"Nàng hứa sẽ khiêu vũ với tôi nếu tôi đem đến cho nàng những cánh hồng đỏ," Mọt Sách than van; "nhưng tìm đâu ra trong khu vườn này." 

Sơn Ca nghe thấy, nàng nhìn qua tàn lá cây sồi. Trầm ngâm. 

"Không có cành hồng đỏ nào trong khu vườn này!" hắn đấm ngực, long lanh giọt nước mắt trên đôi mắt đẹp. "Ôi, hạnh phúc chỉ cần cái chuyện cỏn con ấy! Ta đã đọc ngàn chân kinh, ta đã thông tất cả bí mật triết lý, vậy mà chỉ vì cánh hồng bé tí xíu làm đời ta khốn khổ." 

"À đây là người chân tình," Sơn Ca nhủ thầm. "Hằng đêm ta đã hát vì chàng, cho dù chẳng biết chàng là ai, hằng đêm ta kể lể chuyện đời chàng cho các vì sao trên cao, và hôm nay ta được thấy chàng. Tóc chàng thẫm cụm lan dạ hương, môi chàng thắm tựa niềm khao khát; nhưng dục vọng làm da mặt mất vẻ hồng hào, nỗi đau buồn chiếm ngự trên đôi ngài." 

"Hoàng Tử sẽ tổ chức dạ hội vào đêm mai," Mọt Sách lầu bầu, "người con gái tôi yêu sẽ đi cùng tôi. Nếu tôi tìm ra được cành hồng đỏ, nàng sẽ bên tôi cho đến sáng. Có cánh hồng đỏ, tôi ôm nàng trong vòng tay đê mê, nàng sẽ tựa đầu vào vai tôi, những ngón tay mềm mại đan vào nhau. Nhưng nào có nụ hồng đỏ nào nơi đây, tôi đành phải ngồi không, và nhìn nàng đi qua. Nàng sẽ không thèm ngó ngàng đến trái tim vỡ của tôi." 

"Trời ạ! Đây đúng là kẻ chân tình," Sơn Ca tự nghĩ. "Những gì ta ca tụng lại là điều đau khổ của chàng. Tình Yêu tuyệt vời lắm chứ. Đáng trân trọng ngàn lần hơn bích ngọc, và những viên hột xoàn. Hạt trai và tất cả đá quý cũng có mua được đâu, vì nó có được trưng bày rao bán ở xạp nào đâu. Chẳng thể nào mua được tình yêu nơi tay con buôn, cũng chẳng thể cân bao nhiêu tấn vàng cho vừa. 

"Những tay nhạc công đại tài sẽ hiện diện," Mọt Sách than thở, "và tấu lên những cung nhịp du dương, người con gái tôi yêu cùng tôi lả lướt trong âm hưởng phong cầm và vĩ cầm. Đôi chân nàng sẽ nhẹ như tơ trên sàn nhảy, với tất cả thèm thuồng của kẻ tham dự. Nhưng nàng sẽ bỏ rơi tôi, vì tôi không có cánh hồng đỏ trao cho nàng"; hắn ngã người xuống bãi cỏ, ôm lấy mặt và khóc. 

"Tại sao hắn khóc vậy ?" Mối Xanh chổng đuôi lên hỏi. 

"Nguyên do từ đâu ?" Bướm phẩy đôi cánh dưới ánh mặt trời. 

"Ừ nhỉ, vì sao vậy ?" Tím Dại thầm thì hỏi chị hàng xóm. 

"Chàng khóc vì không có cánh Hồng Đỏ," Sơn Ca trả lời. 

"Cánh hồng đỏ ?" Chúng thốt lên; "có điên không vậy!" Mối Xanh lăn ra cười. 

Nhưng Sơn Ca hiểu rõ u uẩn của Mọt Sách, nàng ngồi yên lặng trên cành sồi, thả hồn vào bí ẩn của Tình Yêu. 

Nàng vỗ đôi cánh nâu thẳng lên không trung. Tựa chiếc bóng, nàng vun vút bay vào Lạc Viên. 

Giữa bãi cỏ là cội hồng thật duyên dáng. 

"Hãy cho tôi 1 nụ hồng đỏ," Sơn Ca van lơn, "và tôi sẽ hát cho ngài nghe bài ca ngọt ngào nhất." 

Nhưng Cây lắc đầu. 

"Hoa của tôi lại mầu Trắng," hắn trả lời "trắng như bọt biển, trắng hơn tuyết băng đỉnh núi. Nhưng hãy đến hỏi người anh em của tôi ở cạnh Đồng Hồ, có thể người ấy cho bạn nụ hoa bạn muốn." 

Và Sơn Ca bay đến cụm nọ. 

"Hãy cho tôi 1 nụ hồng đỏ," Sơn Ca cầu khẩn, "và tôi sẽ hát cho ngài nghe bài ca ngọt ngào nhất." 

Nhưng Cây lắc đầu. 

"Hoa tôi lại mầu Vàng," hắn trả lời "vàng tựa tóc mỹ nhân ngư ngự trị trên ngai vàng, vàng hơn cả loài thủy tiên vàng nở rộ trên đồng cỏ trước khi loài người đem lưỡi liềm ghé thăm. Nhưng bạn hãy đến người anh em ở dưới cửa sổ Mọt Sách, có thể người anh em ấy cho bạn nụ hoa bạn ao ước." 

Và Sơn Ca bay đến cụm nọ. 

"Hãy cho tôi 1 nụ hồng đỏ," Sơn Ca cầu khẩn, "và tôi sẽ hát cho ngài nghe bài ca ngọt ngào nhất." 

Nhưng Cây lắc đầu. 

"Hoa tôi mầu Đỏ," hắn trả lời, "đỏ tựa đôi chân bồ câu, đỏ hơn những tàn lá san hô ẩn hiện dưới sóng. Nhưng mùa đông đã bóp nghẹt đường tĩnh mạch, sương giá cắt hết nụ, và cơn bão đã lấy đi những cành non, thế nên tôi không có gì để tặng bạn cho đến năm sau." 

