happy Prince summary
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The Happy Prince is a story by Oscar Wilde. It is about the story of a statue, the Happy Prince, covered with gold and many fine jewels. It sits overlooking the city. One day a swallow bird seeks shelter under the statue and discovers the prince not happy, but sad.
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Once in a town there lived a prince. He was called the Happy Prince because he had been happy all his life. After his death, his statue was erected on a tall pedestal in the middle of the town. The statue was covered with gold and had two precious sapphire stones embedded in the eyes. A ruby stone had been fitted into the handle of his sword. From there, he could see all around the place and realized that the people lived in a lot of poverty and misery. This sight saddened the prince and being helpless, he would weep to see the plight of his people.
One day a swallow bird was flying through the city, on its way to Egypt to meet its friends. On the way, it took shelter for the night at the feet of the statue of the happy prince. The bird realized that the statue was weeping and upon inquiry, realized the plight of the prince. The helpless prince requested the bird to help it by becoming its messenger. After initial refusal, the bird agreed and took the ruby stone out of the sword hilt and delivered it to a poor seamstress. The next morning, as he went to bid goodbye, the statue convinced him to stay back for one more day. That day, the bird was asked to remove the sapphire stone from one of the statue’s eyes and deliver it to a young playwright. Also, on the third day the bird had to pull out the second sapphire stone for a poor match girl. By this time, the weather had become cold and the bird had developed an attachment with the statue. The bird did not want to leave the statue which had now become blind. The happy prince asked the bird to go around the city and inform him the condition of the people living there. The bird told him that the rich were making merry while the poor lived in misery. As the happy prince did not have any more precious stones, he ordered the bird to remove the gold foils from his body and distribute among the living who needed money for survival. Gradually, the statue of the prince lost its covering of gold and became dull and grey. On the other hand, the poor became joyous as they got bread to eat. The swallow bird was now unable to withstand the cold weather and realized that death was approaching. It informed the statue that it had to leave and the statue, who loved the bird asked it to kiss him. As the bird died and fell at the statue’s feet, a strange sound came out of the statue - the sound of the breaking of its heart. Although the statue’s heart was made of lead, it broke as it was overwhelmed with affection towards the bird. When the statue was melted in the furnace, the heart did not melt and was thrown in the garbage. It landed near the swallow’s body. God’s angels took both the dead swallow and the broken heart to him as they were the most precious things on land.