Open Access
American Research Journal of English and Literature
ISSN (Online): 2378-9026
DOI: 10.46568/arjel
Selfless Commitment to the Comfort of Others: A Critical Reading of “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde
Abstract
In the short story ‘The Happy Prince’, Oscar Wilde uses all his imaginative powers to convey a universal message of charity
through its protagonists, a chunk of lead turned into a statue of a human form, which sends the jewels and gold that
furnish its body parts and outfit to the needy to recover them from various ails of poverty, and a swallow, who commits
himself to carry out all the charitable missions he is assigned to by the statue. Finally, the Happy Prince loses its elegance
as an object of beautification and material value and appears as an eyesore in the city while the Swallow falls dead
unable to resist the cold and hunger. They become rubbish in the eyes of the city authorities but get sanctified through the
intervention of Angels of the Paradise and God himself. The story conveys thus a heroic act of charity where one donates
his body parts while the other donates his life for the well-being of the poor and needy. Although the story has a Christian
basis, the character of the Happy Prince parallels that of Prince Siddhartha (who later became the Buddha) in his opinion
about suffering and misery and his commitment to help others. While analysing Wild’s application of allegory in the
projection of his sense of charity and the coherence he maintains in combining reality and fantasy in storytelling with a
didactic aim, the paper pays attention to his use of irony, sarcasm, and humour in achieving social criticism.
