The Nightingale And The Rose Essay, Research Paper

‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ by Oscar Wilde

‘Nineteenth Century Short Stories’ is a collection of tales from the nineteen hundreds. This essay will concentrate on just one of these stories. It will include a thorough analysis of the story including my views and opinions towards the language, imagery and setting that the author uses.

The story I have chosen to analyse is ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’, by Oscar Wilde. This is one of many children’s stories that he wrote, as he is well known to have ‘used the form of fairy tale to reflect on modern life and to debate ideas’.

‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ is a very poignant story following the theme of love. The theme is conveyed in this story through the actions of the Nightingale. It demonstrates how one life would sacrifice itself in order to make another happy. From the Nightingale’s point of view, this is a tragically ironic story. For she thinks that the Student must be a ‘true lover’ – she thinks that he would give anything for one night with the Professor’s daughter.

‘She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses…yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched’, the Nightingale hears him cry; and on this evidence alone she bases her opinion: ‘Here at last is a true lover.’ When in fact the only feelings the Student has for the Professor’s daughter are those of material love. He is only interested in her beauty. He says to himself ‘She has form – that cannot be denied to her’ but then he says ‘She would not sacrifice herself for others’, which is exactly what the Nightingale is about to do for him. She is willing to sacrifice her life for love; for the Student to be able to spend one night with the girl he supposedly admires. An interesting point to note is when the Student mentions that the Professor’s daughter ‘has some beautiful notes in her voice. What a pity it is that they do not mean anything, or do any practical good.’ Now Nightingales are renowned for having beautiful voices, but the Student does not appreciate the wonderful art of music. A few paragraphs before these lines the Nightingale sings to the Student telling him of how she intends to sacrifice her life for him; ‘be happy; you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart’s-blood.’ Although he cannot understand them, these words are, in fact, deeply meaningful to the Student. And as for music doing no ‘practical good’, well, what would you call the outcome of the red rose? The Nightingale died and the rose was born. Music made that red rose. The Student does not realise how wrong his judgements are. We find out that the only ‘true lover’ was in fact the Nightingale. She was the only one with sincere feelings, and she was prepared to sacrifice her life for those feelings, even though she knew she would not gain anything from it. The fact that she was doing it for love, and that she was making someone happy, was enough for her. She was really the only one who deserved love – the only one worthy of it. The Nightingale was love.

She went to the greatest extremes to find a red rose for the Student to give to the Professor’s daughter. She flew all around the garden trying to find a red rose. She flew to ‘the centre of the grass-plot’, and ’round the old sun-dial’, and finally ‘beneath the Students window’, where she eventually found a red rose tree. But the tree was damaged, and would not bear a red rose. the only way the Nightingale could obtain a red rose from this tree, would be to

‘build it out of music by moonlight’, and stain it with her ‘own heart’s-blood’; and that is what she did.

The story is set in a garden of fantasy – it is full of talking creatures and trees; not unlike the Garden of Eden in the Bible, which had a talking snake. Perhaps the author used a garden because in the Bible it is very symbolic, and its story has many lessons and meanings. Maybe that was what Oscar Wilde was trying to convey in his writing. Although this story was meant as a fairy tale for children, it contained a large range of vocabulary and many detailed descriptions; suggesting that perhaps the story was actually aimed at adults, but was written in fairy tale form to simplify it, making it easier to understand. This way the author gets the point across clearly, without ‘beating around the bush’, so to speak. I think that the setting is an important factor in this story, because it teaches the reader that there are a lot more things to think about other than ourselves and other human beings. The garden is made up of many other creatures that also need care, love and attention just like we do. For example, the red rose tree in the Student’s garden needed care and attention; ‘the winter has chilled my veins…nipped my buds…broken my branches’. If the Student had cared for the tree like he should have done, and not been so selfish, the poor Nightingale would not have had to sacrifice her life to make a red rose. It proves that even the tree needed love, and if the Student had given the tree love, it would have returned the favour by bearing a red rose. It was lucky the Nightingale was such a generous and considerate little bird. The Nightingale says ‘what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?’ – well, the heart of the bird in this story is worth much, much more than the heart of the man in question.

The language used in this story is very fairy tale like; ‘She passed through the grove like a shadow, and like a shadow she sailed across the garden. Here we can see the use of repetition, with the phrase ‘like a shadow’, which is a very typical style of writing, common to fairy tales. A lot of old fashioned or archaic words are used, such as ‘grove’, and ‘merchants’, and even the ‘harp’ is mentioned, which is a very historical instrument. This emphasises the poetic nature of the tale. The syntax Oscar Wilde uses in his writing is also very fairy tale like, and poetic: ‘Crimson was the girdle of petals, and crimson as a ruby was the heart.’ Many of the sentences in this story are based on that same structure. Another is ‘Sweet is the scent of Hawthorn, and sweet are the bluebells that hide in the valley.’ Another very interesting point to take into consideration is the way that Oscar Wilde names the characters in his story. None of them actually have real names, but are instead given a noun, such as ‘the Student’, ‘the Nightingale’ or ‘the Moon’. This suggests that Oscar Wilde wanted us to treat every character in this story equally, so that there are no small characters, only small parts. Every character seems as important as the other; which is a lesson in itself.

