The Nightingale and the Rose; Oscar WIlde

• Ãndice
Introducción Pág. 1
Brief account of The Nightingale and the Rose Pág. 2
Oscar Wilde Pág. 3
Brief account of Oscar Wilde Pág. 5
Characters Pág. 6
Time and Space Pág. 7
Semantic features/figures of speech Pág. 8
Style Pág. 9
Conclusión Pág. 10
BibliografÃ-a Pág. 11
1
• Introducción
A continuación veremos un análisis del cuento The nightingale and the rose by Oscar Wilde y sus
respectivos personajes, donde se desenvuelve la historia como el time and space, las figuras semánticas etc
Daremos a conocer la biografÃ-a de Oscar Wilde y la mandera en que él presenta este cuento.
2
• Brief account of The Nightingale and the Rose
The Nightingale and the Rose was published in 1888. In the story, a student fell in love with a professor's
daughter who wouldn't want to dance with him in the prince's ball, unless he can find a red rose for her to
wear.
Because of cold weather, it is hard for the student to find a red rose for the girl, the need of a red rose made
his life wretched. When the nightingale heard of his sorrow, he was moved by the girl's passion and true love.
The bird decided to sacrifice himself just for exchanging a red rose. Tragically, the red rose ended up under
the wheel of a cart, because the professor's daughter really wanted was ascendancy and wealth.
3
• Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on 16 October 1854, in Dublin, Ireland, the second of three
1
children born to writer Jane Francesca Agnes née Elgee (1821−1896) and surgeon Sir William Robert
Wills Wilde (1815−1876). Wilde's mother was a prominent poet and nationalist; his father a successful ear
and eye surgeon and noted philanthropist, knighted in 1864.
Oscar had an older brother named William and a younger sister, Isola. After his initial years of schooling at
home, in 1871 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, then went on to study the classics at Magdalen College,
Oxford, England from 1874−1878. It was here that he came under the influence of writer and critic Walter
Pater (1839−1894) and helped found the Aesthetic Movement, "art for art's sake". Wilde excelled in his
studies, winning many prizes and awards including Oxford's Newdigate Prize for his poem "Ravenna" (1878).
After school Wilde settled in London and continued to write poetry; his first collection simply
titled Poems was published in 1881. That same year he set off on a long tour of America and Canada to
deliver lectures on aestheticism. He arrived back in Europe in 1883 and while not further lecturing lived in
Paris, France.
In 1884 Wilde married Constance Mary Lloyd (1858−1898) with whom he would have two sons; Cyril
(1885−1915), who was killed during World War I, and Vyvyan (1886−1976), who would become an author,
penning his memoir Son of Oscar Wilde (1954) and publishing Oscar Wilde: A Pictorial Biography in
1960. The Wildes settled in Chelsea, London where Oscar continued to write and work for such magazines as
the Pall Mall Gazette and became editor of Woman's World in 1887.
In 1891 Wilde met English poet Lord Alfred Douglas "Bosie" (1870−1945), son of John Douglas, 9th
Marquess of Queensberry (1844−1900).
It was the beginning of a tumultuous relationship that would cause many problems for Oscar and eventually
lead to his downfall. Alfred had a tempestuous relationship with his father which did not help matters. He
disapproved of his son's lifestyle and when he learned of his openly living with Wilde, he set out to defame
Wilde. For the opening performance of The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895 at St. James's Theatre in
London the Marquess planned to publicly expose and humiliate Wilde.
4
Oscar took legal steps to protect himself against the 'brute' but he ultimately won a case whereby Wilde was
charged with "gross indecency" for homosexual acts. The outcome of the sensational trial was a sentence of
two years hard labour which Wilde served most of at the Reading Gaol outside of London. After Wilde was
imprisoned Constance had her and her sons' last names changed to Holland. Now prisoner C. 3.3, Wilde
turned to his pen and wrote many essays, poems, and letters including one to Alfred, "De Profundis" (a
heavily edited version was first published in 1905; the complete version in 1962). After his release from
prison in May of 1897, Wilde wrote "Ballad of Reading Gaol" (1898) about the injustice of the death penalty
and the hanging of Charles Thomas Wooldridge;
Adopting the name Sebastian Melmoth, Wilde went to Paris, penniless, and is said to have reunited with his
friend and lover of many years, Canadian journalist Robert Baldwin "Robbie" Ross (1869−1918), who was
also executor of Wilde's estate. He took up residence in the Hôtel d'Alsace on rue des Beaux−Arts. On his
deathbed, Ross by his side, Wilde was baptised into the Roman Catholic Church and received Extreme
Unction. Oscar Wilde died of meningitis on 30 November 1900. He now rests in Père Lachaise cemetery in
Paris; Ross' ashes were added to the angel−adorned tomb in 1950.
