Bài luận văn phân tích tác phẩm Analyze Happy Prince By Oscar Wilde

Đây là bài luận văn bằng tiếng Anh phân tích chi tiết những câu nói của các nhân vật, những tình tiết của câu chuyện và từng giai đoạn và cách hành xử của các nhân vật thông qua lời văn của tác giả. Bài luận văn này sẽ tổng hợp miêu tả đầy đủ và chi tiết từ những thông tin tìm hiểu được trên mạng và những bài phân tích khác của các cá nhân khác.

HAPPY PRINCE - LECTURE

“High above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince 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.”

Right at the beginning of the story, Oscar Wilde describes the beauty of his piece of art, the statue, and this is not a normal statue This is the statue of

a lucky man in the community, the prince He is called the happy prince because when he was alive, he lived a very happy life, and he believed that

he had a happy life too He appears in the story as a statue of best stones, and gold, and diamond, and many valuable things that are to show the value and the respect of the prince

“He was very much admired indeed “He is as beautiful as a weathercock,” remarked one of the Town Councillors who wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes;

The Town Councillors remarked on the beauty of the statue, or the prince, not because they really admired the beauty of the statue, but they wanted fame, or they wanted to gain reputation Being recognized and famous is the real motivation for their comments They did not really admire the beauty of art, they just wanted to be known, to gain a reputation for

having artistic tastes, so they remarked “He is as beautiful as a weathercock,” but while they remarked, you can see that they understood

nothing about that That is because usually we do not compare the beauty of something with the weathercock

“Only not quite so useful,” he added, fearing lest people should think him unpractical, which he really was not”

This line is to show that he thinks that people may not know that how

practical he is, so he continues his comment by adding one more thing “only not quite so useful” By these words you can see how stupid he is He can’t

distinguish the true value of art and the usage, the fashion of this piece of art There are so many of art that are beautiful but they don’t need to be useful because they are pieces of art Art itself has its value to be beautiful,

we don’t care much about its fashion

“Why can’t you be like the Happy Prince?” asked a sensible mother of her little boy who was crying for the moon “The Happy Prince never dreams

of crying for anything.”

The writer introduces one little boy, and that is crying for the moon Have you ever cried for the moon in your life? Maybe you will say no because we are grown up, we are practically not babies anymore That is

why we never cry for the moon, but the children could do so because they are children; they are interested in crying for curious things in life, so they’re crying for the thing that they cannot have In addition, children are very imaginative, creative, and craving, so they eagerly want to have something they are expect This little boy wants to have the moon, and the reason is that because he is not very fine now, he is sick He is crying asking for thing

in a way of children who are getting sick When he says: “all I want is to have that moon” for example and his mom is not very happy because of that

“I am glad there is someone in the world who is quite happy,” muttered a disappointed man as he gazed at the wonderful statue.

It means that this disappointed man doesn’t mean that there is one British in the world who is quite happy because he is a disappointed man You know that he is not an optimistic British, so he doesn’t think that there

is a happy one in the world We are not pessimistic, but we have to accept,

or admit that living is suffering In fact there is no one is quite happy in the world We could be happier than other people but we are not the happiest, and no one is quite happy in life Sometimes we are sad; sometimes we are happy That’s why the man is a very disappointed but also experienced one

He is right to think that no one in the world is quite happy, and it is the truth

““He looks just like an angel,” said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral in their bright scarlet cloaks and their clean white pinafores.”

You can see that, these charity children are innocent, and they simply think that the statue, the prince is so beautiful They compare the beauty of the prince to the beauty of an angel It means that he is beautiful and holy

“How do you know?” said the Mathematical Master, “you have never seen one.”

“Ah! But we have, in our dreams,” answered the children; and the Mathematical Master frowned and looked very severe, for he did not approve of children’s dreaming.

