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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 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 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 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 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 Goodbye!' 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 SansSouci, 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 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 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 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 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 Stateball,' 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 street and sees a Swallow in winter Then he writes a very long article to the newspaper agent for a publishment If you were a professor and you saw a swallow in winter, would you a serious reseach in this or would you write a long article to be published for a very common phenomenon, a Swallow in winter That’s not very special Of course, Swallows fly away when the winter comes But if there is one swallow left, it is something quite understandable It is not so strange, so amazing, so difficult to understand that you have to write an article Howerver, this professor, he has to write a long article and wants it to be published In his article, there are so many words that people cannot understand he sends it to a local newspaper Because of his name, his title, “professor A, B,C”, this article is published It is not because the article is useful or the professor discovers something new, something worth knowing, but because he is a professor People publish this article, and everyone quotes it, but no one understands If they don’t understand, why they quote those words? because they want to show off, they want to prove that “hey, people cannot know that i don’t understand”, they have to quote it to fault the others When i quote it, i make the people believe that i understand the article All the peole in the city quote his article, but none of them understands This shows how stupid, how ironic in the scholar, the professor, the well educated people are This also reflects dark side of the education system in which professors are not introduced Whenever they a research, it turns out to be nonsense, and people kind of quote the research to show how good they are However, in fact they are not good at all “To-night I go to Egypt,” said the Swallow, and he was in high spirits at the prospect He visited all the public monuments, and sat a long time on top of the church steeple Wherever he went the Sparrows chirruped, and said to each other, “What a distinguished stranger!” so he enjoyed himself very much So you can see that he just was a little child who loves being recognised and admired When the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince “Have you any commissions for Egypt?” he cried; “I am just starting.” “Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “will you not stay with me one night longer?” “I am waited for in Egypt,” answered the Swallow “To-morrow my friends will fly up to the Second Cataract The river-horse couches there among the bulrushes, and on a great granite throne sits the God Memnon All night long he watches the stars, and when the morning star shines he utters one cry of joy, and then he is silent At noon the yellow lions come down to the water’s edge to drink They have eyes like green beryls, and their roar is louder than the roar of the cataract He is telling abot an amazing destination, Egypt, where everything is like words in a fairy tale, but the prince is not interested in listening to his story because to him the suffering of his people is much more considerable and he worries about his people He doesn’t care how amazing life is in Egypt So he says: “Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “far away across the city I see a young man in a garret He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of withered violets His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any more There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint “I will wait with you one night longer,” said the Swallow, who really had a good heart “Shall I take him another ruby?” This time the Swallow doesn’t need the prince to say “Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, will you not stay with me one night longer” This time the Swallow volunteers to stay, so you can see that the Swallow is changing In the beginning, he doesn’t care about life of poor people After helping the mother and the sick boy and getting along with the good act, he becomes kind of better This time he volunteers to help the prince Now the Swallow has a good heart, and he does think about the others “Alas! I have no ruby now,” said the Prince; “my eyes are all that I have left They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of India a thousand years ago Pluck out one of them and take it to him He will sell it to the jeweller, and buy food and firewood, and finish his play.” “Dear Prince,” said the Swallow, “I cannot that”; and he began to weep The reason why is that the swallow doesn’t want to pluck out the eyes of the prince Plucking one of eye, the prince has one eye to see, but if he plucks two eyes, the prince becomes a blind one, an he cannot see anything You know that being blind means you die You cannot see how beautiful the world is, you cannot see the faces of your friends You live in darkness, so it’s not a life “Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “do as I command you.” This is the first time the prince has said “do as i command you”, but it is not a command at all The prince uses the strong words to show how determined to be blind to have enough things to have people This is very kind of him So the Swallow plucked out the Prince’s eye, and flew away to the student’s garret It was easy enough