the happy prince and other tales by oscar wilde

One winter morning, the now old and frail Giant sees the boy he once helped standing beneath a magnificent tree.

As the years pass by, the children continue to come to play with the Giant, but the small boy he had helped never returns, breaking his heart. He helps a small, crying boy climb a tree and invites the other children back in, announcing the garden is now theirs as well. The sight inspires the giant to break down the wall, but as soon as he steps out all but one of the children run away in fright. He looks out his window and sees that the children have found a way back in, which results in spring returning to the garden. One day, he is awakened by the sound of a bird.

Angered by their presence, he builds a wall and puts up a notice saying “TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.” This causes his property to fall into an undying winter no trees grow and spring and summer never come. When the Selfish Giant returns from a seven-year visit with the Cornish Ogre, he is furious to find twelve children playing in his beautiful garden. The lead heart and the dead swallow are discarded like they are nothing, but when God tells an Angel to bring Him the two most precious things in the city, the Angel brings him the dead bird and the lead heart. When the Mayor finds the statue in such a decrepit state, he decides to take it down, melt it, and make an ornate statue of himself. As a result, the Happy Prince’s lead heart breaks. By the time winter arrives, though, the Happy Prince is stripped of all his beauty while the Swallow dies of the harsh cold. The Swallow loves the Prince and decides to stay. He then asks the Swallow to distribute the gemstones and gold leaf from his form to various families in need.

Now, though, he can see the suffering of his people. The Swallow notices the Prince is crying, and the Prince explains that during his lifetime, he had lived in a palace devoid of misery, and therefore had never experienced sorrow.

One night, a Swallow who had not gone to Egypt with his flock for the winter because he was pursuing a beautiful Reed arrives in the city and rests on the Happy Prince’s statue. He oversees the town and is pained by the suffering of his people. High above a city stands an ornate statue of the Happy Prince, recently deceased.

The happy prince and other tales by oscar wilde