Question

Significance of title the nightingale and the rose

Answer 1

The theme of Oscar Wilde’s short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” could be said to be both the nobility in and futility of sacrifice. Wilde was an acerbic observer of Victorian social customs, and frequently satirized them. “The Nightingale and the Rose,” however, was part of a compilation of children’s stories by Wilde published in 1888. “The Nightingale and the Rose” has a somber tone. A nightingale sitting in a garden observes an emotionally distraught college student lament the absence of a red rose among the myriad plants before him. The red rose, he wails, is needed in order to win over the hand of his true love. The other animals and plants, however, are considerably more cynical, and do not share the nightingale’s sympathy for the morose student, as evident in the following passage:

“Why, indeed?” whispered a Daisy to his neighbor, in a soft, low voice.

“He is weeping for a red rose,” said the Nightingale.

“For a red rose!” they cried; “how very ridiculous!” and the little Lizard, who was something of a cynic, laughed outright.

But the Nightingale understood the secret of the Student’s sorrow, and she sat silent in the oak-tree, and thought about the mystery of Love.

The nightingale, as readers learn, will sacrifice its life so that the student may experience love with his chosen partner. The bird has flown among the trees and plants, seeking the elusive red rose only to discover, as explained by a red rose tree that cannot grow roses this year, that the only solution is to stain a different color rose red with its (the nightingale’s) blood. And, the nightingale must perform this suicidal act while singing to the tree, to all of which the bird cries, “Death is a great price to pay for a red rose.” The nightingale, however, overcomes any reservations regarding the sanctity of life and agrees to shed its blood for the student:

Answer 2

The Nightingale and the Rose’ is a short story by Oscar Wilde.

Significance:

• There are four main character in the plot, the red rose, the nightingale, the student, and the girl.
• The story revolves around the Nightingale and the red rose, who sacrificed their lives for love left incomplete in the end. Hence the the title is perfectly suitable.
• The nightingale, in the story, believes in true love and it decides to help the boy in the story to get his beloved girl.
• The girl demanded a red rose which blooms out of bushes only after the nightingale sings whole night and dies.
• The nightingale does the same for the sake of love but the girl rejected the boy and went with the one who gave her jewels.
• The red rose in this story is a common symbol of love.
• This rose is also rare than the other colored roses which sprouts only from several bushes.
• In this story, the rose also comes to represent the idea that love requires pain and sacrifice.
• At the end of story nightingale died a painful death to save boy's love but the girl left him for the sake of artificial love, i.e., jewels.

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