The Nightingale and the Rose summary and themes in the story

Introduction

The Nightingale and the Rose is a tragic story written by Oscar Wilde in 1988 and was published as part of “The Happy Prince and Other Tales.”

The story opens with a young student who is in despair because of a red rose. The student’s girlfriend has promised if he brings her a red rose, she will dance with him all night. Unfortunately, there is no red rose throughout the student’s beautiful garden because it is the winter season.

The boy sorrows over his fate and desperately thinks his love would be tragic. Feeling distressed, the boy lies down on the ground of the garden. A nightingale, which has been a pet bird to the student’s garden, hears the student’s sobbing and weeping. The nightingale feels upset and idealizes how precious human love is! She compares the love with precious stones and considers it more valuable than gold. Therefore, the nightingale decides to help the boy.

The nightingale flies to different types of trees in order to find a red rose if they have one. After speaking to several rose trees, she finds out about one tree. The nightingale asks the tree for one red rose; the tree says it can produce a red rose if the nightingale presses her heart against its vein thorn and sings all the night in the chilly winter while letting her dense blood stain the colorless rose.  After seconds of pause, the knight accepts the demand of the tree.

By morning, the red rose blooms, but the nightingale dies. The boy gets up and sees the blooming rose beneath the window.  The boy plucks the red rose and happily offers it to the girl. But the girl rejects the rose and prefers jewels over the rose. The boy becomes extremely disappointed and throws away the red rose over there while walking back in his garden. No one notices the nightingale’s sacrifice and faithfulness.

After reading the story, the reader can idealize different themes in the story; some are common themes that everyone can find out.

Themes of the story

Sacrifice of the nightingale and her selfless love

A human can be greedy because of his intellect and idealizations. The nightingale represents a pure soul and possesses true love for the boy. She sacrifices her life without demanding anything from the boy.

Idealism vs. Materialism

An innocent bird prefers idealization, and it believes that love is more precious than any stone, as well as more valuable than gold. While the humans value materialism, wealth such as gold, diamonds, and materialistic things. This shows a clash between idealism and materialism. Finally, idealism is crushed by materialism as the girl rejects the rose and the boy throws it away. The nightingale sacrifice goes in vain.

Unnoticed sacrifice

The nightingale stretches her heart in order to stain the colorless rose in the chilly winter. Her blood dips down from her heart into the veins of the tree; however, her melodious voice goes higher and higher until her breath freezes out. The boy fails to hear her last breathing voice but happily plucks the rose without noticing the absence of the nightingale in his garden.