"Chỉ một nụ thôi," Sơn Ca năn nỉ, "chỉ một nụ thôi! Có cách nào không ?" 

"Có chứ," Cây trả lời, "nhưng đau thương đến nỗi tôi không muốn nói bạn nghe." 

"Nói cho tôi nghe đi," Sơn Ca reo lên, "Tôi không ngán đâu." 

"Nếu bạn muốn nụ Hồng Đỏ," Cây nói, "bạn phải dùng âm tơ của Trăng, trộn lẫn máu tươi của bạn. Bạn sẽ phải hát với lồng ngực để sát cạnh gai nhọn. Hát trọn một đêm, và để gai nhọn đâm nát vào trái tim bạn, để máu nguồn chạy vào tĩnh mạch tôi biến thành máu tôi." 

"Cái chết là cái giá cũng xứng đáng cho một nụ Hồng Đỏ," Sơn Ca thản nhiên trả lời, "sự sống cũng rất ư là thân mến với muôn loài. Ngồi bên rừng xanh, ngắm mặt trời vàng, cùng trăng ngọc lăn tròn qua ôi sao lộng lẫy. Hương hoa chuông và hoa chanh nở trong góc vườn ôi sao ngọt ngào. Tình Yêu mãi mãi, dù đời sống có ngừng lại, trái tim loài chim có đáng là gì so với trái tim loài người?" 

Xòe rộng đôi cánh nâu bay bổng lên. Sơn Ca lượn quanh mảnh vườn như chiếc bóng, nghiêng nghiêng làm chiếc bóng qua khu rừng nhỏ. 

Mọt Sách vẫn nằm thừ ra trên bãi cỏ. Trên đôi mắt đẹp vẫn chưa khô dòng nước mắt. 

"Hãy vui lên," Sơn Ca reo, "sống trong hạnh phúc đi; anh sẽ có nụ Hồng Đỏ. Tôi sẽ nhuộm máu tim tôi vào tơ Trăng. Tôi chỉ xin bạn một ân huệ là bạn sẽ đẹp duyên cùng người chân tình, vì Tình Yêu sáng suốt hơn Triết Lý, vì nàng là trí tuệ, oai hùng hơn Quyền Lực, vì chàng là sức sống. Đôi cánh rực rỡ nồng nàn là hình hài Tình Yêu. Đôi môi chàng ngọt tựa mật, thơm tho hương trầm. 

Mọt Sách từ bãi cỏ ngơ ngác nhìn lên, nghe ngóng, nhưng gã chẳng hiểu gì cả. Những quyển sách kia chưa bao giờ có ai đề cập đến ý tưởng vừa lọt vào tai hắn. 

Nhưng Sồi thấm hiểu và xót xa, vì niềm yêu mến Sơn Ca với chiếc tổ nhỏ được kết trên ngón Sồi. 

"Xin em hát cho anh nghe bài ca cuối cùng," Sồi thì thầm; "anh sẽ rất cô đơn khi vắng em." 

Sơn Ca cao giọng líu lo nồng nàn men rượu tăm. 

Vừa nghe Sơn Ca hát xong, Mọt Sách đứng dậy lôi trong túi ra tập giấy và cây bút. 

"Nó có hình dạng," gã vừa lẩm bẩm vừa bước vào khu rừng nhỏ -- "khó mà lẫn lộn với loài chim khác; nó có tình cảm không ? Chắc là không đâu. Nó tựa như người cuồng điên trong nghệ thuật; có đủ cung cách, chỉ thiếu niềm thiết tha. Chẳng bao giờ nó sẽ hy sinh cho ai. Nó chỉ đắm đuối trong âm điệu, và ai cũng biết nó rất ích kỷ. Nhưng phải công nhận giọng ca của nó tuyệt vời. Tiếc thay điều đó chẳng mang đến lợi lộc gì, chẳng nghĩa lý gì, chẳng làm được trò trống gì!" Gã trở về phòng, nằm trên nệm và suy tư về người yêu. Hắn đi vào giấc ngủ hồi nào không hay. 

Khi thấy Trăng lấp ló trong màn đêm, Sơn Ca cất cánh đến cành Hồng, ôm ghì buồng ngực vào gai nhọn. Nàng hát cả đêm từ tình ca này đến hạnh khúc kia. Sau mỗi bài, chiếc gai nhọn lại xuyên vào sâu hơn và sâu hơn vào trái tim để nguồn máu lăn lăn vào cội hoa. Ánh trăng lạnh nghiêng xuống. 

Nàng hoan tụng tình đầu trong trái tim 2 đứa trẻ thơ. Ồ kia, cánh hồng dần đỏ hồng từng cánh sau từng bài hát tiếp lời ca. Sơn Ca dần lịm đi tựa vùng khói trên mặt hồ -- lịm dần đi dưới đôi chân bình minh. 

Cội Hồng thét lên bảo Sơn Ca ôm ngọn gai chặt hơn nữa. "Ghì sát hơn, Sơn Ca bé bỏng, nếu bình minh đến sẽ làm hỏng đi nụ Hồng Đỏ chưa được hoàn thành." 

Sơn Ca vâng lời, ôm chặt lấy ngọn gai, cùng cao giọng hơn sau từng ca khúc, vì đến lúc hoan tụng nguồn khởi đầu sữa mật đam mê trong lòng Chàng và Nàng. 

Lá hồng cũng dần ửng hồng tựa như niềm e thẹn trên đôi má người trinh nữ đón nụ hôn đầu của người yêu. Gai vẫn chưa cứa vào được tâm trái tim, nên những cánh nhỏ giữa nụ vẫn là mầu trắng của trăng. 

"Ghì sát hơn, Sơn Ca bé bỏng, nếu bình minh đến sẽ làm hỏng đi nụ Hồng Đỏ chưa được hoàn thành." 

Sơn Ca dùng hết sức ôm chặt ngọn gai vào sâu hơn. Chợt nỗi đau vô tận xé tan hình hài nàng. Đắng, đắng sao niềm thống khổ, tiếng hát cứ cao vút lên, cao vút lên trong lời hoan tụng Tình Yêu nương vào Cái Chết đi vào Vĩnh Cửu, vì nơi Tình Yêu an nghỉ không phải là những nấm mộ hoang. 

