'Nineteenth Century Short Stories' is a collection of tales from the nineteen hundreds. This essay will concentrate on just one of these stories. It will include a thorough analysis of the story including my views and opinions towards the language, imagery and setting that the author uses.

The story I have chosen to analyse is 'The Nightingale and the Rose', by Oscar Wilde. This is one of many children's stories that he wrote, as he is well known to have 'used the form of fairy tale to reflect on modern life and to debate ideas'.

'The Nightingale and the Rose' is a very poignant story following the theme of love. The theme is conveyed in this story through the actions of the Nightingale. It demonstrates how one life would sacrifice itself in order to make another happy. From the Nightingale's point of view, this is a tragically ironic story. For she thinks that the Student must be a 'true lover' - she thinks that he would give anything for one night with the Professor's daughter.

'She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses...yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched', the Nightingale hears him cry; and on this evidence alone she bases her opinion:

I think that the most powerful imagery used in this story is just before the Nightingale is about to die, and she gives 'one last burst of music.' The writer gives the impression that her voice is very strong, powerful and penetrating - just like his writing. 'The white Moon heard it, and she forgot the dawn, and lingered on in the sky.' You can imagine the Moon stopping dead in the sky to listen to the tiny powerful creature. 'The red rose heard it, and it trembled all over with ecstasy, and opened its petals to the cold morning air.' You can really relate to this sentence - you feel as though you are the red rose, you can feel the cold morning air against your petals. The use of the word 'trembled' gives an extra feel to the sentence. 'Echo bore it to her purple cavern in the hills, and woke the sleeping shepherds from their dreams.' The writer tells us that the little Nightingale's voice travels further than we can imagine, and the use of the word 'echo' makes her voice sound powerfully haunting. 'It floated through the reeds of the river, and they carried its message to the sea.' Again, distance is used to try and explain just how mighty her voice was. This description makes you think that the little Nightingale's voice must have travelled to the four corners of the Earth.

The ending of this story is again an example of just how powerful Oscar Wildes writing is. It gave me strong feelings of resentment towards the Student - a member of my own race, and feelings of great sympathy towards the poor Nightingale, who by this time was dead, and no love came of it. After the Professor's daughter had told the Student that she was now going to the dance with the Chamberlain's nephew, 'he threw the rose into the street, where it fell into the gutter, and a cart-wheel went over it.' All that work she had put into perfecting the rose was wasted! Her life had been wasted, just like the rose. The Professor's daughter was, I think, just as selfish as the Student; so Oscar Wilde was not being sexist at all when he criticised the human race. We are equally as selfish as each other, and we should pay more attention to things other than ourselves. 'besides, the Chamberlain's nephew has sent me some real jewels, and everybody knows that jewels cost far more than flowers' In this case she was very wrong! This flower had cost a life, and it was built with love. What the Nightingale had said earlier on in the story now made sense to me: 'Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals.' The Nightingale knew what love was worth. The Student had experienced a bad example of love, and after one attempt, he was prepared to give up. The Students feelings towards love were 'It is not half as useful as Logic, for it does not prove anything'. Again he was wrong, for love proved that lives were willing to sacrifice themselves to make him happy, but he had no idea of what went on in order for him to get that red rose; so he could not appreciate the act of love in this story. Love proved that it existed, and being such a strong and powerful emotion, it needed to prove no more. We should take a look around every once in a while to absorb what Mother Nature has bestowed upon us, and we should learn not to take advantage of it, but to be thankful instead.

The moon plays an important part in this story, and she is described in a different way every time she is mentioned. 'The Moon in her chariot of pearl' - here is an example of the use of archaic language, to create poetic images. Another is: 'when the Moon shone in the heavens'; it didn't just shine in the sky, but it shone in the heavens, making the image more majestic, and powerful. The next mention is 'the cold crystal Moon leaned down and listened.' Here is a good example of allitera

Some common words found in the essay are:
Oscar Wilde, Student Professor's, Nightingale Rose-tree, Oscar Wilde's, Nightingale Rose', Oscar Wildes, Nightingale Student, Short Stories', red rose, Eden Bible, oscar wilde, professor's daughter, Mother Nature, fairy tale, sacrifice life, rose tree, 'the nightingale rose', nightingale love, nightingale's voice, 'the nightingale, nightingale rose', red rose tree, red rose nightingale, bubbling little silver, little silver jar',
Approximate Word count = 2552
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)