The Nightingale and the Rose – Oscar Wilde

The story is an example for a parable where there are human as well as non-human characters. The title of the story is “The Nightingale and the Rose” - this is despite the fact that there are human players in the story. By doing so, the writer challenges the prevailing concept that man is the measure of everything. In many of his works Wilde tacitly questions the homocentric worldview encouraged by both the church and the state.

The story begins dramatically with an if-clause which underscores the fact that the possibility of a relationship between the Professor’s daughter and the Student is based on an exchange. He gets the physical gratification of dancing with a girl and the sense of socio-political achievement by being linked with the Professor’s daughter who appears to be quite in demand; on the one hand, the Professor’s daughter’s vanity is paid homage to by the procurement of an out of season red rose. On the other hand, she is testing the Student’s worthiness as a suitable husband material by sending him on a quest similar to the ones undertaken by the heroes of the past. But unlike those heroes of the past, the Student’s horizons are limited to the borders of his garden. He is incapable of looking beyond the safety offered by the boundary of what is familiar. He lacks a sense of adventure and romance. The socio-political landscape of the Victorian Age was dominated by the middleclass merchants engaged in various trades. The age of knights in shining armour who dashed off to perform impossible tasks against unimaginable odds was long past. Wilde seems to mourn the passage of that bygone age of romance and high ideals in this short story. 

In the short story, there are both animal and human actors. Interestingly, the writer uses pronouns usually used for people for animals and trees. Not only that, the writer makes them behave in ways that one expects humans to do and thereby anthropomorphises them. In the case of the Nightingale, her heroic behaviour and her capacity to feel empathy and love elevate her to a state of a heroine. While the animals, especially the Nightingale, understand the human actors, the human actors are incapable of understanding the creatures around them. The eponymous heroine of the story, the Nightingale, hears the plight of the Student and it touches her heart. From the first paragraph certain qualities that are generally associated with the male and female genders are reversed. Upon seeing him for the first time, the bird describes him in idealistic terms that are often reserved for women: “His hair is dark as hyacinth blossom … his lips are red as the rose of his desire.” The Student has “beautiful” eyes that “fills with tears” at the drop of a hat. He bemoans his fate and is in need of a hero to do his battles for him. Yet, he is egoistical. He believes that he is omniscient: “I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine.” The young man seems to believe because he studied Philosophy he should either be exempted from such tests as the one the Professor’s daughter is putting him through or that he should be given a rose on a plate. The writer creates this subtle impression as a satirical aside on the egotism of many academics who seem to believe that they deserve special treatment due to their scholarly state.

The Nightingale idealizes love and she tragically mistakes the Student’s petulant outburst as a heartfelt cry of love and salutes him as a true lover. Due to her idealism, the Nightingale sees the world through rose-tinted glasses. That is her tragic flaw as the heroine of this story.

The Student, on the other hand, simplifies love to the level of gratification of physical desire and socio-political conquest. He reiterates the give-and-take nature of his relationship with the woman of his desire: “If I bring her 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.” However, the Student is not stirred to action even by this vision of self-gratification. He continues to be mired in impotent self-pity: I shall sit lonely, and she will pass me by. She shall have no need of me. Anyone who has read Jane Austen would know that this is usually a fear that women of that age would harbour at a party. This outburst, however, confirms to the Nightingale that the Student is indeed “the true lover.” The Nightingale’s opinion could be read at least in two ways. At one level, this could be taken as an example of the Nightingale’s ignorance and naiveté and at another level this could be read as an indication of lack of real love in the Victorian Society. At this point I would like to remind the readers to read the last section which is on the Victorian male female relations in the sonnet “London” by William Blake. The Nightingale thinks that the Student is special because she feels that he has experienced what she is just feeling.             

For the Nightingale love is more precious than any material wealth. The reader should compare this view with that of the Professor’s daughter’s view on the jewels she receives from one of her admirers towards the end of the story. However, one must take care not to be too harsh on the girl as the world she occupies is vastly different from the one that the Nightingale is a part of. It is possible for the Nightingale, being a creature of nature whose life is not shaped by the Capitalistic socio-economic policies that governed the society the girl is a member of, to spurn material wealth. The girl, on the other hand, cannot indulge in that luxury as she depends on the possession of having enough material wealth for the physical and emotional wellbeing of her as well as of her future offspring. Contemporary prose works by Charles Dickens and poetry of William Blake offer rather frightening pictures of the fate of those – especially women - who did not possess enough material wealth. Therefore, one might say that she has to - out of necessity – consider love as something that can be “set forth in the market-place … [which could be] purchased of the merchants … [and] weighed out in the balance of gold.”

