Charity, Sacrifice and Self-Denial: Keys of True Happiness Through Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince

Abstract

Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince (1888) has a biblical base which deals with principles of Christianity. The prince experienced a fortunate youth because he was only permitted around cheerfulness and exquisiteness. After his bereavement, he becomes a golden statuette and can perceive the insufficiency and unhappiness in the town. He lived comfortable life and died in the same manner. He never experienced sorrow and grief in his life. However, after his death, he stood in the form of a sculpture on a plinth and observed pain, agonies and miseries of deprived people with his naked eyes. The major objective of this research paper is to delineate charity, abandonment and selflessness are the epitome of true happiness. Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince showcases the clandestine of true happiness, which is obtained not through material wealth but by implementing the qualities of compassion, donations, sacrifice, self-denial, caring of others, communal unfairness, liberating influence of affection, forfeiture of blamelessness and unselfish obligation. The prince donates his body parts for the unfortunate folks in order to eradicate poverty from the society and the Swallow with full commitment, donates his life for the well-being of the underprivileged and penurious. Eventually, the contented prince misplaces its superiority as an entity of embellishment and substantial assessment and seems as a monstrosity in the town while the Swallow drops down in a powerless and emotionless state, i.e. in a deceased state with deprivation. They both become debris for the people in the town and were despised by them but they received heavenly reward, i.e. they received praise and acclamation from God and His holy angels.