Nụ Hồng Đỏ thẫm nét đẹp áng sáng bình minh. Giữa tâm hoa rực rỡ trong vắt viên hồng ngọc. 

Giọng Sơn Ca yếu dần, đôi cánh giật giật, đôi mắt là làn nước long lanh. Bài ca dần nhỏ đi sau từng tiếng nấc. 

Gom hết tàn hơi, Sơn Ca phát lên âm giai lạ. Trăng nghe thấy, chẳng màng ánh bình minh nghiêng xuống lắng nghe. Nụ Hồng Đỏ nghe thấy, rùng mình lên trong ngây ngất, mở từng cánh trong bầu trời lạnh giá. Âm giai vọng xa đến từng hang hốc ngọn núi kia, đánh thức những gã chăn cừu đang say sưa giấc mộng. Nó loang vào giòng sông, tan vào biển rộng. 

"Nhìn kìa! Nhìn kìa!" Cội Hồng reo lên, "nụ Hồng Đỏ đã được hoàn thành"; nhưng Sơn Ca nằm im lìm chẳng trả lời. Giữa trái tim còn lồi lên một cành gai rất nhọn. 

Giữa trưa, Mọt Sách thức giấc, ra mở cửa sổ nhìn ra. 

"Ô! trúng số rồi!" hắn la toáng lên; "đây là lô độc đắc! Ta chưa bao giờ nhìn thấy nụ hoa nào đẹp như vầy trong suốt cuộc đời ta. Đẹp quá! Chắc là phải có danh tự trong quyển tự điển cổ xưa"; hắn nhoài ra cắt. 

Nắm chặt trong tay, hắn vội vàng chạy đến nhà nàng. 

"Em hứa là sẽ trong vòng tay anh nếu anh đem đến em nụ Hồng Đỏ," Mọt Sách cuồng dại. "Đây là nụ Hồng đỏ nhất em có thể có trong cõi nhân gian này. Em đính lên áo cạnh tim em, và khi chúng ta luân vũ, nụ hoa này sẽ nói lên tình yêu anh dành trọn vẹn cho em." 

Nàng xịu mặt xuống. 

"Em sợ là nó không hợp với áo dạ hội của em," nàng trả lời; "vả lại, chiều hôm qua cháu trai bá tước đã trao tặng em những vòng vàng châu báu, ai ai cũng trân trọng hơn là những nụ hoa." 

"Dựa trên lời em nói, em là kẻ vô ơn," Mọt Sách gầm gừ; hắn vứt cánh hoa xuống đất, rơi vào rãnh nước. Chiếc xe bò vô tình lăn bánh lên. 

"Vô ơn!" nàng lớn tiếng. "Để tôi nói cho anh nghe, anh là kẻ tồi bại; còn nữa, anh là cái thá gì ? Chỉ là con Mọt Sách. Cả đến một đồng anh chưa chắc đã có nữa là!"; nói xong, cô nàng nguây nguẩy vào nhà sập cửa lại. 

"Tình Yêu sao lại điên rồ thế nhỉ," Mọt Sách vừa đi vừa lẩm bẩm. "Trị giá của nó chỉ đáng nửa so với Luận Lý, vì nó chẳng minh chứng được điều gì, chỉ láo lếu phỏng đoán những điều chưa chắc đã thành sự thật, làm mù quáng đôi mắt con người. Hão huyền, thời buổi này thực tế là tất cả. Trở lại thế giới Triết Học và Thần Học là phải đạo nhất." 

Và ... hắn trở lại phòng riêng, phủi bụi một quyển kinh lấy ra từ trên kệ, ngồi xuống chìm đắm trong dòng chữ. 

There are two characters in the story” The Nightingale and The Rose” by Oscar Wilde: the student and the professor’s daughter. Through these two characters, the nature of love is examined. A blind selfishness with regard to human nature is shown in the story. Both of them are too selfish to love. The protagonist (student) of the story pines for the girl he loves, but his love lacks depth and The Nightingale and The Rose is an interesting story by Oscar Wilde that focuses on the theme of love. It reads like a parable, a story with a moral. The protagonist (student) of the story pines for the girl he loves, but his love lacks in depth and passion.

The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde is a fairy tale in which the first character that appears is a Student. He is sad because a girl promised to dance with him on condition that he brought her red roses, but he did not find any of this colour; there were white and yellow roses, but he could not find red ones. While he was moaning because her love would not dance with him, four characters from nature started to talk about him. A little Green Lizard, a Butterfly and a Daisy asked why he was weeping, and the Nightingale said that he was weeping for a red rose. The first three characters said that weeping for a red rose was ridiculous.

    The Nightingale, who understood the Student’s feelings, started to fly until ‘she’ saw a Rose-tree. She told him to give her a red rose and she promised, in exchange, to sing her sweetest song, but the Rose-tree told her that his roses were white, and he sent the Nightingale to his brother that grew round the old sun-dial. The Nightingale went to see this new Rose-tree and, after promising the same in exchange for a red rose, the Rose-tree told her that his roses were yellow, but he sent the Nightingale to his brother, who grew beneath the Student's window. So the Nightingale went there, and when she arrived, she asked the Rose-tree to give her a red rose. The Rose-tree said that his roses were red, but that winter had chilled his veins and the frost had nipped his buds, so he could not give her a red rose. The Rose-tree suggested a solution: he told her that if she truly wanted a red rose, she had to build it out of music by moonlight and stain it with her own heart's blood. She had to sing to the Rose-tree with her breast against a thorn; the thorn would pierce her heart and her life-blood would flow into the Rose-tree veins. The Nightingale said that death was a great price to pay for a red rose, but at the end, she accepted.

