The Happy Prince

In the beautifully written tale The Happy Prince, it tells a story of love and generosity. The book delves into a fairy tale of a swallow and a prince, it poetically talks of the time when the prince was alive and how he was such a joyful person. The people of the kingdom bestowed upon the prince the nickname ‘The Happy Prince. ‘ When the prince died the town councillors chose to create a statue honouring him, setting the statue high above the town so the happy prince could watch over everyone.
The Prince was coated in gold and rubies, this made him look magnificent and the whole town admired him. The prince became friends with a swallow and together they help the poor by giving them the gold and rubies off the statue. The book enters into a world of perplexity and reliance. The construction of the tale is written in an humorous way, but in doing that it also explores some serious issues involving poverty and loneliness.
Playwright and poet Oscar Wilde started writing the children’s book ‘The Happy Prince’ in 1988, the remarkably written book is wildly popular even still 23 years later. Wilde’s collection of children’s story books consists of The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose, The Selfish Giant, The Devoted Friend and The Remarkable Rocket, all with different meanings, all just as funny and all just as heart wrenching. I think Wilde not only wrote these books for children but he made sure they are comedic and entertaining for adults too.

The stories all have deeper meanings and talk about essential issues, this I think is makes the books even better. I remember my dad reading ‘The Happy Prince’ to me as a child, the story back then was completely different to what I remember now. The humorous way Wilde goes into relationship between the two main characters in the story really made me laugh, I liked the way he talked of how to swallow fell in love with the reed and how the other swallows thought it was ridiculous because “she has no money, and far to many relations. Eventually the swallow tired of the reed as she “had no conversation. ” Wilde uses humorous writing conventions such as metaphorical description of the relationships in the story between the wind and the reed “she was always flirting with the wind. ” I love the style of writing and how witty and crazy Wilde’s ideas are. I think Wilde’s children’s book will always be loved, the bizarre stories will continue to make people laugh and proceed to be fantastic bedtime stories.