The Nightingale and the Rose

By prof.Abdelhamid Fouda 

CRITICAL EVALUATION

Abstract: Wilde’s parodic fairy tale The Nightingale and the Rose is often considered a critical enigma due to its artistic ambiguity. The teller himself has restricted his tale to ‘childlikepeople between eighteen and eighty’. The target population of this study consists of fifteen year old students who are embarking on the path of appreciating literature in Sri Lanka and the tale is contained in their anthology. It is a rich artifact due to its dexterity of plot, multiple themes, dramatics and the powerful poetics in the discourse. Analyzing the short story, which has intricate motifs woven into its fabric, this study depicts it as an aesthetic experiment with an inherent transformative power. Yet pedagogic caution is a requisite as Wilde himself has stated that the tale has ‘many secrets, many meanings and many answers’ embedded in it. Judicious analysis of Wilde’s tale will make the young adults explore some age relevant secrets, meanings and answers while discovering the beauty of his art.

Targeted Generation as Young Students:

Students are novices to the art of Appreciation of English Literary Texts which is the title of their anthology. Wilde though he classifies The Nightingale and the Rose as a fairy tale states that is not for children, but for ‘childlike people from eighteen to eighty. Thus this population is still short of three years to be eligible. But they are young adults and will abhor the stratification: children.  They are ‘childlike people’ who are at the threshold of the transient period of adolescence when a child develops into an adult. Should The Nightingale and the Rose gain entry to their anthology?

Answering in the affirmative this study argues that the short story has a multitude of merits which makes it excellent raw material for embarking on the process of appreciation of the genre: short story. The aptness for the age group lies in the tightness of the plot, the powerful symbolism, vivid imagery, the economy and the beauty of language, the thematic value and the entailed social criticism. It is a perfect specimen for detecting the qualities of a good short story.

The reality is that the modern teenage girl would hate to sit ‘winding blue silk on a reel’. There is no need as they buy their clothes and other paraphernalia off the rack. Such leisurely activity adds a ‘once upon a time’ touch to The Nightingale and the Rose in the context of the modern young reader, 127 years after its publication. But the symbolism transcends time. Girls still engage in, at this age of equal gender rights, trivial feminine activities which boys would not dream of doing. The majority of them are feminine feminists.

Analyzing other characteristics of the daughter of the Professor sharpen their world view. They would agree that guys, or even girls if you are not interested in them should be told off, not encouraged. But the callousness of the way the girl did it and the reasons spelt out and rubbed in would not receive approval of the majority. True appreciation of the short story will create awareness of the materialism, class consciousness and false values based on appearances in the daughter of the Professor. Evidence for all these human weaknesses exists around them but such awareness creation would lead to self-questioning: am I going to be tainted by such negative values? They learn to not only identify but also critically evaluate prevailing attitudes and values in the contemporary society.

You will find many a young boy smugly carrying one for his lady love. But a red rose does not necessarily beget love. These youthful readers, whether male or female, are taught the consequences of unrequited love: disillusionment and frustration. The Student mishandling rejection will make them probe alternate ways where they need not turn into a recluse. They will also estimate that discarding Love as a silly thing after rejection is, in their own terminology, ‘sour grapes’. Most importantly they will learn to discern between true love and infatuation.

The manner in which the Student resolves to shut himself up with dusty tomes of knowledge might give rise to many a parallel. It reflects a very modern affliction the young generation suffers from: reclusiveness. In search of emotional and physical isolation it might not be dusty books they seek. Instead alienating themselves from the problems of the world outside can occur in the form of addiction to and seeking refuge in various forms of building barriers between you, your family and the world outside. Is resorting to reclusiveness on the rebound a solution? Let them find answers.

Furthermore the most enthralling aspect of the short story is it’s the open ended finale. This age group will grapple with the above and a multitude of other questions. Did the Nightingale sacrifice its life in vain? Should she have let her heart rule over her head? Is love better than life, as the Nightingale believed? Thus as evidenced above for the student who is taking the first steps towards the appreciation of the genre of short story Wilde’s The Nightingale and the Rose is a unique experience.

de Medeiros and Gomes (2015)[5] state that until 1860, the fairy tales published in Britain (for example collections by Hans Andersen, and brothers Grimm) had a clear didactic function to preach the values and ideals of Victorian society, which included earnestness, virtue, hard work, propriety, and restraint. Many scholars consider that The Nightingale and the Rosehas a dissident function and posit that it falls within the genre of parodic fairy tales. Zipes (2007) [9]identifies one distinctive quality which makes a literary work acquire the nuances of a fairy tale. In a fairy tale,

The characters, settings, and motifs are combined and varied according to specific functions to induce wonder.

Moreover Tolkien (1983, p. 113) [10] states that the characters in a fairy tale need not be restricted to ‘fairies or elves’. The fairy tale quality is often generated with talking animals and plants, and even ‘ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted’ (ibid). In sum the sense of wonder and enchantment woven into a short story and the inclusion of magical talking plants and animals add a fairy tale quality to it distinguishing it from other modern short literary genres.