    The Nightingale went to see the Student and told him that he would have his red rose, that she who would build it up with her own blood; the only thing she asked him for in return was to be a true lover. The Student looked at her, yet he could not understand anything because he only understood the things that were written down in books. But the Oak-tree understood and became sad because he was fond of the Nightingale, and asked her to sing the last song; when she finished, the Student thought that the Nightingale had form, but no feeling. At night, the Nightingale went to the Rose-tree and set her breast against the thorn. She sang all night long. She pressed closer and closer against the thorn until the thorn finally touched her heart and she felt a fierce pang of pain. The more the rose got red, the fainter the Nightingale's voice became, and after beating her wings, she died. The rose was finished, but she could not see it.

     The next morning, the Student saw the wonderful rose under his window. He took it and went to see the girl to offer her the rose, but she just said that the rose would not go with her dress and that the Chamberlain's nephew had sent her real jewels, adding that everybody knew that jewels cost far more than flowers. After arguing with her, the Student threw the rose into a gutter, where a cart-wheel crushed it, and he said that Love was a silly thing and that he preferred Logic and Philosophy.

    In the text there are many rhetorical devices, the most evident being personification, a device typical of fairy tales. In fact all the elements of nature as the trees, the Nightingale, the Lizard, the Daisy, the Moon  and the Butterfly have human characteristics; for example, “the white Moon heard it, and she forgot the dawn” (ll. 159- 160). Besides there are many similes: “His hair is dark as the Hyacinth-blossom” (l.11); “his face like pale ivory” (l. 12), “like a shadow” (l. 41); “as white as the foam of the sea” (l. 46); “as yellow as the hair of the mermaiden” (l. 53); “ as red as the feet of the dove” (l. 61);  “his lips are sweet as honey and his breath is like frankincense” (l. 86-87); “her voice was like water bubbling from a silver jar” (l. 94); “as the shadow of a rose in a mirror of silver as the shadow of a rose in a water pool” (l. 112-13); “like the flush in the face of the bridegroom when he kisses the lips of her bride” (l. 119-20). There are some metaphors: “Flame-coloured are his wings” (l. 85-86). Then there is also the repetition of the same sentences, the same linguistic items or syntactic structures, devices quite typical of fairy tales. Some of them are: “Night after night have I” (ll. 9-10)”; “If I bring her a red rose” (ll. 15-16);  “Give me a red rose she cried and I will sing you my sweetest song” (ll. 45, 51), “But the Tree shook its head”(ll. 46, 52); “She passed through the grove like a shadow and like a shadow she sailed across the garden” (ll. 40-41). A subtler device is observable after l. 140, when the style becomes much plainer and less poetic: this signals the reader that the romantic attitude to love represented by the nightingale is replaced by the pragmatic, even materialistic, attitude of both the student and the girl to the same feeling.

    The main theme of this story is love, in fact the young Student needs a red rose to conquer the girl he affirms he loves, even if at the end she doesn’t appreciate his act. This makes us understand two things: on the one hand, that love often brings sorrow, as happens to the tender Nightingale whose gesture of love is not understood by the silly Student. On the other hand, it is very difficult to distinguish between real, authentic love and a more superficial sentiment, and only a very sensitive person can appreciate the full value of this feeling. Besides there are other themes: ingratitude, because the Student is ungrateful towards the Nightingale, whose act of love he is too arid to grasp; generosity, because the altruist Nightingale sacrifices her life to help the Student and her sacrifice is actually wasted. As for the girl, she is not merely superficial but also vain and materialistic, as she loses all interest in the Student once she is promised something more ‘precious’ like the jewels of the Chamberlain’s nephew.

    This fairy tale is very incisive and, despite its apparent simplicity, leaves the reader with a clear moral message: it is important to remember that some people sometimes sacrifice their life or suffer to help others, but at the end they aren’t returned with the same emotional intensity and their actions are not even fully understood.  

This is a moral message that should be born clear in mind, in an age and period when most people appear to be interested only in their own welfare, without being able to look beyond their limited, subjective perspective, thus failing to see what or who is outside the borders of their very narrow egoistic world.

The main theme of Oscar Wilde's short story "The Nightingale and the Rose" explores the effects of self-sacrifice in the name of what one truly believes in.

In this story, the nightingale is a bird who hears an Oxford student cry for the want of a lady, who is apparently his "true love". The woman in question had requested specifically a red rose from the love-stricken man as a token of true devotion. Only with the flower will the lady respond to the man's request for love.

The nightingale, who is a believer in true and eternal love finds that there are no red roses in the garden. However, a true believer at last, he pinches his own heart against the thorn of a white rose and turns it red with its own blood. This, the nightingale does to reinstate his faith in love and his true believe that love shall always prevail.

We find out in the end that all is worthless. The lady rejects the rose and the Oxford lad realizes that it was all caprice on his part. The bird, however, is still dead. However, the story shows us that no sacrifice is too small when one does it with a true mission in mind. However, the story is (as many works in Wilde's tradition) open-ended: Was it worth it, after all? Who actually wins in an ultimate demonstration of true faith? Does the nightingale die in vain? These are the ultimate questions that are subtlety laid to the reader, and it is the reader who will have the final say after all.

BIOGRAPHY

Birth name: Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde

Birth date: October 16, 1854

Death date: November 30, 1900

Parents: Sir William Wilde and Jane Francesca Elgee

Siblings: (full) William and Isola; (half) Henry, Emily and Mary

By the time William Wilde was 28, he had graduated as a doctor, written two books and been appointed medical advisor to the Irish Census of 1841. When the medical statistics were published two years later they contained data which had not being collected in any other country at the time, and as result William opened a Dublin practise specializing in ear and eye diseases, he felt he should make some provision for the free treatment of the city's poor. In 1844, he founded St. Mark's Ophthalmic Hospital, built entirely at his own expense.

Before he married, William fathered three children. Henry Wilson was born in 1838, Emily in 1847 and Mary in 1849. Sadly, Mary and Emily, who were raised by William's brother, both died in a fire at the ages of 22 and 24.

Oscar's mother, Jane Francesca Elgee, first gained attention in 1846 when she began writing revolutionary poems under the pseudonym “Speranza” for a weekly Irish newspaper, The Nation. In 1848, as the country's famine worsened and the Year of Revolution took hold of Europe, the newspaper offices were raided and had to close.