to get in, as there was a hole in the roof Through this he darted, and came into the room The young man had his head buried in his hands, so he did not hear the flutter of the bird’s wings, and when he looked up he found the beautiful sapphire lying on the withered violets “I am beginning to be appreciated,” he cried; “this is from some great admirer Now I can finish my play,” and he looked quite happy What you think about this young playwright He has’t finished any play yet He is still writing it, still making it, but when he wakes up and then he sees the sapphire, he says: “I am beginning to be appreciated,” If you were him, what would you say first? You are so cold and hungry; you are so poor and tired You cannot finish your play and then you sleep for a while Then you open your eyes and see that there is a precious stone You can sell it to have money for your food, for your fire, and for your warm clothes Moreover, you can fulfill your dream, what would you say? He says “I am beginning to be appreciated” how can he know he is appreciated? He hasn’t finished any play yet, he still writes it He doesn’t say that “who took this here or who gave it to me”, he just says “I’m beginning to be appreciated” It means that he is overconfident He believes that he is good enough to have admirers, and one of his admirers gives him this thing You can see that he is not very thankful, very greatful to the one who has helped him If you finish the story, you can see that none of the help recievers shows the gratitude to the helper This is because they believe that they deserve to be help as they are good enough They don’t think that they are helped because the helpers are kind, but they think they are helped because they are good Thus, they don’t care about doing something to show their respect, their gratitude to their helpers as a thank you message The next day the Swallow flew down to the harbour He sat on the mast of a large vessel and watched the sailors hauling big chests out of the hold with ropes “Heave a-hoy!” they shouted as each chest came up “I am going to Egypt”! cried the Swallow, but nobody minded, and when the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince “I am come to bid you good-bye,” he cried “Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “will you not stay with me one night longer?” “It is winter,” answered the Swallow, “and the chill snow will soon be here In Egypt the sun is warm on the green palm-trees, and the crocodiles lie in the mud and look lazily about them My companions are building a nest in the Temple of Baalbec, and the pink and white doves are watching them, and cooing to each other Dear Prince, I must leave you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away The ruby shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as the great sea.” He is talking about Egypt and the prince says “In the square below,” said the Happy Prince, “there stands a little matchgirl She has let her matches fall in the gutter, and they are all spoiled Her father will beat her if she does not bring home some money, and she is crying She has no shoes or stockings, and her little head is bare Pluck out my other eye, and give it to her, and her father will not beat her.” “I will stay with you one night longer,” said the Swallow, “but I cannot pluck out your eye You would be quite blind then.” “Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “do as I command you.” And this time, the prince will be blind because two eyes are plucked So he plucked out the Prince’s other eye, and darted down with it He swooped past the match-girl, and slipped the jewel into the palm of her hand “What a lovely bit of glass,” cried the little girl; and she ran home, laughing The girl doesn’t say thank you for helping me or why you give it to me, but she says what a lovely bit of glass Children are carefree; they are thoughtless, so they don’t show their gratitude to the bird and the prince, but the grown-up, the seamstress, the playwright, they don’t say thank you to the little bird and the prince They live in the society in which people not really say thanks to someone by whom they are helped The rich people is selfish living in a place where sorrow is not allowed to enter, and they enjoy their luxirious lives with a lot of beautiful things, with their material things The poor people are suffering from the poverty, when they are helped they don’t care about the helpers Both the rich and the poor in the society, they are selfish thinking of themselves and their own benefits Then the Swallow came back to the Prince “You are blind now,” he said, “so I will stay with you always.” The Swallow wants to fly to Egypt because his friends are there and he will be safe when the winter comes However, when he knows that the prince cannot see anymore, he decides to stay Chosing to stay means chosing the death because the Swallow cannot survive through the harsh winter with snow falling down, strong wind and with no food The Swallow decides to stay with the prince, to die with him for the good friendship that they maintain The Swallow is a kind one “No, little Swallow,” said the poor Prince, “you must go away to Egypt.” When the Swallow wants to go away to Egypt, the prince says “Swallow, stay with me”, but when the Swallow says “I will stay with you always”, the prince says ‘no, you have to go to Egypt right now’ Both of them care about the safety, the well-being of their friends They are good friends, they don’t think about their own benefits, but they think about their friends They sacrifice themselve for the sake of their friends, for the safety and happiness of their friends The Swallow and the prince in this story form a very good friendship because they think about each other They don’t think selfishly about themselves All the next day he sat on the Prince’s shoulder, and told him stories of what he had seen in strange lands He told him of the red ibises, who stand