This detail reflects the bad side of educational system There is a white teacher, a Mathematical Master, and that person is not happy seeing children dream about the amazing thing in their imagination This Mathematical Master doesn’t support the children’s imagination, dream, and creativity He doesn’t believe in a ….town with angels, princes and princess

He is a Mathematical Master, so he is so practical in this view point That is

to say he doesn’t have time for imaging, and he doesn’t support any kids’

imagination Because of this view point, or this narrow view point, he educates the next generation to become practical people like him They will

be as practical as he is when they grow up They don’t believe in angels They will be selfish; they will be self-centered They think about their own benefits They are kind of living in their own world that they don’t share They don’t care about the others They don’t have time for something like dream These children are not allowed to dream, to believe in their dreams and to try their best to make their dreams come true They will grow up to terrible ones, and they will create a world in which there is no space for better things if they don’t know how to dream and how to make the world to

be a better place to live in If they dream, they will want to change the world, they will want to make things that make lives more beautiful If they don’t dream, they don’t believe in the goodness of mankind, they don’t try their best to change the world, so they should fall in to the selfish, the sadness of their lives Thus, the wrong way of education from this Mathematical Master reflects the way that the society, the town councilors and many other governors view at their educational system and will educate the next generations

“One night there flew over the city a little Swallow His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind, for he was

in love with the most beautiful Reed He had met her early in the spring as

he was flying down the river after a big yellow moth, and had been so attracted by her slender waist that he had stopped to talk to her.”

This swallow is childish He is in love with the reed, and this is because she has a slender waist He is attracted by her physical appearance He is like a lot of men in this world who are attracted by girls

“Shall I love you?” said the Swallow, who liked to come to the point at once, and the Reed made him a low bow

In fact, the Reed doesn’t say anything because there is love between them She can understand that because she is a kind of reed, a plant that lives, curls into the river bank Thus, when the wind blows, her whole body will be

up and down, up and down that makes she look like she is making a bow If fact, she doesn’t say yes or “I shall be your lover”, so the Swallow seems to

be unexperienced in love, in life Thus he thinks that the reed agree to be his lover

So he flew round and round her, touching the water with his wings, and making silver ripples This was his courtship, and it lasted all through the summer.

His courtship lasts so shortly; it is just in a summer When the summer is gone, what happen?

“It is a ridiculous attachment,” twittered the other Swallows;

The other Swallows who observe the relationship, the courtship of the

Swallow and the Reed say it is a stupid attachment Why? Because she is a reed, she has no money, and far too many relations.

Thus, the way the other swallows feel about love shows how practical, how selfish people are They don’t love someone because that person is poor,

“she has no money” Even this person is not too poor, they still take the relationships of this person into consideration This reed has a lot of relations, and having a lot of relations means she is not a good girl, she is a kind of flirting girl or maybe she has a lot of brothers, sisters or relatives to take care She is poor and has a lot of people who depend on her usually, so she is not a good girl to choose, to love, and to marry We can see that they are too cold and practical in life This reflects the whole society It is just the courtship of the Swallow and the Reed, but it tells a lot of things about the people in the town, and about the people in general

“and indeed the river was quite full of Reeds.”

A lot of reeds are living close together because they are reeds They cannot live alone and grow in bushes This is to show that this girl has a lot of neighbors that need her to take care of

“Then, when the autumn came they all flew away After they had gone

he felt lonely, and began to tire of his lady-love “She has no conversation,”

he said, “and I am afraid that she is a coquette, for she is always flirting with the wind.”

When the Swallow no longer loves the reed, he tries to find an excuse to say goodbye to her This is what men do to women When they don’t love their ladies anymore, they try to say something that they used to spend a lot of time when they were still in love When they were not in love anymore, they could find a lot of things unbearable One of the reasons why the Swallow doesn’t want to have a love affair with the reed is she is not a girl of good manners She flirts with the wind In fact, she is not flirting with the wind She is a woman, so she has to up and down, up and down with the wind all the time In fact, the first time, the swallow met the reed, she was flirting with the wind However, at that time he was head over heels in love, so he thought that she agreed to be his lover When time goes by, he is tired of her and gets bored of her Thus, he said to himself she was not a girl of my style because she was a flirting girl What else? She was so tired She didn’t communicate and know how to share with him

“I admit that she is domestic,” he continued, “but I love travelling, and my wife, consequently, should love travelling also.”