Creatures of nature such as the little Green Lizard, the Butterfly, and the Daisy, being either creatures of moderation or lacking the finer feelings of the Nightingale, are confused by the emotional outbursts of the Student. Some even find his tears rather ridiculous. The Nightingale, in contrast, is deeply moved and feels compelled to take some action. She assumes the traditional role of the knight/hero on the face of the Student’s inaction and “she spread[s] her wings for flight and sored into the air.” Despite the drab diminutiveness of the bird, her actions are described in heroic terms. The writer undoubtedly admires the heroic spirit of the bird. The section “Suddenly … across the garden” is repeated three times following a convention found in Romances. Upon finding a rose bush the bird asks for a red rose in exchange of her sweetest song. The tree regretfully informs that it is incapable of assisting the bird and directs her to another. It is only in the third attempt does the little bird comes upon a hibernating red rose bush. It regretfully informs the bird of the impossibility of granting her wish at that time of the year. But when pressed it tells the bird that if she were willing to infuse her own blood into its frozen veins, the bush would be able to grant her wish. Moreover, the bush tells the bird that it would cost her own life. The Nightingale values her life but thinks of dying in the service of love the best possible reason for someone to die. The Nightingale who appreciates beauty sees only that in the Students and fails to grasp the un-heroic nature of the boy. For her sacrifice, the bird does not want anything in return. She wants the Student to be “a true lover.” “Love,” according to the bird is wiser than Philosophy and mightier than Power. She personifies love and gives it colour and shape. But unfortunately the Student fails to understand the bird’s request for “he only knew the things that are written down in books.” Ironically, the Oak Tree, something many consider inanimate, understands what the bird is saying and is sadden by the impending loss of the little bird for he is “fond of the little Nightingale.” Overcome by the sense of impending loss the Oak Tree requests the Nightingale to sing one last song for it would “feel very lonely” once the bird is gone. Interestingly, the Oak does not try to prevent the bird from embarking on her mission. As the song comes to an end the Student takes out a notebook and a lead pencil from his pocket and conducts a poetic autopsy on the song. He who does not understands the bird’s language makes assumptions that give rise to several occasions of situational irony. He loftily grants the song has form, but denies the Nightingale is capable of feeling, sincerity, and self-sacrifice. The reader knows that bird is capable all these and more and that at that very moment is about to sacrifice her life in the service of someone else’s love. In a way, the Student’s accusation that the song serves no practical purpose is true. However, a work of art need not serve any utilitarian purpose if it does not choose to. Sadly, the Victorian Age is a time of utilitarianism. The Student’s criticism of the song invites a comparison between the sensitivities of the Student and the Oak. At the end of voicing unfounded accusations and groundless opinions, once again the Student goes back to his room to lie down on his little pallet-bed and bemoan his fate.

The song the Nightingale sings to the rose bush has three phases. During the first phase the song is on a calf love untouched by physical desire. Correspondingly, the rose that blossoms on the bush is initially white. The writer describes the colour of the flower at this stage using three similes:

1.      Pale was it, at first, as the mist that hang over the river

2.      Pale as the feet of the morning

3.      Silver as the wings of the dawn.

The bird’s song is so beautiful that even the “cold crystal Moon leans down and listens.” Yet, the Student sleeps oblivious to what is happening on the other side of his dorm window.

The second phase begins with the bush crying out for the bird to press closer still. Once again this request follows the Romantic convention and is repeated 3 times in the course of the story. In the second phase the Nightingale’s song is about love between the male and female which is intermingled with lust. This is signalled by the “delicate flush of pink” that comes into the leaves of the rose which the writer compares to flush on the face of a groom when he kisses the lips of the bride.

For the third and last time, once again the bush asks the bird to lean some more for the heart of the rose is still white. It could be turned red only by an infusion of the heart’s blood of the little bird. The repetition of the words “bitter” and “wilder” illustrates the Nightingale’s struggle to finish her undertaking and her feeling of pain at the thought of her impending death.  

The reason for the wildness of the song, according to Wilde, is that the bird is singing of love that is perfected by death which continues even after death. The question that arises at this point is that whose love the writer is referring to here, for the Student has shown no sign of being capable of such passionate love.