Jane's first child, William “Willie” Charles Kingsbury, was born on September 26, 1852 and her second, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie, on October 16, 1854. The daughter she had longed for, Isola Emily Francesca, was delivered on April 2, 1857. Ten years later, however, Emily died from sudden fever. Oscar was profoundly affected by loss of his sister, and for his lifetime he carried a lock of her hair sealed in a decorated envelope.

Aesthete, wit and dramatist, Oscar Wilde was born at 21 Westland Row, Dublin. He was raised in a mansion at I Merrion Square in an atmosphere of upper-middle-class comfort, culture, and social scandal (due to his mother's pronounced nationalist leanings and his father's much-publicized affair with a female patient). Oscar followed his elder brother William to school at Portora Royal School at Enniskillen, and proceeded to Trinity College in Dublin, in 1872. There his academic and literary talents were cultivated by the Anglo-Irish classicist and Kant scholar John Pentland Mahaffy, whose Social Life in Greece (1874), containing the first frank discussion of Greek homosexuality in English, appeared with a preface acknowledging Wilde's help throughout.

In his second college year Wilde won the Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek and, deciding to continue his studies at Oxford, matriculated at Magdalen with a classical scholarship in 1874. In 1878 he won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry with “Ravenna” and graduated with a double first, narrowly missing a college Fellowship in 1879. At Oxford his chief mentor was Walter Pater, whose Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873) served as a gospel for the aesthetic movement. Strongly influenced by John Ruskin, Wilde passed his Oxford years in an atmosphere where his intellectual and aesthetic interests and the conflicting claims of homo- and heterosexuality, and Catholicism competed for his attention. Just such an intoxicating mixture of ecstasy and abasement characterizes his first book, Poems (1881), which, through stylistically saturated with the mood of fin de siècle aestheticism, hints already at the themes of homosexuality, individualism, and Republican indifference to authority.

In 1879 Wilde set up in London as a self-styled 'Professor of Aesthetics'. So considerable was the impact of his self-promotion that he was engaged to undertake a lengthy lecture tour of North America during 1882. Although Wilde developed his public image considerably in this period, it was also a time when he consolidated the ideas which were to underpin the critique of late Victorian social and political conventions in his best satirical writings, soon to follow.

For eighteen months he edited The Woman's World (in 1887-1889), soliciting contributions from society ladies including his mother and wife, Constance Lloyd, a Dubliner whom he had married in 1884 and with whom he had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan, born in 1885 and 1886. Together they made their Chelsea home at 16 Tite St. into the 'House Beautiful'.

From 1886 Wilde had been having sexual relationships with men, beginning with Robert Ross, a Cambridge undergraduate who was to remain afaithful friend and ultimately to become his literary executor. In 1891 he met Lord Alfred Douglas, a petulant and beautiful young man sixteen years his junior, who temporarily displaced Ross as his lovers. At the same time, his writing began to deal more explicitly with homosexual themes. Wilde liberationist outlook was further developed in The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891).

Thereafter Wilde concentrated on three matters: the perpetuation of his stage success with A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal husband,and The Importance of Being Earnest (both produced in 1895); a life of self-indulgence in London, Paris, Monte Carlo, and at the English and French resorts, principally in company with Douglas; and a series of melodramatic works of a quasi-religious nature.

In all his writings of the 1890s, Wilde was preoccupied with emotional and psychic themes that seem to reflect childhood anxieties: parents who have lost their children, children who have lost their parents, people who are not what they seem; the inevitability of tragedy; Puritanism, philanthropy and hypocrisy.

In 1895, as Wilde was enjoying the success of The Importance of Being Earnest, he allowed himself to be lured into instigating an action for criminal libel against Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, who had objected strenuously to their relationship and had left a card in the Albemarle Club inscribed 'To Oscar Wilde, posing as a somdomite'. Forced to abandon the prosecution under cross-examination by Edward Carson, Wilde in turn was charged with gross indecency under the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1886), convicted by jury on 25 May 1895, and sentenced to two years' penal servitude with hard labour.

Towards the end of his imprisonment at Reading, Wilde wrote an account of his relationship with Alfred Douglas in the form of a self exculpatory letter addressed to him, and first published by Ross in abridge form as De Profundis (1905). After his release in1897, Wilde immediately left England and, bankrupt and homeless, drifted aimlessly around France and Italy, sometimes with Douglas, sometimes with Ross, using the pseudonym 'Sebastian Melmoth'. Writing nothing other than The Ballad of Reading Gaol, he indulged heavily in drink and sex. Wilde died at the Hôtel d'Alsace in Paris on 30 November 1900, most likely of meningitis, and was buried in the cemetery at Bagneux. Later his body was reinterred at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, under a large monument by Jacob Epstein.

OSCAR WILDE'S AESTHETICS

Ruskin, Pater, Morris, Swinburne and Whistler were Oscar's teachers. From them, he took some aesthetic concepts. Wilde appropriates two attitudes: the moralizing aestheticism and the art for art's sake, although in his time the second attitude is the predominant one with the French symbolists' influence, and also with the Goethe of the feeling of fleetingness of time that makes the artist cling to the moment.

In fiction, Wilde dealt with some characteristics that appeared in every story he wrote: the action will develop in the heart and in the typical areas of the English high society; the characters are prototypes -aristocrats, students, artists, wealthy people- of the social classes to which they belong, more as generic masks than a portrait of the specific person, because “a mask is more eloquent than a face”; formal elements: causality, occurrence, secret and irony. He also uses in his tales some symbolic elements, such as the numbers three and seven (that are said to have biblical symbolism).

Occasionally, the short stories muse got to Wilde at his children's bedside, whom he used to tell beautiful tales before sleeping. In other occasions, he created short stories as an example of his statements or as a sample of his brilliant inventiveness. “Wilde did not talk: he told […]. He told slowly; his own voice was wonderful”.

The writer gathered together in three collections the tales that he had published in several magazines: The Happy Prince and other tales, 1988 (“The Happy Prince”, “The Nightingale and the Rose”, “The Selfish Giant”, “The Devoted Friend” and “The Remarkable Rocket”) ; A House of Pomegranates, 1891 (“The Young King”, “The Birthday of the Infanta”, “The Fisherman and his Soul” and “The Star-Child”); Lord Savile's Crime and other stories, 1891(“Lord Arthur Savile's Crime”, “The Sphinx without a secret”, “The Canterville Ghost” and “The Model Millionaire”).

