The Happy Prince

The Happy Prince

by Joselyn Travasso

​OBJECTIVES

​ To develop communicative skill .

• To inculcate literary appreciation .

•  Let the learners know the real meaning of happiness ,  love, sacrifice and charity To enable them to understand the real experience of good deeds .

• To enable and sensitize them to share the feeling of  happiness , love, charity and sacrifice .

• To sensitize them to have empathy , sympathy and helping hand towards the sufferings of human .

• To enable the to render the selfless service to the humanity .

​Author -

​THEME: LOVE, COMPASSION AND SACRIFICE

​CHARACTERS:

​1. The Happy prince

​2. The Swallow

​3. The little match girl

​4. God

​5. The woman in the poor house

​6. The play wright

​7. The mayor

​8. The town councillors

​The Happy Prince

​The Happy Prince is both the protagonist of this story and its namesake. Once a sheltered prince who led a life of pleasure, the Happy Prince was turned into a gilded statue upon his death and placed upon a pedestal overlooking his town. The Prince is described as exceedingly beautiful with golden skin, sapphires for eyes, and a ruby on his sword-hilt. Although his external beauty impresses everyone around him, he sees that beauty as only skin-deep; his true worth lies in his compassion for his townspeople and his willingness to sacrifice for them. The Happy Prince suffers, however, due to his sympathy for all of the misery he can see from his high perch.

​The “happiness” of this name is thus ironic, as the Prince describes having only experienced a false happiness in his previous life of pleasure, when he was ignorant of the true misery surrounding him. The Prince is ultimately a Christ-like figure, looking over humanity and sacrificing his life to alleviate their pain. Descriptions of the Prince also allude to classical understandings of wisdom and mentorship. The figure of the Prince, with his eloquent rhetoric and affinity for morally upstanding behavior, represents classical Greek and Roman ideals—in particular, the relationship that he develops with the younger Swallow alludes to classical mentor/mentee relationships.