The infusion of Nightingale’s heart’s blood results in a crimson flower with a ruby heart. Wilde compared the heart of the rose to a ruby – something priceless. The repetition of the word crimson could be taken as an indication as a foreshadowing of the impending death of the little bird. At this point, with her mission accomplished, the Nightingale’s life force ebbs away. Then she gives “one last burst of music” so hauntingly beautiful the “white Moon” which was referred to as “cold” and “crystal” earlier in the story forgets the dawn and lingers on the sky. And the rose, the fruit of the bird’s sacrifice, hears it and trembles “all over with ecstasy” and opens “its petals to the cold morning air.” It must be noted that the mission of the Nightingale (thorn, blood, trembled all over with ecstasy) can easily be read as a metaphor for a sexual union that results in physical and emotional fulfilment.

In the end the Nightingale drops dead with the thorn embedded in her heart, very much like a hero in the battlefield; however, her song is carried all over the world so that her name lives on. First, Echo, the nymph hears it and carries it to her home in Arcadia. There, the shepherds hear the song in their dreams. They undoubtedly would sing it from then onwards. The song floats through the reeds of the river. Being the first musical instruments according to the Greek legend of Pan, the singing reeds carry the song to the sea and pass it onto the waves. And the waves carry it all over the world.       

For the Student, however, the rose obtained through such sacrifice is only a commodity to be exchanged for a dance. At noon the Student finally opens the window and looks out. And when he sees the rose he attributes its sudden appearance to luck. He is completely ignorant of the sacrifice made by the Nightingale in order to produce a red rose so that he could win the hand of his love. He notes the extraordinary beauty of the flower but this observation is immediately followed by the Rationalistic desire to classify and compartmentalize what he sees: “I am sure it has a long Latin name.” For him the rose is just a means to an end; therefore, he unhesitatingly plucks it rushes to meet his “love” in order to present her with the flower that he has not earned. The girl has given the Student a mission to determine his worth; therefore, presenting her with the fruits of the Nightingale’s labour smacks of duplicity.

Next, the reader is greeted with a domestic vision straight from a painting. It is interesting that the Professor’s daughter is winding blue silk on a wheel. Both the colour and the material have aristocratic connections. Her transition from red – the colour of passion – to blue – the colour of ceremony and reason is quite symbolic. She is ready to take on her responsibilities as a custodian of the norms and values of her society upon marrying the Chamberlain’s nephew. The Student burst upon the Professor’s daughter who is so serenely immersed in her task and reminds her of her condition and then goes on to tell her what she would do: “You will wear it tonight next to your heart, and as we dance together it will tell you how I love you.” The last section – “it will tell you how much I love you” – implies that the Student has done something more productive than lying on the grass crying and sleeping in order to earn the rose on his “love’s” behalf, which is quite misleading as we know. The young woman, however, does not take it kindly to being what to do. So she rejects the Student’s offering by saying, "I am afraid it will not go with my dress … and, besides, the Chamberlain's nephew has sent me some real jewels, and everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers. [This section of the story brings to mind the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant in which Madam Loisel says something which is quite similar to this to her doting husband.] The reader would most probably see the young woman as a materialistic social climber. However, it must be noted that without any formal education that would enable her to be their own persons, the worldview of most Victorian women was a reflection of their society. The use of the words “everybody knows” implies that the Professor’s daughter’s opinions are formed by what is popularly known as “common-sense knowledge” – which according to the social thinker Louis Althussar is formed by the Ideological State Apparatus in the service of the status quo. Further, as they were totally dependent on the men in their lives for everything, it was necessary for women of this period to marry well. And, the Student, as we know, would not be considered ideal husband material from any stretch of imagination. Upon hearing her refusal, the Student throws the rose down into the street and accuses the young woman of being “ungrateful.” This behaviour shows that the Student has not achieved any maturity as a result of undertaking the quest as the girl would have expected him to. He still remains the impotent petulant boy whom the reader has met at the beginning of the story. It is ironic that he should use the term “ungrateful” as he himself is suffering from the same malady. In addition, the term also implies that he has done something for the girl to be grateful, which he hasn’t. He walks away in high dudgeon. The student adds insult to the injury by calling love for which the Nightingale has sacrificed her life “a silly thing”. Moreover, he says that he is returning to more “useful” “true” and “practical” Logic, Philosophy and Metaphysics forgetting that those very subjects have not even equipped him with the knowledge to obtain an out of season rose. It was the love of the Nightingale that has resulted in the birth of the rose, not Logic, Philosophy, or Metaphysics. In the end he returns to his tomb-like room and shuts him up again with his great dusty volumes.