The imagery in this story is absolutely wonderful. There are a large number of lines and paragraphs which create extremely vivid pictures in the readers mind. A prime example of one of these phrases is: ‘as white as the foam of the sea, and whiter than the snow upon the mountain.’ Here the writer is trying to describe the colour of the roses on the white rose tree. He takes the whitest things he can think of and makes them look a dull in comparison to the white roses on this tree. He is a very powerful writer. Another example of Oscar Wilde’s beautiful, dream-like imagery, is ‘her voice was like water bubbling from a little silver jar.’ This is lovely. He uses a collection of basic words, which when put together produce something so beautiful. The use of the word ‘bubbling’ is very clever. It is a very good use of onomatopoeia. You can hear it, as well as see it in your mind. The word ’silver’ has also been very carefully chosen. As a children’s story, the use of this word is very appropriate. Children are intrigued by sparkling, shiny things. But remember, ‘water bubbling from a little silver jar’ is a metaphor for the Nightingale’s voice. So if the images and sounds created in our minds represent her voice, she must have sounded very, very beautiful; and Oscar Wilde has succeeded as a writer in conveying this.

I think that the most powerful imagery used in this story is just before the Nightingale is about to die, and she gives ‘one last burst of music.’ The writer gives the impression that her voice is very strong, powerful and penetrating – just like his writing. ‘The white Moon heard it, and she forgot the dawn, and lingered on in the sky.’ You can imagine the Moon stopping dead in the sky to listen to the tiny powerful creature. ‘The red rose heard it, and it trembled all over with ecstasy, and opened its petals to the cold morning air.’ You can really relate to this sentence – you feel as though you are the red rose, you can feel the cold morning air against your petals. The use of the word ‘trembled’ gives an extra feel to the sentence. ‘Echo bore it to her purple cavern in the hills, and woke the sleeping shepherds from their dreams.’ The writer tells us that the little Nightingale’s voice travels further than we can imagine, and the use of the word ‘echo’ makes her voice sound powerfully haunting. ‘It floated through the reeds of the river, and they carried its message to the sea.’ Again, distance is used to try and explain just how mighty her voice was. This description makes you think that the little Nightingale’s voice must have travelled to the four corners of the Earth.

The moon plays an important part in this story, and she is described in a different way every time she is mentioned. ‘The Moon in her chariot of pearl’ – here is an example of the use of archaic language, to create poetic images. Another is: ‘when the Moon shone in the heavens’; it didn’t just shine in the sky, but it shone in the heavens, making the image more majestic, and powerful. The next mention is ‘the cold crystal Moon leaned down and listened.’ Here is a good example of alliteration to emphasise the vivid clarity of the Moon in the dark sky. The words ‘cold’ and ‘crystal’ are very sharp, clear descriptive words, and are well chosen.

The characters in this tale react to each other differently. The human characters seem to act selfishly, and ungratefully towards each other, whereas the other characters, such as the Nightingale, and the Rose-tree, are very thoughtful and kind towards everyone. The Student takes the rose to the Professor’s daughter, and says ‘You will wear it to-night next to your heart, and as we dance together it will tell you how I love you.’ When the Professor’s daughter replies ‘I am afraid it will not go with my dress’, the Students attitude changes dramatically. He becomes very rude and uncivilised towards her, which proves that his personality was false, and that he did not truly mean any of the things that he said. The Nightingale, on the other hand , was very different to the Student; she was kind and thoughtful towards everyone she spoke to. ‘Give me a red rose…and I will sing you my sweetest song’ – she was willing to give something in return, unlike the Student, who did not care how the red rose suddenly appeared upon the neglected tree. ‘What a wonderful piece of luck!’ is what he said upon finding the rose, the very next morning. He had no idea where it came from, and he did not care. As long as he had what he wanted, he was satisfied. The Green Lizard, and the Butterfly, and the Daisy all lived in the garden with the Nightingale, but she was the only one who really took an interest in the Student. The other creatures did not seem to want to have anything to do with humans. Upon learning that the Student was weeping for want of a red rose, they replied ‘For want of a red rose! …how very ridiculous!’ Here the language used is short and simple and blunt. There is nothing poetic about it at all, which suggests resentment between the characters. When writing about the Nightingale, and about love, Oscar Wilde uses long and beautiful words, to suggest that love is an everlasting thing, and that the Nightingale is a character that represents love whenever she speaks or sings.

The ending of this story is again an example of just how powerful Oscar Wildes writing is. It gave me strong feelings of resentment towards the Student – a member of my own race, and feelings of great sympathy towards the poor Nightingale, who by this time was dead, and no love came of it. After the Professor’s daughter had told the Student that she was now going to the dance with the Chamberlain’s nephew, ‘he threw the rose into the street, where it fell into the gutter, and a cart-wheel went over it.’ All that work she had put into perfecting the rose was wasted! Her life had been wasted, just like the rose. The Professor’s daughter was, I think, just as selfish as the Student; so Oscar Wilde was not being sexist at all when he criticised the human race. We are equally as selfish as each other, and we should pay more attention to things other than ourselves. ‘besides, the Chamberlain’s nephew has sent me some real jewels, and everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers’ In this case she was very wrong! This flower had cost a life, and it was built with love. What the Nightingale had said earlier on in the story now made sense to me: ‘Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals.’ The Nightingale knew what love was worth. The Student had experienced a bad example of love, and after one attempt, he was prepared to give up. The Students feelings towards love were ‘It is not half as useful as Logic, for it does not prove anything’. Again he was wrong, for love proved that lives were willing to sacrifice themselves to make him happy, but he had no idea of what went on in order for him to get that red rose; so he could not appreciate the act of love in this story. Love proved that it existed, and being such a strong and powerful emotion, it needed to prove no more. We should take a look around every once in a while to absorb what Mother Nature has bestowed upon us, and we should learn not to take advantage of it, but to be thankful instead.