The Happy Prince and Other Tales Literary Elements

Fairy Tales, Short Stories

Unspecified Victorian Fairy Tale Land

An anonymous and omniscient third-person narrator for each

Varies story by story, but generally ironic and moralizing

Protagonists: The Happy Prince, The Giant, The Nightingale, Little Hans, The Fisherman | Antagonist: The Mayor, The Student, The Miller, The Soul

There are a few major conflicts:
-The Happy Prince is guilty to have lived without sorrow, and now watches over the miseries of his town, powerless to help.
-The Student cannot find a red rose to offer to the woman he loves.
-The Giant has banned children from his garden and has cursed his property to eternal winter.
-Little Hans has had to sell many of his belongings to survive winter.
-The Rocket burst into tears, resulting in him being too damp to be lit.

There are different climaxes in each story. For example, the Nightingale piercing her breast to stain the rose, and all of the fireworks going off magnificently without the Rocket.

1. The story of Little Hans and the Miller is a story within a story, meant to teach the apathetic Water-rat a lesson of friendship. The Miller's reaction is a foreshadowing of the Water-rat's reaction as well.
2. The Dwarf's immediate fascination with the Infanta foreshadows his doom, for a creature like him can never be with one like her.

N/A

1. The fairy tales draw from many inspirations, but some of the most prominent allusions are to Christianity. In “The Selfish Giant,” the little boy is alluded to be Jesus Christ, as he bears the stigmata and brings the Selfish Giant to Heaven.
2. Aurora Borealis—the stunning Northern lights (42)
3. Hans Christian Anderson's "Little Match-Girl" is alluded to in "The Happy Prince"
4. Adonis and Endymion are mentioned in "The Young King"—Adonis is the handsome lover of Aphrodite, and Endymion is a handsome Aeolian shepherd

See Imagery section

The Student should be a symbol of logical thinking, however he is the most rash and impulsive character in "The Nightingale and the Rose."

1. The Water-rat and the Miller are paralleled as two figures who do not understand what true friendship is, though they profess to.
2. The Happy Prince and Nightingale are paralleled in terms of their sacrifice of themselves for others.
3. The Young King and Star-Child are paralleled as two young men raised by people other than their mother and father, and who have to come to terms with what their role in power is.
4. The Happy Prince, Swallow, and Fisherman all die for love.

N/A

1. Inanimate objects such as statues, trees, and fireworks, along with animals such as birds or frogs are give human emotions and are able to speak.
2. "The only people who were pleased were the Snow and the Frost" (16).
3. "Love is wiser than Philosophy, though he is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty" (62).
4. "...Beauty, like Wisdom, loves the lonely worshipper" (71).