Life Lessons from ‘The Happy Prince’ by Oscar Wilde.

“The Happy Prince never dreams of crying for anything.” 

The quote sounds ironic when one completely reads the short story, ‘The Happy Prince’ by Oscar Wilde. The short story is a beautiful tale of love, tears and a portrayal of cold reality. The statue of the Happy Prince is erected in the city.

“He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword hilt.” 

Though all conceive the Happy prince to be happy, the Sparrow catches him weeping. When asked why he was weeping, the Happy Prince tells,

“When I was alive and had a human heart, I did not know what tears were, for I lived in the Palace of Sans Souci, where sorrow is not allowed to enter….And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot choose but weep.”

Sometimes, we too, like the Happy Prince, turn a blind eye to people in misery around us. We are intent on satiating our own greed and desires that we don’t hear the wailing cries for help. 

So the Happy Prince asks the Swallow to help him and the people by taking the rubies and sapphires out of him. When the Swallow helps the poor mother and child for the first time, the Swallow says,

“It is curious but I feel quite warm now, although it is so cold”.

Although the night was freezing, the Swallow felt warm because he had done a good deed. Nothing equals the happiness we get from committing a good deed. Share with others and serve for a good cause and so no matter how sad you are, you will be embraced by the warmth of love. 

The Happy Prince gives away his eyes, beauty and luster for the welfare of the people in the town. So the Swallow becomes the Prince’s eyes for he tells what goes on in the town. The Swallow instead of joining his friends in Egypt remains by the Prince and tells him of Egypt. But the Happy Prince tells him to tell what he sees in the town for

“more marvelous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery.”

Misery, as Wilde says, is mysterious as it is sometimes caused by external factors and sometimes by ourselves; we don’t know how long it will last and how bad we will be affected; we don’t know what we will gain and what we will lose. All we can do is cling on to hope as no dark sky rains forever.

The story also brings out the theme of class difference. It shows how the rich are busy making merry in their luxurious houses while the poor and the needy suffer for a morsel. The greediness of the Town Councillors shown in the story proves that nothing had changed in our society since then. 

The story ends with the death of the Swallow and also of the Happy Prince who though a statue had his leaden heart broken into two. Though they both helped people, there was no one to bid them proper farewell. But they were given the best merit – the place in Paradise. We shouldn’t expect honor, fame and laurels in return for our good deeds. For we won’t be awarded by worldly standards but by Heavenly standards. Don’t wait for the Happy Prince to change the society but become that Happy Prince to promote goodness and welfare in the society.

All the quotes are taken from the short story “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde.

Read the short story at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/902/902-h/902-h.htm