The Nightingale and the Rose may not have ‘fairies or elves’ but within the setting of the garden talking animals and plantsbewitch, especially, the young reader. Equally enthralling is the creation of the rose which is sheer magic. Thus Wilde’s craft adds a fascination which is generally created within the genre of fairy tales. But the magic has a short life within the story. The semantics in the verbal exchanges of the animals and plantsand their character traits lift them above mundane personifications. They have many human weaknesses. This turns the garden to a thing unrelated to the canon of fairy tales.

The Lizard is a cynic, the Daisy has cultivated mannerisms, and theOak-tree has feelings as it ‘was very fond of the little Nightingale’ but though it understood the gravity of the Nightingale’s decision it passively accepts it and hastily bids a farewell:  'I shall feel very lonely when you are gone.' Wilde himself has declared that there is the ‘other half of the garden’ where rather than enchantment the reader will find ‘suffering and sorrow’ (Wilde 2005: 349)[11]. Thus The Nightingale and the Rose is not the archetypal fairy tale. It is raised to a higher form of art through the use of parody.

Parody can be defined as deliberately copying a style of something to create amusement through ridicule. Parody need not be limited to ridicule. According to Hutcheon (2000: 54), [12] ‘parody can use irony easily and naturally as a preferred, even privileged, rhetorical mechanism’. Wilde uses the genre of fairy tale but he converts his storyline into a parody not only by the removal of enchantment from the garden but also subverting the happy ending habitually associated with fairy tales.

Agreement comes from de Medeiros and Gomes(2015: 30) [13] who state that,

The lack of a happy ending in the short story both work to promote Wilde’s parodic intent towards the fairy-tale tradition and to strengthen the social criticism towards a materialistic and utilitarian society.

Thus discarding ridicule Wilde’s narrative style prefers the rhetorical mechanism of irony and flavours it with wit. He imitates the fairy-tale tradition but uses ironic inversion flouting its norms. Irony is generated through the description of youthful life in Victorian England. It is denoted as based on false values. Even the pursuit of higher knowledge is parodied by Wilde. Utilitarian values win over genuine emotions. Wilde makes the Nightingale possess the higher human qualities: compassion, true love and sacrifice claiming that she is the only one worthy of Romance.

Additionally ironic inversion of the fairy-tale tradition of a handsome prince and beautiful princess enhance the parodic excellence in Wilde. The character of the daughter of the Professor is devoid of physical description. Unlike the sweet, docile princesses in fairy-tales she is sharp tongued, cold and calculating. The macho prince is reduced to a weeping imbecile. Wilde also seems to explore the stereotypical gender roles in his society through the Student and the girl. Her father is a learned professor and the only other male in the narrative, his student is a budding scholar of Philosophy and Metaphysics. She is given the conventional tasks of winding thread, dancing ‘so lightly that her feet will not touch the floor’, and thriving among admiring courtiers. Thus unlike in traditional fairy-tales Education is brought in as a theme by Wilde but it is parodied as it brings out the gender bias and forecasts a pessimistic outcome of knowledge.

Similarly the target population is fortunate to receive a balanced education where one aesthetic subject is compulsory. This will caution the learners against completely assenting to Wilde’s parody of education which is suited to a society of bygone times.

Furthermore a clear subversion of the fairy tale genre is yet again evidenced in the radical outcome of the short story. According to Pihlström (2014: 43)[14],

When children are gradually initiated into moral thinking- for example- through traditional fairy tales- they usually learn that the good will eventually be rewarded and the bad ‘will get what they deserve’. The protagonist in a fairy tale typically gets a reward for a morally heroic action, while the villains are punished or destroyed.

However according to Bushakevitz (2009: 103) [15]Wilde’s tale does not subscribe to the above traditional moral thinking introduced by fairy tales.

In The Nightingale and the Rose, good is not rewarded nor is evil punished. The fact that the professor’s daughter does not accept the student’s offer of the rose cannot be viewed as a punishment for the student, since his reaction to the rejection demonstrates that his ‘love’ of the girl was insignificant even to him. It would have been a reward for the nightingale had the girl accepted the rose, but this does not happen.

In sum through these subversions Wilde not only parodies the genre of classical fairy tale but uses it as a vehicle for ‘his elegant style and keen wit to give full expression both to his philosophy of art and his critique of English high society’ (Zipes, 2007, p. 167) [16]. Additionally, through the deft use of his craftsmanship Wilde has been able to lift the prose away from the boundaries of English society in the Victorian era as much of the social satire can be extended to many a society in the contemporary society.

The Plot Development

The fine art of plot development in a short story where language should be economical yet retain its beauty reaches its perfection in The Nightingale and the Rose.

Exposition

At the beginning of the exposition using a flashback the author introduces the main conflict. The Student is attracted to his professor’s daughter and she has asked for a red rose to dance with him. It is not a demand which can be fulfilled as the Student says ‘in my entire garden there is no red rose’. The inability to find a rose makes his beautiful eyes’ fill with tears and decide that his life is ‘wretched’. Thus the conflict is introduced with great economy of language.

