The Nightingale and the Rose

If anyone knew the risks of loving, it was no doubt Oscar Wilde. He served time in prison for his love,
and his time in prison precipitated his death. The Nightingale and the Rose is one of his fairy tales, of which he wrote a collection.

A story about love and sacrifice and the risk that that sacrifice will be undeserved and unappreciated. The only one in this story who understands love is the nightingale. The bird says, "Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?” In this case, the heart of the bird is much purer than the heart of the man. When she sings to him of her coming sacrifice, the student cannot understand her at all, which may well be a metaphor for how little man show more understands of love.

In the end, love, in the form of the rose, is tossed away and the Nightingale has sacrificed herself in vain. She has failed to recognize that the student's love is not real or meaningful, but that does not lessen the fact that her love is both of those things. Her sacrifice is real, even if it is made for an undeserving cause, and it is not diminished by the callous use the rose comes to. Perhaps one of the themes here is that love never diminishes the true lover, even if the object of that feeling is wholly undeserving. show less

One of the most affecting fairy tales I had read, with a writing style that is so unnecessarily beautiful that the imagery in itself has a substantial power to move. I've become obsessed with Oscar Wilde and his views on art and morality and his unconventionality. In a tragic twist, the already melancholic story of a passionate self-sacrifice turns into one that doesn't force a moral upon you, but instead makes you think about the events of the fairy tale over and over and over again.

This I truly admire, the aim is not to deliver a straight-forward message but to provoke-thought and emotion instead.

This is probably a better story if studied thematically. As a casual reader I found it lyrical and, of course, sad. As an old lady I think of romantic love is generally overrated (and short-lived, like in this story). But those hormones certainly keep the human species going.

Recently nightingales have been showing up in my reading. Does it mean something? Probably it only means that I have been reading English stories. ;)

"Here indeed is the true lover," said the Nightingale. "What I sing of, he suffers - what is joy to me, to him is pain. Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the marketplace. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighted out in the balance for gold."

That is my new favorite quote.

I thought that finally, I would get an Oscar Wilde story that wasn't cynical and bitter. I was wrong. But this was still a beautiful story that almost made me cry. The Nightingale is the sweetest, most pure-hearted Oscar Wilde character I have ever read about. I'm mad, but also satisfied by this story. It's realistic, but sad.

Beautiful story about vanity, love and sacrifice. I can see parallels with Wilde's personal life in his writing here.

simply put...beautifully tragic

Lo siento, Mr. Wilde. No eres tú, es mi corazón de mi piedra.