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29 pages 58 minutes read

Oscar Wilde

The Nightingale and the Rose

Fiction | Short Story | YA | Published in 1888

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Essay Topics

1.

Research aestheticism and Wilde’s role in the movement. How does “The Nightingale and the Rose” reflect Wilde’s aesthetic convictions and belief in “art for art’s sake”?

2.

Throughout the story, Wilde uses many similes, metaphors, and other descriptive phrases to create intricate imagery, even when the imagery is unnecessary to the plot. What role does Wilde’s descriptive prose play in enhancing the story?

3.

How does Wilde subvert readers’ expectations of a fairy tale, particularly in the characters of the Student and the professor’s daughter?

4.

Research some of the Irish fairy tales collected by Lady Wilde. How does “The Nightingale and the Rose” show the influence of these traditional tales that Wilde grew up with?

5.

Is there an antagonist in this story? If so, who is it and why? If there is no antagonist in the story, is there an antagonizing force or ideal that results in the tragic waste of the rose at the end of the story?

6.

The humans in “The Nightingale and the Rose” are notably less sympathetic than many of the nonhuman characters. How and why does Wilde evoke the beauty and emotional depth of the natural world as opposed to the shallowness of the human world?

7.

Despite the Nightingale’s wise understanding of love and beauty, she fails to see that the Student is a false, shallow lover. Does the Nightingale’s mistake render her wisdom questionable, or does it make her more sympathetic, as she saw the best in the Student?

8.

Compare and contrast “The Nightingale and the Rose” with another of Wilde’s fairy tales. What common themes or concerns do the two stories share?

9.

In what ways does the Student’s failure to understand the Nightingale represent not only his inability to understand beauty but also his inability to connect to nature? What might account for this failure?

10.

Early in the story, Wilde describes the Nightingale as thinking about the “mystery of Love” (60). Could “The Nightingale and the Rose” be considered a story about the value of what the poet John Keats termed “negative capability,” or the ability to accept uncertainties rather than demand reason?

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