The Happy Prince, which was written by Oscar Wilde in 1888, is very famous for its educational and humane value which is depicted by a main character called the Happy Prince. The story develops children’s compassion and sympathy for the poor and influences adults’ attitude toward the unfortunate people around them. However, in order to help those readers understand the story more easily and clearly, the following essay is going to discuss some points related to the summary, literary analysis as well as thematic analysis of the story.
The story portrays a prince, the Happy Prince, who had lived a luxurious life and knew nothing about sorrows and misfortunes. After his death, his beautiful statue was decorated with gold and jewels and fixed so high that he could see all the ugliness and misery of his city. Thus, he requested his messenger, the little Swallow, who was planning to go to Egypt, to take his gold and jewels to the poor. Soon afterwards, his statue became shabby and unwanted; the Swallow died because of coldness. Nevertheless, the prince’s heart and the dead bird were chosen to the Heaven.
The author has personified the Happy Prince’s statue as a real man by putting him into some characteristics. Firstly, he is a compassionate man. When he saw his people facing the hardships of poverty, he was eager to help them. Because of his compassion, his heart was moved, and his eyes were full of tears even though he was a statue. Besides, he is selfless. As a reason, without worrying how shabby he would look like, he had sacrificed every valuable thing he got for the seamstress, playwright, match-girl and other poor people in his city. Furthermore, he is so persuasive that he could completely change the swallow's thinking from an inconsistent bird to a willing messenger. He could make the little swallow distribute his jewels and gold to the poor although the swallow was eager to fly to Egypt.