bed.
He has a fever, and asking for oranges. His mother has
nothing to give him but river water, so he is crying.
The
Seamstress
• The second poor is a young man whose hair is brown and
crisp. His lips are red as a pomegranate and he has large
and dreamy eyes. He is trying to finish a play for the
Director of the Theater, but he is too cold to write
anymore. There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has
made him faint.
The
Playwright

20. OTHER CHARACTERS
• The little match-girl is the third poor. She has to give her
father money or she will beat her if she goes home
penniless. She has let her matches fall in gutter, and they
are all spoiled. Her father will beat her if she doesn’t
bring home some money, and she is crying. She has no
shoes or stockings, and her little head is bare.
The Little
Match-Girl
• An angel was signed with the task by the God, to bring
two most precious things in the city. When he brought the
leaden heart and the dead swallow, “You have rightly
chosen,” said God. The good deeds of “whomever” and
“whatsoever” (Happy Prince and Swallow) must be paid
fairly by God.
The
Beautiful
Angel

21. IMPLICATION
• The writer wants to tell that the outward beauty does not meant a lot as compared to the real
beauty which is in a person’s heart who have the deep feelings and the ability to feel the sorrows
and hardships of others just like the happy prince.
• He led a happy life but after his death when he saw people’s worries he felt them and helped them
as much he could do.

22. IMPLICATION
• The lesson we got from the story is that every person was not the same as the happy prince was
very rich and lived happily but when he saw people’s hardships even after his death he was
worried and anxious to help them at every possible way and made it possible by the swallow
which was his great deed.