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Literary Analysis Of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince

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“The Happy Prince” was written by Oscar Wilde, who was an Irish writer, poet and playwright (1854-1900).This story is about love and sacrifice. It also talks about the loyalty between the golden statue and the little swallow. The writer personified these two main characters as beings who were both caring and loyal. According to our research, it is a clear allegory and metaphor of the British Social System during The Victorian where the rich were offensively rich in contrast to the poor who starved to death. Furthermore, this essay will cover the summary of the story, literary analysis, thematic analysis and eventual personal comments at the conclusion. There was a statue called “Happy Prince”. One night, a swallow stopped by the feet of the statue who was crying. When the prince was alive, his life was full of joy .However, as a statue he could see so much misery and poverty. The swallow planned to fly to a warmer place but the prince pleaded with him to stay and help. The prince kept helping poor people with the swallow as his messenger until all of his valuables were gone. As the snow came, the swallow could not bear the cold and …show more content…

For all his life, he has known no misery or sorrow only joy and happiness; once he passed away and immortalized as a statue, the people still believes so and view him as an epitome of happiness. On the contrary, from our perspective, the readers, we do not think likewise. The eyes are the window of the soul; all the truth lies within there. When people smile, we mark that as a symbol of happiness. But hiding behind that happy exterior, his eyes were full of tears. The people can only see him as a symbol, where in fact, his smile is only superficial. What lies behind his mask is a lead heart filled with sorrow and misery towards his poor people. The only thing he can do is ask the swallow to help deliver his love and sacrifices to his

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