29 pages • 58 minutes read
Oscar WildeThe Nightingale and the Rose
Fiction | Short Story | YA | Published in 1888A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
The Nightingale
The Nightingale is the story’s protagonist and hero. She loves to sing and please the world around her with her music, and her interest in the desires of others makes her remarkably unlike the self-absorbed Student and Professor’s daughter. She is nonmaterialistic, holding love above all else, from “emeralds […] and opals” to the joys of life itself (59). She emerges as the “true lover” of the story, both understanding and embodying The Nature of Love and Sacrificing Oneself for Love. In some ways, the Nightingale’s sacrifice is even Christ-like, especially as she sings of “Love that dies not in the tomb” (65), evoking the biblical story of Christ’s resurrection and unconditional love for humanity.
In addition to being a true lover, the Nightingale is also a true artist. She is underappreciated by the Student in this capacity as well; he dismisses the arts as “selfish” and claims that her notes “do not mean anything” or “do any practical good” (63), an observation that proves to be wrong, as her beautiful singing creates his much-desired red rose. The Nightingale’s song is so powerful that she attracts the attention of the moon, faraway shepherds, and the sea, proving herself much more powerful than the philosophy and metaphysics that the Student prizes above all else. However, while her death is tragic, it is not futile. Intertwined with an act of artistic creation, her death illustrates The Value of Beauty and Art irrespective of concrete results.
The Student
At the story’s beginning, the Student appears to be the young hero of the story, and his lament that his love interest won’t dance with him unless he gives her a red rose is sympathetic. Notably, the Student gives no specific details about his love interest, saying only that if he were to give her a red rose, “[S]he will dance with me till dawn […] I shall hold her in my arms, and she will lean her head upon my shoulder, and her hand will be clasped in mine” (58). The empty language surrounding his “love” for the Professor’s daughter suggests the shallowness of his feelings; he is merely mimicking what love looks like on the surface in books or art.
The Student believes in the supremacy of logic and book-learning much more than in love, and his character illustrates The Limits of Materialism and Pragmatism. His claims that he has “read all that the wise men have written” and that he knows “all the secrets of philosophy” come across as absurd and self-aggrandizing (58). He is not merely ignorant but ignorant of his ignorance, writing off everything he cannot understand as meaningless. His dismissal of the Nightingale’s song as not “do[ing] any practical good” and ultimate dismissal of Love as “silly […] not half as useful as Logic” reveal that he is not the true lover the Nightingale mistakes him for (63; 67).
The Lizard
When the Student begins to weep because he cannot find a red rose, the Lizard, along with a butterfly and a daisy, asks why the Student is crying. When the Nightingale explains that he is weeping for a red rose, they cry out, “For a red rose! […] how very ridiculous” (60). The Lizard, described as “something of a cynic” (60), even “laugh[s] outright” at the Student’s heartache. In his dismissal of the Student’s struggle, the Lizard anticipates the shallow attitudes of the Professor’s daughter and the Student himself.
The Rose-Tree
The Nightingale encounters three rose trees during her search for the red rose, but the third tree is the only one to play a prominent role in the story. This tree, which is under the Student’s window, usually sports red roses but laments that “the frost has nipped [his] buds, and the storm has broken [his] branches, and [he] shall have no roses at all this year” (61). Other than the Oak-tree, the Rose-tree is the only character to sympathize with the Nightingale’s struggle and appreciate the power of her sacrifice.
The Professor’s Daughter
The Professor’s daughter is the love interest of the Student and the foil to the selfless and loving Nightingale. The first hint that she is not the Student’s true love is the lack of detail with which the Student speaks of her. It is not until the end of the story that she herself appears, “sitting in the doorway winding blue silk on a reel” (66). The silk, a luxurious material, suggests her vanity and interest in wealth. When the Student presents the red rose to her, she “frown[s]” and dismisses the rose, saying that she is “afraid it will not go with [her] dress” (66). This easy dismissal of the Student and breaking of her promise to him reveal the Professor’s daughter to be selfish. She is also materialistic, telling the Student that she has received “real jewels” from the Vice-Chancellor’s nephew, “and everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers” (66). Her part in the story finishes with her judging the Student for his lack of wealth, calling him “only a Student” who does not have “silver buckles to [his] shoes” like the Vice-Chancellor’s nephew (66). She emerges as a subversion of the maiden-type in fairy tales, beautiful but selfish, rejecting the hero who has (to her knowledge) perfectly executed his quest merely because he is poor.
Related Titles
By Oscar Wilde
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