023. The Nightingale And The Rose. Oscar Wilde Story. Reintroduced by P S Remesh Chandran

023.

The Nightingale And The Rose. Oscar Wilde Story. Reintroduced by P S Remesh Chandran
 
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum

Image By Gregorius O. Graphics: Adobe SP

 
First published: 6th Jun 2011.  
 

Birds love for their life. They do not change partners in the middle of a stream. They do not know about the fickleness of human love. And they do not know about the instant fancies of immature human mind that we call love. Knowing not this cost a Nightingale its dear life. That is the story in Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Nightingale and the Rose.’ 

Human passions mostly are lust and licentiousness misnamed as love.

Universal messenger of delicacy, fragrance and love.

Human love does not deserve the attention of the creatures of ground, sea and air. The Nightingale and the Rose is a moral short story by Oscar Wilde, the famous English writer. It is the story of the sacrifice of a nightingale for the sake of human love. The moral of the story is that human love and sacrifice are worthless, deserving not the attention of the other creatures of the ground, sea and air. Even though there always are immortal love stories among the mortal human beings, most often their passions are lust and licentiousness misnamed as love. It is widely thought that the world did injustice to this great writer. This reintroduction of his famous story is a humble tribute to this great lover of man and bird and beast.

The fickle human emotion of the immature that is called love.

All creatures react in their own ways.

One day a young student was found weeping for a red rose so that he could present it to his lover and dance with her. The boy was such enamored with the girl that he thought, without her, his life was going to end. But in that time of the year there were no red roses. The nightingale and the other creatures in the ground, water and air who were listening to this lamentation of his reacted according to their natures. While the other creatures either ridiculed or pitied him, the Nightingale decided to help him. She straight went to a rose tree in the garden asking for a red rose for the boy-lover. 

Why Nightingales alone warble unending love songs into the sky?

Warbling unending love songs into the air.

The Nightingale was such an admirer of true love about which she had been singing and praising in her songs for years that she decided to help the true lover. The rose tree, though without any red flowers then, revealed to the nightingale that if she was willing enough to make a self sacrifice, she could produce one with her own blood. She only had to press her heart to a thorn and singing without stop in the moon light, inject her blood into the tree. If she could do this, a red rose will bloom in any of the branches before Sun rise. The Nightingale summarily agreed to create a red rose by paying the great prize of her life. And in that very night she caused a red rose to bloom on the tree by her self sacrifice. 

Why birds are created such sympathetic and considerate to worthless human passions?

They do not change partners in the middle of a stream.

When morning arose, the boy-lover saw the red rose on the tree and rushed to his girl friend with the rose. But within that time she had promised to dance with another boy, a rich one who had offered her gold buttons instead of cheap roses. Thus the boy’s love ended in folly and disaster, unnecessarily causing the death of a Nightingale. The boy threw the precious red rose into the street where a cart-wheel went over it. We will wonder what preciousness is there in the supposed love of unripe human beings and why birds and other creatures are created such sympathetic and considerate to worthless human passions.

Image By Gregorius O. Graphics: Adobe SP

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Pictures Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
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Tags

American Literature, American Writers, Appreciations, English Literature, English Short Stories, English Short Story Writers, Nightingale And The Rose, Oscar Wilde, Reviews, Stories, Studies 

Comments

Rathnashikamani
7th Jun 2011 (#)

Great review.
You're an expert in appreciating English literature.

PSRemeshChandra
7th Jun 2011 (#)

Might be, though I cannot play with words as you do. 
  

Meet the author
PSRemeshChandra
 
Editor of Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum. Author of several books in English and in Malayalam. And also author of Swan : The Intelligent Picture Book.