How can reeds travel to somewhere without wings? Swallows have wings, so they can fly from this place to another place, but for the Reeds, they don’t have wings, how can they fly? If the Swallow understands the love, he has

to learn to adjust himself or he has to accept her as she is He makes a good excuse to say goodbye to her

'Will you come away with me?' he said finally to her; but the Reed shook her head, she was so attached to her home.

'You have been trifling with me,' he cried, 'I am off to the Pyramids Good-bye!' and he flew away.

All day long he flew, and at night-time he arrived at the city 'Where shall I put up?' he said 'I hope the town has made preparations.'

Then he saw the statue on the tall column 'I will put up there,' he cried; 'it

is a fine position with plenty of fresh air.' So he alighted just between the feet of the Happy Prince.

'I have a golden bedroom,' he said softly to himself as he looked round, and he prepared to go to sleep; but just as he was putting his head under his wing, a large drop of water fell on him.'What a curious thing!' he cried, 'there is not a single cloud in the sky, the stars are quite clear and bright, and yet it is raining The climate in the north of Europe is really dreadful The Reed used to like the rain, but that was merely her selfishness.'

Then another drop fell.

'What is the use of a statue if it cannot keep the rain off?' he said; 'I must look for a good chimney-pot,' and he determined to fly away.

The raindrops are not the raindrops at all; they are tear drops

But before he had opened his wings, a third drop fell, and he looked

up, and saw - Ah! what did he see?

The eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears

The prince is crying, so his eyes are filled with tears He sat down a lot of teardrops

and tears were running down his golden cheeks His face was so beautiful in the moonlight that the little Swallow was filled with pity.

'Who are you?' he said.

'I am the Happy Prince.'

'Why are you weeping then?' asked the Swallow; 'you have quite drenched me.'

'Who are you?

'I am the Happy Prince.’ answered surprisingly

The happy prince is crying If he is the happy prince, he shouldn’t cry He should smile instead The fact that this happy prince is crying shows he is not happy

'When I was alive and had a human heart,' answered the statue, 'I did not know what tears were, for I lived in the Palace of Sans-Souci where sorrow

is not allowed to enter

This is the line reflecting the theme of the story The prince says when he was alive and he had a human heart, and he did not know what tears were

It means that when he was alive, when he was a human being, he were happy, he did not cry at all He lived a very happy life, and tears meant nothing to him The reason is because he lived in a place of Sans-Souci where sorrow is not allowed to enter It is a lie because we know that there

is no place in the world where sorrow is not allowed to enter If sorrow is to enter a place it just enters You cannot prevent it You cannot say “hey, stop, you are not allowed to enter, so go away” When sorrow comes, it comes Thus, in this palace of Sans Souci, sorrow was not allowed to enter

or the prince himself did not realize that them Sorrow existed every where outside the palace, from the streets to the dark corners of the town Only his place, the palace of Sans-Souci, sorrow was not allowed to enter because this was a place for the rich, for the families of royalty

In the daytime I played with my companions in the garden, and in the evening I led the dance in the Great Hall

So you can see that his life was full of activities, fun, garden parties, and dance, music

Round the garden ran a very lofty wall, but I never cared to ask what lay beyond it

If he did care to ask what lay beyond that lofty wall, he could know a place

at least where sorrow entered However he looked at the wall and he didn’t care to see the life beyond the wall or what out of that

everything about me was so beautiful

Everything about his life was so beautiful It’s so great that he doesn’t know about sorrow When he died, he doesn’t have a human heart anymore, he experiences the suffering of sorrow That’s why he is not happy, and he knows that the palace of Sans-Souci is not an ideal place to enjoy happiness