in long rows on the banks of the Nile, and catch gold-fish in their beaks; of the Sphinx, who is as old as the world itself, and lives in the desert, and knows everything; of the merchants, who walk slowly by the side of their camels, and carry amber beads in their hands; of the King of the Mountains of the Moon, who is as black as ebony, and worships a large crystal; of the great green snake that sleeps in a palmtree, and has twenty priests to feed it with honey-cakes; and of the pygmies who sail over a big lake on large flat leaves, and are always at war with the butterflies The Swallow tries to cheer the prince up by a lot of amazing stories about ther marvellous landscapes in Egypt, but the prince refuses to be told these story He says “Dear little Swallow,” said the Prince, “you tell me of marvellous things, but more marvellous than anything is the suffering of men and of women There are many wonderful things on earth, but nothing is as wonderful as suffering, the struggling of mankind for their survival The prince wants to say that ‘Swallow, tell me the reality of living and struggling, don’t tell me the beauty of a dreaming land where the poor people cannot reach The happy prince doesn’t want to know how luxurious, how beautiful life is, he wants to know how his people live their lives There is no Mystery so great as Misery It is a theme of the story, Mystery is as great as Misery because thanks to the misery, you can become a good human being, you learn a lot of good lessons for your life You know how to live your life and you know how to share with people, how to help to show your kindness, your goodness Thanks to misery, it says a lot of things about you and people around you In contrast, mystery is just somehing mysterious and it doesn’t show how strong you are as human being, how kind you are as friend and how brave you are as living creature Thus the prince wants to listen to miserable stories from miserable lives Fly over my city, little Swallow, and tell me what you see there.” So the Swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich making merry in their beautiful houses, while the beggars were sitting at the gates There are two opposite worlds, the world of the rich with beautiful houses and the world of the poor with beggars sitting right at the gates which are very close to the world of the rich They have beautiful houses, of course they have beautiful gates, but they don’t care about the beggars sitting right at their gates They just enjoy their lives, their beautiful places They don’t care about who are unlucky He flew into dark lanes, and saw the white faces of starving children looking out listlessly at the black streets You can see that starving children looking out with no purpose, they are quite hopeless in lives They look out at the black street For what? They can see the dark only It means that starving children are so hungry, that they cannot run around, they cannot play, talk and laugh They tiredly look at the streets and they find darkness, emptyness, loneliness There are innocent children, but they suffer from poverty at very young age How about the adults? They would be more visionable because they understand lives Under the archway of a bridge two little boys were lying in one another’s arms to try and keep themselves warm “How hungry we are!” they said “You must not lie here,” shouted the Watchman, and they wandered out into the rain The two preposition out and into are very good prepostions of English they wandered out means that they get out of the rich and they go into the rain You know that it is just the archway of a bridge It is a public place No one’s house, so why doesn’t the watchman let them to lay under the bridge, to stay warm for one night He is selfish, he doesn’t want the image of those poor boys, kind of painting his city an ugly one He just wants everything to be perfect, but in fact the city is not perfect at all The poor are there, but the rich try to avoid them, they don’t want to see them because their appearance remind the rich of that the poor are still there They are selfish, so that is why the watchman doesn’t like to see the poor people lying, staying under the archway of a bridge The little poor children cannot defend themselves, so they have only one way to get out of the bridge and to go into the rain A rain in winter is extremely cold They have no warm clothes and they are hungry Then he flew back and told the Prince what he had seen “I am covered with fine gold,” said the Prince, “you must take it off, leaf by leaf, and give it to my poor; the living always think that gold can make them happy.” Leaf after leaf of the fine gold the Swallow picked off, till the Happy Prince looked quite dull and grey Leaf after leaf of the fine gold he brought to the poor, and the children’s faces grew rosier, and they laughed and played games in the street “We have bread now!” they cried Then the snow came, and after the snow came the frost The streets looked as if they were made of silver, they were so bright and glistening; long icicles like crystal daggers down from the eaves of the houses, everybody went about in furs, and the little boys wore scarlet caps and skated on the ice So you that they are like the greeting cards, christmas cards that people send to each other at christmas The streets are beautiful with colorful lights Children are in their warm coats, and they have rosy cheeks It means that they are full, they are plump, they are lovely in their winter fashion The adults go out in the street to enjoy christmas, snowman, chatting, to celebrate parties Everyone is living a very happy life except the prince and the swallow The poor little Swallow grew colder and colder, but he would not leave the Prince, he loved him too well Children are rosier, bigger, happier People are richer, fuller and happier He picked up crumbs outside the baker’s door when the baker was not looking and tried to keep himself