Now, I am going to deal with two short stories from his first collection The Happy Prince and other tales, “The Nightingale and the Rose” (1888) and “The Devoted Friend” (1888). I will talk about each book separately, and then I will compare them, stressing the similarities and differences I find between the two stories.

“THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE”

·                                 Summary

“The Nightingale and the Rose” is a story in which the first character that appears is a Student. This boy is sad because a girl promised to dance with him on condition that he brought her red roses, but he did not find any red rose; there were white roses and yellow roses, but he could not find red roses. While he was moaning because her love would not dance with him, four characters from nature started to talk about him. A little Green Lizard, a Butterfly and a Daisy asked why he was weeping, and the Nightingale said that he was weeping for a red rose. The first three characters said that weeping for a red rose was ridiculous. The Nightingale, who understood the Student, started to fly until she saw a Rose-tree. She told him to give her a red rose, and she promised, in exchange, to sing her sweetest song, but the Rose-tree told her that his roses were white, and he send the Nightingale to his brother that grew round the old sun-dial. The Nightingale went to see this new Rose-tree, and after promising the same in exchange for a red rose, the Rose-tree told her that his roses were yellow, but he send the Nightingale to his brother, who grew beneath the Student's window, so the Nightingale went there, and when she arrived, she asked the Rose-tree to give her a red rose. The Rose-tree said that his roses were red, but that the winter had chilled his veins and the frost had nipped his buds, so he could not give her a red rose. The Rose-tree gave her a solution: he told her that if she wanted a red rose, she had to build it out of music by moonlight and stain it with her own heart's blood. She had to sing to the Rose-tree with her breast against a thorn; the thorn would pierce her heart and her life-blood would flow into the Rose-tree veins. The Nightingale said that death was a great price to pay for a red rose, but at the end, she accepted. The Nightingale went to see the Student and told him that he would have his red rose, that it was her who was going to build it up with her own blood; the only thing she asked him for in return was to being a true lover. Although the Student looked at her, he could not understand anything because he only understood the things that were written down in books. But the Oak-tree understood and became sad because he was fond of the Nightingale, and asked her to sing the last song and when she finished, the Student thought that the Nightingale had form, but no feeling. At night, the Nightingale went to the Rose-tree and set her breast against the thorn. She sang all night long. She pressed closer and closer against the thorn until the thorn finally touched her heart and she felt a fierce pang of pain. The more the rose got the red colour, the fainter the Nightingale's voice became, and after beating her wings, she died. The rose was finished, but she could not see it. The next morning, the Student saw the wonderful rose under his window. He took it and went to see the girl and offered her the rose, but she just say that the rose would not go with her dress and that the Chamberlain's nephew had sent her real jewels and that everybody knew that jewels cost far more than flowers. After arguing with her, the Student threw the rose into a gutter, where a cart-wheel went into it, and he said that Love was a silly thing and that he preferred Logic and Philosophy.

·                                 Characters

The Student is the first character in the story. He is a boy who dreams of dancing with the girl he loves, but he is worried because he does not have a red rose, that that was what the girl asked for in return of dancing with him. He dedicates his life to books: he likes Philosophy, and he considers books the only useful thing in life. We have an example of this when the Nightingale tells him that he is going to have his rose: “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”.

The three next characters could go together: the little Green Lizard, the Butterfly and the Daisy. They are all personified elements of nature. They think that it is ridiculous to weep for a red rose, and the Green Lizard even laughed outright.

The next character is our protagonist. The Nightingale is all goodness. She thinks that the most important thing in the world is love, and she even gives her life for love.

The three next characters could go together too. The three Rose-trees, although the important one is the one who has the red rose. He tells the Nightingale to die for a red rose.

The last character is the daughter of the Professor, the girl the Student loved. She makes much of material things and she looked down on the rose the Student gave her just because it had less material value than the jewels another boy sent her.

·                                 Time and Space

The action takes place in the room of the Student, when he is reading at the end of the story; in the garden that is near the Student's room's window, where we find the Rose-tree that has the red rose and where the Nightingale knows about the problem the Student has and the last places is the daughter of the Professor's house, where she despises the Student and his rose.

We can easily see in the story that the action develops in some hours. The evening and the night of one day, when the Nightingale listens to the laments of the Student, when he find the Rose-tree that can give her a red rose and when she dies building the red rose for the Student; the other period of time is the next morning, when the Student goes to talk to the girl he loves. In the story we do not see any flashback, we see a liner account.

·                                 Style

The main words in this tale belong to the semantic fields of nature, knowledge and love. We are going to see different examples of this.

We see the semantic field of nature in “… asked a little Green Lizard..”, “… said a Butterfly…”, “…whispered a Daisy”, “He is weeping for a red rose -said the Nightingale”, “She passed through the grove”, “In the centre of the grass-plot was standing a beautiful Rose-tree”, “But the Oak-tree understood”, etc.

The semantic field of knowledge can be seen in “… cried the young Student”, “Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched”, “It is not half as useful as Logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true […] I shall go back to Philosophy and study Metaphysics”.

The Semantic field of love is present in these examples: “Here at last is a true lover”, “Surely Love is a wonderful thing”, “Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?”, “All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty”, “She sang first of the birth of love in the heart of a boy and a girl”.

Apart from these semantic fields, we can find some stylistic resources such as comparison, that is the most resorted stylistic characteristic: “His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his face like pale ivory”, “It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals”, “My roses are white, as white as the foam of the sea, and whiter than the snows upon the mountains”, “My roses are yellow, as yellow as the hair of the mermaiden […] and yellower than the daffodil that blows in the meadow […]”, “And a delicate flush of pink came into the leaves of the rose, like the flush in the face of the bridegroom when he kisses the lips of the bride”.

Another stylistic resource is personification. We can see that the main characters, apart from the Student, are animals or elements from nature, such as a little Green Lizard, a Daisy, a Butterfly, a Nightingale, a Rose-tree and an Oak-tree.