My courtiers called me the Happy Prince, and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness

We know that pleasure is not happiness, so the if clause here “if pleasure be

happiness” helps the readers see that the prince is not happy indeed

So I lived, and so I died

The prince lived his life in an unmeaningful way It was just a bare existence, it was not alive to him So he lived and so he died, it is just like many people They were born, they grew up, they got old and finally they died They did not do anything special to ccontribute to their community they did not really realise the significance of their life; they were not well aware of their existence They could not answer why they were there Can you answer the question “why are you here in this world?”, “what for?” Maybe the answers will be to go to school, to get a good job, to earn money

to support family If you cannot answer the question, you should figure it out Is it a life worth living or just a life wasted? Thus, you can see this story teaches us the lesson of meaning of living here, in this world The prince used to have a happy life, but when he has become a dead statue, he realised that he did not live a happy life Happiness is not pleasure This is the feeling deep inside You cannot fake it or pretend to be happy You can cheat everyone but yourself You are so sad but you can wear a happy face with a happy smile to fault people, but you cannot lie to yourself That’s why the prince has to admit that he was not happy even he used to think that he was so happy

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.'

It means that now, when the happy prince is a dead statue, he is put at a very high position He can see everything, and he knows that life is not like what he used to think of His life and his people’s lives are quite opposite 'What, is he not solid gold?' said the Swallow to himself He was too polite

to make any personal remarks out loud

The Swallow is not thoughtful enough to think about philosophy He just simply pays attention to the fact that the prince has a leaden heart He is not a golden one He is not made up of diamond or any precious stones It is just lead The Swallow surprisedly said:'What, is he not solid gold?' His outside from his head to his feet, from the top to the toe, is made of gold, but deep inside the most important part of his body, the heart, is not gold It

is a cheap metal This is something surprising The Swallow is polite That’s why he doesbn’t ask the question, he keeps it to himself instead

'Far away,' continued the statue in a low musical voice,'far away in a little street there is a poor house One of the windows is open, and through it I can see a woman seated at a table Her face is thin and worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she is a seamstress

So the prince is taliking about a poor case of a mother and her sick boy This hard working mother is trying to finish her work embroidering flowers on a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen's maids-of-honour to wear at the next Court-ball She works very hard She’s tired then, she is kind of asleep for a while her son is crying

In a bed in the corner of the room her little boy is lying ill He has a fever, and is asking for oranges

This little boy is so thirsty and he wants to drink something He is crying for the food but his mom is too poor to give him anything but river water This detail is moving River water, a kind of free thing, is what the mother doesn’t need to buy It means that she is extremely poor If you were a mother, would you feel painful or sorry for not having money to buy your kids some oranges? Would you be happy enough to finish your work? Of course not That is why she cannot finish embroidering passion flowers for the Queen’s maid

Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, will you not bring her the ruby out of my sword-hilt? My feet are fastened to this pedestal and I cannot move.'

'I am waited for in Egypt,' said the Swallow 'My friends are flying up and down the Nile, and talking to the large lotus flowers Soon they will go to sleep in the tomb of the great King The King is there himself in his painted coffin He is wrapped in yellow linen, and embalmed with spices Round his neck is a chain of pale green jade, and his hands are like withered leaves.'

'Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,' said the Prince,'will you not stay with me

for one night, and be my messenger? The boy is so thirsty, and the mother

so sad.

What do you think about the prince? He does not command the swallow, but

he asks the swallow in the way of asking the swallow for doing his a favor

By calling 'Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow’ the prince shows that how tender he is, how kind he is, and he shows his respect to the Swallow He is not commanding him, but he is asking for help He is begging the swallow to

do him a favor “Will you not stay with me for one night” it is not agressive but affective.He says “please stay with me, help me because i cannot move, but you can You have wings, you can fly to them and give the things that i have to them so that they can buy some oranges The boy can get over soon, and the mother can finish what she is doing”

'I don't think I like boys,' answered the Swallow 'Last summer, when I was staying on the river, there were two rude boys, the miller's sons, who were always throwing stones at me They never hit me, of course; we swallows fly far too well for that, and besides, I come of a family famous for its agility; but still, it was a mark of disrespect.'