warm by flapping his wings Now he has to keep himself warm by moving his wings, but no one helps him He used to be the one who people who are cold and poor in winter Now they are ok with their life, in turn he is cold and no one there to help him That’s life You sacrifice and help people, you don’t care about whether they say thank you t you or they show gratitude to you You just honestly all the things you can to help people You sacrifice everything even your eyes, your life In turn, when you become poor, no one helps People don’t care; they busy enjoying their new life They easily enjoy their new lives and they forget the helpers That’s so sad But at last he knew that he was going to die He had just strength to fly up to the Prince’s shoulder once more “Good-bye, dear Prince!” he murmured, “will you let me kiss your hand?” “I am glad that you are going to Egypt at last, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “you have stayed too long here; but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you.” “It is not to Egypt that I am going,” said the Swallow “I am going to the House of Death Death is the brother of Sleep, is he not?” And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet At that moment a curious crack sounded inside the statue, as if something had broken The fact is that the leaden heart had snapped right in two It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost People think that because of the hard frost, the leaden heart is broken into pieces, but you know the reason why It is because the Swallow dies and the prince is so painful Early the next morning the Mayor was walking in the square below in company with the Town Councillors As they passed the column he looked up at the statue: “Dear me! how shabby the Happy Prince looks!” he said “How shabby indeed!” cried the Town Councillors, who always agreed with the Mayor; and they went up to look at it “The ruby has fallen out of his sword, his eyes are gone, and he is golden no longer,” said the Mayor in fact, “he is litttle better than a beggar!” “Little better than a beggar,” said the Town Councillors “And here is actually a dead bird at his feet!” continued the Mayor “We must really issue a proclamation that birds are not to be allowed to die here.” And the Town Clerk made a note of the suggestion This again shows how stupid the town Councillors, the leaders of the town are How can you issue a law and in that law you write birds are not allowed to die here How can they such a silly thing? Birds can choose any place they want to die Even human being, if we die, we just die People cannot say “hey, you are not allow to die in this street, you have move to that street to die” What happen to the city if they make policy for the city, if they decide what they should for the city, if they lead the city to somewhere? Can they lead the city’s people to somewhere? They are stupid, arrogant Their policy is selfishness and corruption So they pulled down the statue of the Happy Prince “As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful,” said the Art Professor at the University He is no longer beautiful Art professor must understand that a piece of art can be beautiful but not useful If all pieces of art are useful, we will have no abstract painting If something beautiful, it doesn’t need to be useful in vice versa The art professor must be the person who clearly distinguish the fashion and the beauty of any piece of art, but this art professor doesn’t The professor of birds writes a silly papers The mathemathical master says silly thing about children’s dream All the educators of this city are not good enough to educate people Oscar Wildes shows us a city in which the leaders are stupid, the teachers and professor are stupid too Children are innocent, but they are not well educated They don’t know how to say thank you to the helpers The adults are practical in love and selfish in life A society in which everyone is bad except the Swall and the prince It seems that good people die young, and the bad live long and enjoy the life That’s life Then they melted the statue in a furnace, and the Mayor held a meeting of the Corporation to decide what was to be done with the metal “We must have another statue, of course,” he said, “and it shall be a statue of myself.” “Of myself,” said each of the Town Councillors, and they quarrelled When I last heard of them they were quarrelling still They always agree with each other on all issues, but when it comes to the issue of their own interest and benefit, they disagree Each of the town councillors wants the statue to be their image “What a strange thing!” said the overseer of the workmen at the foundry “This broken lead heart will not melt in the furnace We must throw it away.” So they threw it on a dust-heap where the dead Swallow was also lying “Bring me the two most precious things in the city,” said God to one of His Angels; and the Angel brought Him the leaden heart and the dead bird “You have rightly chosen,” said God, “for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me Why? God is the as a whole He knows which one is precious and angel knows which one is precious The angel offers god two precious things the broken leaden heart of the prince and the dead bird to angel and god, the most precious things are enough The other things such as diamond, precious stones, gold, big houses, mysterious things, great places, marvellous cities are nonsense in the eyes of them God needs the kindness, the pure The leaden heart and the dead birth meet his requires They represent true friendship, great sacrifice, goodness of mankind They deserve to serve god, to sing song for him and angels in the paradise while all the rich, the poor, the professors, the grown-up and the children go to the hell Only the leaden heart and the dead bird can stay in paradise garden because they are pure, they are kind, they sacrifice themselves to help the others