The happy prince story review

'The happy prince' by Oscar Wilde story review 

About the author:- Oscar Fingal O' Plahertie Wills Wilde ( 1854 – 1900) was an Irish writer, poet, and playwright. The Importance of Being Earnest is one of his most popular plays. He also wrote many short stories like The Selfish Giant, The Happy Prince, The Model Millionaire, and so on. The Happy Prince has been dramatized from his famous story. 

    

                          Fig:- Oscar Wilde

About the story:- At first, the characters of this story are happy Prince- a statue, Swallow - the bird and later other characters that foray into this magnificent masterpiece are a woman dressmaker & her son, a poor young playwright, a poor little girl, the Mayor, town councilors, a group of beggars, sundry people and angel. The story starts with curtains goes up on a stage and in deep Centre stage, a high and large square pedestal is placed. Upon the box stands the happy prince and a statue is what the happy prince is. He is wearing a golden tunic and stands still with legs apart, his hands resting on the hilt of a sword whose tip rests on the pedestal-shaped box. A large red Stone is fixed on the side of the hilt. The open eyes of the happy prince are individually covered with blue-colored paper cut in the shape of the eye and lightly glued to hold them in place. With all this grandiosity the statue of the happy prince faces the audience. The students gather admiringly around the statue of the happy prince. The 1st student glances up at the happy prince with awe. The students go out. A sad-looking man immediately enters the stage from the right. He limps out with an unhappy expression. He stops before the statue of the happy prince and looks unhappily for 3 seconds. He starts limping towards the left-wing exit, muttering loudly to himself. The sad, tired man goes out through the left-wing exit. Immediately from the left-wing emerges a young mother dragging her little boy by the hand. The boy is crying. Mother is trying to stop the boy from crying. They reach the statue of the happy prince. The mother and the son go out through the exit. The stage light changes to blue. The twittering call of a bird is heard in the background. Swallow the bird dressed in a black tunic, cardboard wings attached to its back, enters the stage from the right. The swallow flaps Its hands quickly to indicate flying. Swallow reaches the Centre stage before the statue of the happy prince. The swallow perches on the pedestal box, holding a leg of the statue and resting his head against it. Suddenly, Swallow feels that it was raining and he is getting wet. So, swallow jerks and jumps up after 5 seconds. And then he understands that it was not raining and the sky is clear. Swallow jumps up again as if a second drop of water had fallen. He now looks up at the statue and is amazed to see teardrops beneath its eyes. So swallow asked the happy prince why is he crying. The happy prince told swallow that he sees the poor people and ugly things in his land. He wants to help them but can not do this as he is a statue ao he requests swallow to help the poor and needy peoples. He tells swallow that there is a poor House is present on Little Street and there live a woman dressmaker and his son who is suffering from fever. They are very poor. So he wants to help the lady by giving her the ruby from his sword hilt. So he requests swallow to give the ruby to the lady. Swallow helps the poor lady by removing the ruby from the hilt with its mouth and flying with its arms. He goes up to the cottage and puts the ruby down near the lady’s hand. Then he comes out and returns to the happy prince. Then happy prince requests swallow to stay with him for one more night as he wants to help a poor young playwright. And happy prince requests swallow to take one of s Sapphire eyes and give it to the young playwright. The swallow accepts his request and takes a Sapphire from his eyes and goes to the cottage. The swallow quietly leaves the sapphire beside the young playwright. The young playwright discovers the stone after the swallow leaves, he is overjoyed. Then again happy prince requests swallow to help a poor little girl by giving her the remaining Sapphire in his other eye. Swallow accepts his request again. And plucks the other sapphire from the prince’s eye, then he goes to the cottage and drops the Sapphire into the girl’s hand. The girl looks up amazed. Swallow then flies to the happy prince. The happy prince is now blind as he does not have the sapphires in his eyes. So swallow wants to stay with him. The happy prince then requests the swallow to fly over this land and mention to him what he sees. The swallow makes a flying motion by flapping his arms. The swallow then faces the happy prince and tells him that he saw many unhappy and unfed people. Listening to this happy prince tells him to take all the gold from his body and give it to the poor people. The swallow agrees and makes a plucking motion with its mouth on the happy prince’s tunic. And give the golden tunic to the poor and needy peoples. And now, they are wearing good clothes, look better and they are eating and laughing. And then the swallow is dying in cold. The swallow falls on the pedestal-shaped box. Then four people enter the stage. They are the mayor and 3 town councilors. They saw the dead swallow bird at the feet of the happy prince. They then notice that the Sapphires, the ruby, and the golden tunic that was present in the statue is now gone. So, they decide to take the statue away as it isn’t beautiful anymore. And they started fighting for whose statue will be present here in the town square. At last, an angel comes and tells that the swallow will sing in her garden and the happy prince will live in her city of gold forever. The story then ends. This story tells us that we should help the poor and needy peoples. The happy prince gives an example of this by giving his ruby, Sapphires, and his golden tunic. And the swallow bird is a great example of love and sacrifice.

                         Figure - the happy prince