The Nightingale and the Rose

Follow up

1- Find symbols (symbolic) of the student, the girl, the nightingale and the oaktrees.

Symbol = symbolic of

(Red) Rose = (Unrequited) love (unrequited love = love that becomes rejected)
Nightingale = Devotion, virtue
Student = Naïveté
Oaktree = Wisdom
Girl = Materialism

2- Find examples of similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, assonance and consonance.

"Sorrow has set her seal upon his brow" : metaphor

"Passion has made his lace like pale ivory" is a simile.

The nightingale, the oaktrees and the butterflies that can speak are all personifications.

3- Write 2 paragraphs of your interpretation (message, bla bla bla) (250 words)

I recently learned that the famous write Oscar Wilde, after spending two years in jail, did not get to see his two sons much. Shortly after this information settled in my mind, Mister Bonkowski asked me the following question: "Did you know that Oscar Wilde dedicated The Nightingale and the Rose to his two sons?" As a matter of fact, I did not know that. I was glad my teacher told me this pertinent piece of information because by putting all of the knowledge I now had of Oscar Wilde together, I started wondering about Wilde's intentions in writing such a story. Did he want his kids to learn a life lesson out of The Nightingale and the Rose? Did he want to transmit personal information through it? Did he want to tell them that life was full of deceptions? Or on the contrary, did he want to tell them that life was full of loving people just like the Nightingale who are willing to help in time of need? After asking myself all these questions, I came up with a theory.

We knew that Oscar Wilde was in fact quite different from everyone else. He was also gay or bisexual and he wasn't very shy in letting people know. Unfortunately for him, he did not live in the year 2009. When he was out and about, being anything other than a heterosexual was a very bad thing. No matter how hard he tried to stand out and be liked by others, people despised him. When he was a student, other students would trash his room just for fun, just because Wilde was "weird". Therefore, my theory is that, just like the student in his story, Wilde must have wanted to be with a boy or a girl at one point in his life and been rejected. Maybe while writing his story, he hoped his sons would get a glimpse of his life. Maybe he was trying to teach them that love was worthless and that books and studying were much better. But in reality, who knows?