·                                 Other outstanding features

One remarkable thing is that at the end of the tale, when the Student says that the daughter of the Professor is ungrateful, we can see that the really ungrateful one is the Student himself, who look down on the Nightingale's life.

We can see that the most important theme in this tale is beauty, it is everything for the artist who gives her life for it, and the less important thing for her is materialism, represented by the Student and also by the daughter of the Professor. The Nightingale sacrifices her life to create the rose that will give love to the Student.

The bird is very ancient as a symbol in the cultural tradition. The bird is the symbol of immaterial beauty, and the election of a nightingale in this story has a deeper meaning: this is a lonely and shy bird. Our Nightingales is able to die in exchange for eternal love: Love, in our story is represented by the Rose, that is the most perfect flower in the world: “And the marvellous rose became crimson, like the rose of the eastern sky. Crimson was the girdle of petals, and crimson as a ruby was the heart”, “Here is a red rose! I have never seen any rose like it in all my life. It is so beautiful that I am sure it has a long Latin name”.

We can also see in this tale some elements I listed before, such as prototypical characters (the Student), or the number three (the Nightingale goes to three Rose-tree to find the red rose, and the characters that are with the Nightingale while the Student is moaning, are three: the Green Lizard, the Butterfly and the Daisy).

“THE DEVOTED FRIEND”

·                                 Summary

The story starts in a pond, where some little ducks were swimming. Their mother, the Duck, was telling them that they would not be in the best society unless they could stand on their heads, but the little ducks did not pay attention. The Water-rat said that they were very disobedient, and the Duck told him that parents should be patient with children. The Water-rat answered that he had no children, that he wan not even married, he preferred friendship than love. A Green Linnet that was there asked what were the duties of a devoted friend, and started to tell the story of The Devoted Friend.

Hans was a man with a kind heart. He lived in a tiny cottage alone and everyday he worked in his garden. Hans had many friends, but the best one was Hugh the Miller. Hugh always talked about how important is friendship and share everything with one's friends, but he never gave anything to Hans. Hans always worked in his garden, but in winter he felt lonely and lived in bad conditions because of the cold weather, and throughout the winter, Hugh never visited him. Hugh's wife told him that it was better to leave alone the people that were living in bad conditions, because if they went to see him, they would just bother Hans. So, Hugh waited the Spring to go to see Hans, and while he was at it, Hans would give him a large basket of primroses because “it would make him (Hans) so happy”. When Hugh arrived at Hans' house, Hans told him that he would bring all the primroses into the market and sell them to buy a new wheelbarrow, because throughout the winter he had to sell his, because he needed the money to eat. The Miller told Hans that he would give him his wheelbarrow, although it was not in good repair, he was very generous and he would give it to him because he had a new one for himself. Hans said that he could repair the wheelbarrow because he had a plank of wood. When Hugh listened to these words, he asked Hans to give him the plank of wood because he needed it and he told Hans that he should give him that because he was going to give him the wheelbarrow. The Miller also asked Hans to give him some flowers because he deserved them because he was going to give him the wheelbarrow. The next day, The Miller asked Hans to bring a sack of flour for him to the market, and he should do it because he was going to give him his wheelbarrow, but Hans was happy of helping The Miller because he was his friend. The following day, Hugh was to ask Hans to mend his barn-roof for him, and Hans should do it because he was going to give him the wheelbarrow. The next day, Hans drove The Miller's sheep to the mountain because the Miller was going to give him his wheelbarrow. While Hans worked for The Miller, The Miller said beautiful things about friendship. One night, The Millar went to see Hans with a lantern and a big stick because his son has fallen off a ladder and he wanted Hans to go to call the Doctor. It was dark, and Hans asked The Miller to give him the lantern, but The Miller told him that it was new and he did not want that anything happened to it. So Hans went to see the Doctor. The Doctor went in his horse, and little Hans went alone, without seeing because of the darkness, and he fell into a hole and he drowned. In the funeral, The Miller had the best place, because he was his best friend. After the funeral, The Miller said that Hans was a great loss for him because he was going to give him his wheelbarrow, and then, he did not know what to do with it, and that it was in such bad repair that he would not get anything for it if he sold it.

The Water-rat did not understood the story and he did not like that the story had a moral and he said “Pooh” and went back to his hole. The Linnet asked the Duck what she thought about the story, and the Duck said that it is very dangerous to tell a story with a moral. At the end, the author speaks himself and say that he agree with her.

·                                 Characters

We have two stories in this tale, so he have characters form one and from the other story.

The first characters that appear are three animals. The Water-rat, the Duck and the Linnet. We can see here that Oscar Wilde builds up his story with simple, conflicting and symbolic characters. We can see this characters as the representation of different social classes: the Water-rat represents the lower class (aquatic underworld), the Duck represents the middle class (surface) and the Linnet the upper class (air). We see an example of social hierarchy in “You will never be in the best society unless you can stand on your heads”, that is the first sentence the Duck says to her children.

In the second story, that that the Linnet tells, The Devoted Friend itself, has main and secondary characters.

Hans is the main character. A man who really practices friendship. He loves his garden, but his friendship with Hugh the Miller is above all. He has many friends, but when he needs them, they do not help him. The other main character is Hugh the Miller, a man who says a lot of beautiful things about friendship but he does not act as a devoted friend. He says things like “Real friends should have everything in common”, or “I think that generosity is the essence of friendship”.

The secondary characters are the Miller's Wife, the Miller's son, the Doctor and the Blacksmith. The Miller's Wife is always saying that her husband is the best friend in the world and the most generous man. The Miller's son just asks why they don't bring Hans to live with them in the winter, to what his father asks saying that if Hans would see what they have in their house, he might get envious, and envy is the most terrible thing, and that could change people personality, and he would not allow Hans to led to any temptations. The Doctor appears at the end of the second story; he is the one that is going to heal the Miller's son. The last character is the Blacksmith; he is who starts the conversation after Hans funeral, saying that Hans is a great loss.

