Summary of the Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde - OKVIX

Summary of the Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

Summary of the Happy Prince

The Happy Prince is a story written by Oscar Wilde. The story is about a beautifully decorated statue of a prince, who lived a happy life. The Happy Prince gave away all his possessions to the needy with the help of a kind shallow. On this blog, I will discuss the summary of the Happy Prince, which is written by Oscar Wilde.

The story is based on the theme that love and sacrifice are important to human life, and happiness comes to those who makes others happy. The novel also, indicate that one must try to live a life guided by benevolence, joy, sacrifice, and love.

Author background

Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) is a playwright. In the 1890s, he was the most popular playwright after writing in different forms throughout the 1880s. He is also, the author of ‘The picture of Dorian Gray’.

Summary of the Happy Prince

A beautiful statue of the Happy Prince covered with gold had been set up at the tall column high above the city. It had sapphires in his eyes and ruby on his sword-hilt. The happy Prince was always happy when he was alive. He lived in the palace of happiness.

He never knew what tears were all about. That is why he was called the happy Prince. After his demise, his status was built so high that he saw the misery of his city and wept. He wanted to help people, but was helpless. Still, he helped the needed people through a little bird.

One day, the Prince saw a swallow resting between his feet. He told the swallow that there was a poor house far away in the street. A poor was lying there with her little boy sick. So, he had a fewer and was asking for orange. But the poor woman had no money to buy an orange.

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The Prince asked the swallow to pick out the ruby from his sword, and take it to her. The swallow did as it was told and laid the ruby beside the poor woman. It also, fanned the sick boy’s forehead with its wing.

The Prince also, saw a young man writing a play, but it was so cold, and the cold was affecting the poor man making him not to write anymore. The Prince asked the swallow to take the sapphire on his eye, and give to the poor man. The swallow wasn’t happy, and told the king that it did not want him to be blind.

Even though one of the prince’s eye would be blind, he commanded the swallow to do as he said so that the poor man can buy firewood, warm himself, and continue to write his play.

The next day, the king saw a young lady who was sent on an errand to buy matches. But the matches had fallen into the gutter and the girl was crying. She was crying because her father will beat her if she did not come back with the matches.

The Happy Prince saw this and asked the swallow to take the other sapphire on his eyes and give to the girl. This would make the prince to be completely blind. So, the swallow insisted that it won’t take it. But it was forced by the prince and the sapphire was given to the girl. She was happy when she got it.

After given out the sapphire of the other eye to the lady, the prince became completely blind. The swallow had to always stay with him. The Prince asked the swallow to fly around and tell him what it saw. The swallow informed the prince that the poor were living a miserable life.

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Due to the report gotten from the swallow, the prince asked the swallow to take the gold on his body, bit by bit, and share to all the poor one. The swallow had to do so, which made the people to become happy again, and grow in a healthy way.

But since all the gold that covered the prince have been removed, he looked very ugly. Due to the winter, the swallow died of cold, and the prince’s heart broke when the swallow lost its life.

The next morning, the mayor of the city ordered that the status should be removed because it looks ugly. The status was melted, while the broken lead heart didn’t. It was thrown away in a bin where the dead swallow was lying.

According to the story, God sent an angel to the city to bring two most precious things from the city. The angel brought the leaden heart and the dead swallow to God. God was glad because the angel made the right decision. The swallow was taken to the garden, while the happy prince was taken to God’s city of gold, where he praises God forever.

Characters of the Happy Prince

The characters of the happy Prince story are:

  1. The Happy Prince

  2. The swallow

The happy Prince

In the summary of the happy Prince, the happy Prince is a prince who lived a happy life. He has never seen sorrow, or tears, until he died. When he died, his status was mounted high above the city, decorated with gold, and sapphire mounted on two of his eyes.

There, the happy Prince saw a lot of things happening in the city, he could not move because he is a status. So, he asked a swallow (bird) to assist him. Whenever the happy Prince sees someone who needs help, he will ask the swallow to take part of his body and give to the poor.

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The happy Prince continue to do that to help the poor people in the city. These made all the gold on his body to finish, and he became ugly. When the mayor of the city saw that, he asked that the status should be melted. At the end, the happy prince went to heaven.

The swallow

The swallow is a polite bird that has a good heart. He stayed with the prince’s status and serve as his messenger. The swallow was the one delivering to the poor, any gold the prince ask it to give. At the end, the swallow died, and it was taken to the garden in heaven.

Moral lesson

The story is telling us that we should be generous and help the need instead of spending it unnecessarily. Despite the people of the city being hungry, and poor, the rulers of the city ignored them, and they did not care much about them. They only care about themselves and the prince.

When the prince died, they used gold to build his status about the tower of the city. These golds would have been used to help the people in the city. So, when the happy Prince saw what was happening, he wasn’t happy about that. He helped the people living in the city and put smiles on their faces.

This summary of the happy prince encourage us to help those who are poor, to make them happy just like the happy Prince in the story.

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