5
• Brief account of Oscar Wilde
2
Oscar Wilde, known for his acerbic and urbane nonfiction, was also a master of fairy tale. While some of his
inimitable irony remains, Wilde created lovely tales filled with princes and nightingales mermaids, giants, and
kings. In fact, all of his fairy tales are written in an erudite, aesthetic voice.
As one of the representatives of Aestheticism, his fairy tales are studied as a model of Aestheticism in terms
of style. Wilde showed the particular appeal of language to the readers and made the literature，the art of
language more charming.
His fairy tales is characteristic of making use of rhetoric means and ironic humor to convey its theme, such as
love or art and the spirit of self−sacrifice as in The Nightingale and the Rose.
6
• Characters
• The Student: is the first character in the story. He is a boy who dreams of dancing with the girl he
loves, but he is worried because he does not have a red rose, that that was what the girl asked for in
return of dancing with him.
• The three next characters could go together: the little Green Lizard, the Butterfly and the Daisy. They
are all personified elements of nature. They think that it is ridiculous to weep for a red rose, and the
Green Lizard even laughed outright.
• The next character is our protagonist. The Nightingale is all goodness. She thinks that the most
important thing in the world is love, and she even gives her life for love.
• The last character is the daughter of the Professor, the girl the Student loved. She makes much of
material things and she looked down on the rose the Student gave her just because it had less material
value than the jewels another boy sent her
7
• Time and Space
The action takes place in the room of the Student, when he is reading at the end of
the story; in the garden that is near the Student's room's window, where we find the Rose−tree that has the red
rose and where the Nightingale knows about the problem the Student has and the last places is the daughter of
the Professor's house, where she despises the Student and his rose.
8
• Semantic features/figures of speech
In the tale, Oscar Wilde uses many figures of speech to accomplish the semantic expressions. Personification
is a typical rhetorical device in fairy tales. In the fairy tale, the Nightingale just symbolizes Oscar Wilde
himself, and the Rose stands for the true love and the true art. Furthermore, this tale also applied
simile，metaphor，and antithesis，which make the language diversified and beautiful.
9
• Style
3
The main words in this tale belong to the semantic fields of nature, knowledge and love. We are going to see
different examples of this.
The Semantic field of love is present in these examples:Â Here at last is a true lover, Surely Love is a
wonderful thing, Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?
Apart from these semantic fields, we can find some stylistic resources such as comparison, that is the most
resorted stylistic characteristic:Â His hair is dark as the hyacinth−blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of
his desire; but passion has made his face like pale ivory.
Another stylistic resource is personification. We can see that the main characters, apart from the Student, are
animals or elements from nature, such as a little Green Lizard, a Daisy, a Butterfly, a Nightingale, a Rose−tree
and an Oak−tree.
10
• Conclusión
The style of the language that Oscar Wilde applied is tactful in The Nightingale and the Rose. Oscar Wilde
has set a brilliant example of achieving the delicate harmony between the language and his own artistic view.
For Oscar Wilde，the purest art is worthy of his life and is the highest in society. This paper mainly adopts
the pattern for stylistic analysis in Xu Youzhi's book English Stylistics, to illustrate this tale which may give
readers a new angle to know better about Oscar Wilde's fairy tale.
11
• Bibliography
http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/wilde/330/ Oscar Wilde − The nightingale and the rose
http://sfs.scnu.edu.cn/tblogs/zhanghh/attachments/month_0905/m2009512184134.doc
The nightingale and the rose analysis
INACAP LA SERENA
TRADUCCIÓN INGLÉS ESPAÑOL NEGOCIOS INTERNACIONALES
4
Reading Skills Development
5