·                                 Time and Space

The first story takes place in a pond, where the Water-rat, the Duck and the Linnet speak. The action last just some minutes (the time that the Linnet uses in telling the story), but in the middle of this first story, we find the second one.

The second story has different places. The house of Hans, that is described as “…a tiny cottage” with a garden, “In all the country-side there was no garden so lovely”. Another important place in this story is the house of the Miller. We find a description of it made by the owners “… our warm fire, and our good supper, and our great cask of red wine…”. Another important place for the development of the action are the moors where Hans dies. There are also a description of them and the weather: “The night was so black that little Hans could hardly see, and the wind was so strong that he could scarcely stand”, “But the storm grew worse and worse, and the rain fell in torrents, and little Hans could not see where he was going, or keep up with the horse. At last he lost his way, and wandered off on the moor, which was a very dangerous place, as it was full of deep holes”.

The second whole story last some months, because we have to notice that we are said that the winter went by. But the concrete story takes just some days, in spring. We notices this because throughout the story we see temporal marks such as “ The next day”, “Early the next morning” , etc. We have in this tale a linear account marked by these temporal particles, and we do not find any flashback. At the middle of the second story, there is an interruption in which we go back to the first story (that of the animals) because the Water-rat thought that the story was finished.

·                                 Style

The main words in this tale belong to the semantic fields of nature and feelings and values. Now, we are going to see different examples of this.

We see the semantic field of nature in “The little ducks were swimming about in the pool”, “… asked a Green Linnet, who was sitting in a willow-tree”, “Sweet-william grew there, and Gilly-flowers, and Shepherds'-purses, and Fairmaids of France. There were damask Roses, and yellow Roses, lilac Crocuses, and gold, purple Violets and white”.

The semantic field of feelings and values can be seen in “Love is all very well in its way, but friendship is much higher”, “Lots of people act well, but very few people talk well, which shows that talking is much the more difficult thing of the two, and much the finer thing also”, “Well, really, that is generous of you”, “idleness is a great sin, and I certainly don't like any of my friends to be idle or sluggish”, “At present yhou have only the practice of friendship; some day you will have the theory also”.

Apart from these semantic fields, we can find some stylistic resources, such as personification or irony, that is present in the whole story.

Personification can be seen in the story in which the main characters are animals: “But the little ducks paid no attention to her”, “… said the Water-rat, in a very angry manner”.

Irony is present in the whole story, and we find examples of this in “Lots of people acts well, but very few people talk well, which shows that talking is much the more difficult thing of the two, and much the finer thing also”, or when the Miller's Wife says “How well you talk!” we see that it is a stupid comment looking at the Miller's character.

·                                 Other outstanding features

To start with, we must remark that, as we say that the number three is present in Oscar Wilde's stories, the characters of the first story (that of animals) are three, a Water-rat, a Green Linnet and a Duck.

The Devoted Friend has the form of a reversed fable: the facts are staged by human beings, and try to give a lesson to animals. Some literary critics say that Hans could be the alter ego of Oscar Wilde because he sometimes felt exploited by his friends.

This tales has a moral, but Wilde did not want to lecture anyone, and it is clearly stated at the end of the story: ” 'I am rather afraid that I have annoyed him', answered the Linnet. 'The fact is, that I told him a story with a moral' 'Ah, that is always a very dangerous thing to do', said the Duck. And I quite agree with her”

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TWO STORIES

We can set some points in which we find similarities between the two stories. One of these points is what I have described as a typical feature in Oscar Wilde's writings: the number three. As I said before, in both tales the number three is present: in “The Nightingale and the Rose” three are the Rose-trees that our main character visited, and in “The Devoted Friend” three are the animals that appear in the first story.

Another feature that I talked about was the simplicity of the characters, and that in the same story we find conflicting characters. In “The Nightingale and the Rose”, our characters have no name, they are just “the Student”, “the Nightingale”, etc., and these two characters are in complete opposition: the first one represents materialism and the second one represents ethereal beauty. In “The Devoted Friend”, we find simple names for our characters “Hans” and “Hugh the Miller”, and we also find characters with no name, such as “the Duck”, “the Green Linnet” or “the Water-rat”. Here, we have characters in complete opposition too: In the first story we have The Duck and The Linnet, who are against the Rat (the first ones defend love, and the last one defends friendship), and in the second story, Hans and Hugh have different conceptions of friendship, or, at least, they act in a very different way.

Another common thing of the two tales is that, in both of them, there are animals. In “The Nightingale and the Rose” all the characters are animals except the Student and the daughter of the Professor. In “The Devoted Friend”, the first story is made up of animals, only animals, and the second story is made up of human beings, only human beings.

In both stories, feelings are treated: in “The Nightingale and the Rose” the main theme is Love, whereas in “The Devoted Friend” the main theme is Friendship.

And, although apparently, the only story that has a moral is “The Devoted Friend” because the word “moral” appears written down in the paper, we can say that “The Nightingale and the Rose” has a moral too: we should appreciate everything, even the most insignificant thing, not only those thing of which we know their price, because in the smallest thing we can find the bigger one. But each one can have his own interpretation.

PERSONAL OPINON

I chose these two stories due to different reasons. I decided, firstly, to talk about “The Nightingale and the Rose” because when I read it I thought it was a beautiful story, although it was very sad too. I also thought that it was teaching the reader a lesson, so I considered that it was a nice tale to include in my work. Secondly, I decided to add one more tale to my work because I thought it would be interesting to compare two different tales of the same author. I chose “The Devoted Friend” because it had a different structure from “The Nightingale and the Rose”: it was made up of two stories, with different characters. But I also chose it because it had many similarities with “The Nightingale and the Rose”, all the similarities that I tried to explain above. And I also chose “The Devoted Friend” because it was a sad story and had an explicit moral.

I noticed that in the two tales, the good characters die. I think it is curious that in both stories the good characters end badly, and the reason of their death in both cases is having a kind heart and helping the others, and curiously too, these “others” do not appreciate this help. I have read that this disloyalty in “The Devoted Friend” and the sad events in both stories could be a reflection of Oscar Wilde's feelings and life, so, in this case, it is understandable the pessimism of both tales.