But the Happy Prince looked so sad that the little Swallow was sorry

So you can see that the prince doesn’t use his power to ask the Swallow to

do things He uses his honesty, his sincerity And by looking into the prince’s face and eyes, the Swallow feels sorry for him He can see that the prince really wants to help people, and he is quite sincere and honest in his hope That is why the Swallow decides stay with him for one night

'It is very cold here,' he said 'but I will stay with you for one night, and be your messenger.'

'Thank you, little Swallow,' said the Prince

So the Swallow picked out the great ruby from the Prince's sword, and flew away with it in his beak over the roofs of the town.

He passed by the cathedral tower, where the white marble angels were

sculptured He passed by the palace and heard the sound of dancing A beautiful girl came out on the balcony with her lover 'How wonderful the stars are,' he said to her,'and how wonderful is the power of love!'

On the balcony, there is a couple, and the man is so romantic and so happy with the power of their love He is looking up into the sky and says ‘how wonderful the stars are’ If you are in love, you look up the sky, the stars at night will be very beautiful to you If you look up the sky and you just see a dark sky, you are so sad with your life He says to her “how wonderful is the power of love!” If you were the girl, how would you react? You and your lover are on a balcony Your lover looks up at the sky and says “how wonderful the stars are’ and looks into your eyes and says how wonderful is the power of love” How would you answer? Yes, honey or something like our love is so great, so beautiful

But that little girl says: 'I hope my dress will be ready in time for the

State-ball,' she answered; 'I have ordered passion-flowers to be embroidered on it; but the seamstresses are so lazy.'

This means that they are not speaking the same language The boy is speaking the language of love while the girl is speaking of her beauty and her fashion, her selfishness She is saying people are lazy They are not a good couple They are speaking their own languages, so there is no understanding, no sharing between them Unluckily, there are a lot of boys

and girls who are speaking different languages, but they still think that they are lovers That is the reason why when they get married, they may divorce soon Thus, you should be very careful in love, listen to every word that your lover says and carefully check whether you and your lover are speaking the same language If you are thinking about the kindness of people, and your lover thinks much about money, you should think of break-up This is because the two of you speak different languages, you cannot understand each other It is not communication If there is no communication, there is good relation, and soon it will be broken Thus, this story teaches us another lesson about love

He passed over the river, and saw the lanterns hanging to the masts of the

ships He passed over the Ghetto, and saw the old Jews bargaining with each other, and weighing out money in copper scales At last he came to the poor house and looked in The boy was tossing feverishly on his bed, and the mother had fallen asleep, she was so tired In he hopped, and laid the great ruby on the table beside the woman's thimble Then he flew gently round the bed, fanning the boy's forehead with his wings 'How cool I feel,' said the boy, 'I must be getting better;' and he sank into a delicious slumber.

Then the Swallow flew back to the Happy Prince, and told him what he had done 'It is curious,' he remarked, 'but I feel quite warm now, although

it is so cold.'

The Swallow is surprised He feels warm although it is cold, and he doesn’t know why The prince knows why, and he answers:

'That is because you have done a good action,' said the Prince And the

little Swallow began to think, and then he fell asleep Thinking always made him sleepy.

The reason why the swallow is warm should be because he had done a good thing When you have done a good thing you feel warm in your heart

When day broke he flew down to the river and had a bath

'What a remarkable phenomenon,' said the Professor of Omithology”

The Professor of Omithology is a professor who studies birds

as he was passing over the bridge 'A swallow in winter!' And he wrote a long letter about it to the local newspaper Every one quoted it, it was full of

so many words that they could not understand.

This detail reflects the stupidity of those who are proud of their certificate, their education There is a professor studying birds He goes out in the