Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University


 

The Nightingale and the Rose

(1888)

 

Oscar Wilde

(October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900)

 

 

"The Nightingale and the Rose" Notes

This short story was first published in the collection The Happy Prince and Other Tales published in 1888 after Wilde's tour of the US and Canada (1882) and after his marriage to Constance Lloyd (1884), when Wilde was thirty-four years old, his first son Cyril was three and his second son Vyvyan was two.

 

27  holm-oak tree: a large tree with dense leaves, Quercus ilex is a member of the oak family
27  Nightingale:
28  His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom: Note that the hair comparison to the hyacinth flower suggests an allusion to Hyacinthus of Greek mythology, the beautiful youth loved by Apollo, the god of poetry. Do you think the homosocial associations here are also intended?
30  cynic:

 


 

Beauty in America

The next thing particularly noticeable is that everybody seems in a hurry to catch a train. This is a state of things which is not favourable to poetry or romance. Had Romeo or Juliet been in a constant state of anxiety about trains, or had their minds been agitated by the question of return-tickets, Shakespeare could not have given us those lovely balcony scenes which are so full of poetry and pathos.

America is the noisiest country that ever existed. One is waked up in the morning, not by the singing of the nightingale, but by the steam whistle. It is surprising that the sound practical sense of the Americans does not reduce this intolerable noise. All Art depends upon exquisite and delicate sensibility, and such continual turmoil must ultimately be destructive of the musical faculty.

There is not so much beauty to be found in American cities as in Oxford, Cambridge, Salisbury or Winchester, where are lovely relics of a beautiful age; but still there is a good deal of beauty to be seen in them now and then, but only where the American has not attempted to create it. Where the Americans have attempted to produce beauty they have signally failed. A remarkable characteristic of the Americans is the manner in which they have applied science to modern life.


—Oscar Wilde, Impressions of America (1882)


 


     

Study Questions

  • Consider the if clauses that set requirements from each character for the Nightingale. In what ways are the conditions given by the various characters different or similar?
  • The introductory blurb to Wilde in The Happy Prince and Other Stories (London: Puffin, 2003) point out that "Although several of the stories are so famous that they are thought to be traditional tales, this is not so: they were all made up by Oscar Wilde for his sons Vyvyan and Cecil." What characteristics does "The Nightingale and the Rose" have that make it fairy tale-like, and what aspects of it are not typical of traditional fairy tales?
  • Trace descriptions or definitions of love through the story. What do you notice about its meaning in your investigation?
  • Compare the imagery associated with the Nightingale's songs with those that the girl brings up and values more.
  • Why is the book at the end of the story dusty?

 

 



 

Review Sheet

 

Characters

Student – "'She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses,' cried the young Student, 'but in all my garden there is no red rose'" (27)

Nightingale – "'Here at last is a true lover,' said the Nightingale" (28)
Oak-tree –"But the Oak-tree understood, and felt sad, for he was very fond of the little Nightingale who had built her nest in his branches" (34)

Girl – "daughter of the Professor" (39); "'the Chamberlain's nephew has sent me some real jewels, and everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers" (40)



 


Sample Student Responses to Oscar Wilde's "The Nightingale and the Rose"


 

Study Question

 

Response 1:

 

 

 

 

 

Student Name

2202234 Introduction to the Study of English Literature

Acharn Puckpan Tipayamontri

June 21, 2010

Reading Response 1

  

Title

 

Text.

 

 

 

 

 

            

 


 

 


Links

 


Media


  • Oscar, dir. Hugh Thomson, Omnibus, BBC (1997)

  • The Life and Loves of Oscar Wilde, Timewatch (1995)


  • Simply Wilde, Polygram (1997)

  • Wilde, dir. Brian Gilbert, perf. Stephen Fry, Jude Law, Vanessa Redgrave, and Jennifer Ehle (1997 film)

  • "The Nightingale and the Rose," Oscar Wilde's Classic Children's Tales, narr. Ronnie Drew (2013)


  • The Nightingale and the Rose, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (2013 ballet)

  • The Nightingale and the Rose, dir. Del Kathryn Barton and Brendan Fletcher, narr. Mia Wasikowska, Geoffrey Rush, and David Wenham (2015 animation)

 


Oscar Wilde

 



 

Reference

Wilde, Oscar. "The Nightingale and the Rose." The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Illus. Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood. 1888. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1894. 25–42. Print.



Further Reading

Mason, Stuart. Bibliography of Oscar Wilde. London: T. Werner Laurie, 1914. Print.


McCormack, Jerusha. "Telling Tales." The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde. Ed. Peter Raby. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. 102–7. Print.


Wilde, Oscar. De Profundis and Other Writings. Middlesex: Penguin, 1979. Print.


Wilde, Oscar. Essays and Lectures. 3rd ed. London: Methuen, 1911. Print.


Wilde, Oscar. Five Plays. New York: Bantam, 1964. Print.


Wilde, Oscar. Oscar Wilde. Ed. Isobel Murray. Oxford: OUP, 1990. Print.


Wilde, Oscar. Oscar Wilde's Oxford Notebooks: A Portrait of Mind in the Making. Eds. Philip E. Smith II and Michael S. Helfand. New York: OUP, 1989. Print.


Wilde, Oscar. Plays, Prose Writings and Poems. Introd. Terry Eagleton. London: David Campbell, 1991. Print. Everyman's Library 42.


Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. London: Penguin, 1994. Print.



 


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Last updated August 16, 2015