2.3 Rising Action

Across each stage of the Rising Action the story moves swiftly while attaining a magical quality.

2.3.1 Entry of the Nightingale and his empathy with the Student

The Nightingale hears the Student weeping and judges him to be genuinely in love and states ‘Here at last is a true lover’. He listens to the lamentation of the Student. A flash forward is used in this instance to create a powerful juxtaposed imagery of the ballroom scene through the eyes of the Student which given in Table 1 below.

Student’s predicament in a flash forward

If I have a red rose

‘I shall hold her in my arms, and she will lean her head upon my shoulder, and her hand will be clasped in mine.’

If I do not have a red rose

‘I shall sit lonely, and she will pass me by. She will have no heed of me, and my heart will break’.

Based on the outward demonstration of grief by the Student the Nightingale concludes, 'Here indeed is the true lover'.Another flash forward where the Student’s words vividly describe the girl and visualize his plight at the ball is juxtapoed in Table II below.

At the ball

The girl at the ball

‘My love will dance to the sound of the harp and the violin. She will dance so lightly that her feet will not touch the floor, and the courtiers in their gay dresses will throng round her.’

The Student’s plight

‘But with me she will not dance, for I have no red rose to give her'.

The dramatic quality of the narrative intensifies as the Nightingale watches the Student flinging ‘himself down on the grass’, buries ‘his face in his hands’ and weeps.

2.3.2 Other animals in the garden

During the next stage of rising action the story reaches its pinnacle in parodic fairy tale quality. Each animal is personified and given specific human qualities.

The Daisy is demure, ladylike and ‘whispers’ in a ‘soft, low voice’.

The opposite is found in the inquisitive Butterfly who is engaged in the useless activity of ‘fluttering about after a sunbeam’. Here Wilde seems to be creating associations with a hyperactive social butterfly who is flitting around at a social gathering.

They are scornful about the reason for the Student’s weeping and together they express their disdain by stating: 'how very ridiculous!’

The Lizard who runs ‘with his tail in the air’ is ‘a cynic’ and he ‘laughed outright’ demonstrating no qualms about flouting social etiquette.

Though the talking animals add to the fairy tale quality of the short story the technique used by Wilde makes it a social gathering of personifications, each decked with a stereotypical human weakness.

2.3.3 The Nightingale and the red rose tree

Not discouraged by her encounter with the animals in the garden the Nightingale decides to help the Student and approaches the rose trees in the garden. Finally she finds a red rose tree. But it says that the harsh winter ‘has chilled my veins, and the frost has nipped my buds, and the storm has broken my branches’.

When asked for a method of getting a red rose the tree states 'but it is so terrible that I dare not tell it to you.' Here a very human trait is hinted at by the author. It is human nature to pretentiously prewarn a destructive action especially if you are going to benefit out of it. It clears one’s conscience. The rose tree knows that she ‘shall have no roses at all this year' thus this is a good opportunity to fulfil its desire to bloom. The moment the Nightingale says 'Tell it to me' the veneer of concern is shed making it a false social requirement. The tree does not need much persuasion and unemotionally gives step by step details of the dreadful way a red rose could be created. The change of tone in diction of the rose tree moves from dissuasion to authoritative.

• 'You must build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with your own heart's-blood.

• You must sing to me with your breast against a thorn. All night long you mustsing to me by moonlight.

• All night long you must sing to me, and the thorn must pierce your heart, and your life-blood must flow into my veins, and become mine.'

The diction of the rose tree is full of imperatives; a cold blooded description of a process. Here too the personification is not restricted to the ability to talk. The insistent must repeated at each step in the lines above shows an eagerness for very detail in the process to be perfected. No camouflaging of the suffering involved is indicated throughout and at the climax of the pain ‘your life-blood must flow into my veins, and become mine’ is clearly stated by the rose tree.

Thus the Nightingale is made fully aware of the severity of pain and the length of suffering. But she decides to sacrifice her life. Then during the very act of the sacrifice the increasing eagerness and the selfishness of the rose tree are strongly conveyed by the repetition of the line below.

'Press closer, little Nightingale,' cried the Tree, 'or the day will come before the rose is finished.'

Under the façade of helping the Nightingale the rose tree keeps spurring her on to fulfil the deed and the finale is reached when the rose tree exclaims joyously,

'Look, look!’ ..... 'The rose is finished now'

Devoid of any regret on the destruction of the life of the Nightingale the rose tree victoriously announces to the world the attainment of her goal. This is a very human weakness: triumphant self-declarations which reek of personal glorification with no recognition given to the weighty contribution made by others. Thus the personified rose tree is yet again a vehicle to make the reader become conscious of human weaknesses.

Climax

The climax of the story is reached when the Nightingale sacrifices herself. The gradual death and the birth of the red rose are vividly described. The increasing pain of the Nightingale keeps time with the increased tempo of her song which ironically is a celebration of eternal love as depicted in the lines below.

‘Bitter, bitter was the pain, and wilder and wilder grew her song, for she sang of the Love that is perfected by Death, of the Love that dies not in the tomb’.