Summary

“The Nightingale and the Rose” is a story in which the first character that appears is a Student. This boy is sad because a girl promised to dance with him on condition that he brought her red roses, but he did not find any red rose; there were white roses and yellow roses, but he could not find red roses. While he was moaning because her love would not dance with him, four characters from nature started to talk about him. A little Green Lizard, a Butterfly and a Daisy asked why he was weeping, and the Nightingale said that he was weeping for a red rose. The first three characters said that weeping for a red rose was ridiculous. The Nightingale, who understood the Student, started to fly until she saw a Rose-tree. She told him to give her a red rose, and she promised, in exchange, to sing her sweetest song, but the Rose-tree told her that his roses were white, and he send the Nightingale to his brother that grew round the old sun-dial. The Nightingale went to see this new Rose-tree, and after promising the same in exchange for a red rose, the Rose-tree told her that his roses were yellow, but he send the Nightingale to his brother, who grew beneath the Student's window, so the Nightingale went there, and when she arrived, she asked the Rose-tree to give her a red rose. The Rose-tree said that his roses were red, but that the winter had chilled his veins and the frost had nipped his buds, so he could not give her a red rose. The Rose-tree gave her a solution: he told her that if she wanted a red rose, she had to build it out of music by moonlight and stain it with her own heart's blood. She had to sing to the Rose-tree with her breast against a thorn; the thorn would pierce her heart and her life-blood would flow into the Rose-tree veins. The Nightingale said that death was a great price to pay for a red rose, but at the end, she accepted. The Nightingale went to see the Student and told him that he would have his red rose, that it was her who was going to build it up with her own blood; the only thing she asked him for in return was to being a true lover. Although the Student looked at her, he could not understand anything because he only understood the things that were written down in books. But the Oak-tree understood and became sad because he was fond of the Nightingale, and asked her to sing the last song and when she finished, the Student thought that the Nightingale had form, but no feeling. At night, the Nightingale went to the Rose-tree and set her breast against the thorn. She sang all night long. She pressed closer and closer against the thorn until the thorn finally touched her heart and she felt a fierce pang of pain. The more the rose got the red colour, the fainter the Nightingale's voice became, and after beating her wings, she died. The rose was finished, but she could not see it. The next morning, the Student saw the wonderful rose under his window. He took it and went to see the girl and offered her the rose, but she just say that the rose would not go with her dress and that the Chamberlain's nephew had sent her real jewels and that everybody knew that jewels cost far more than flowers. After arguing with her, the Student threw the rose into a gutter, where a cart-wheel went into it, and he said that Love was a silly thing and that he preferred Logic and Philosophy.

Characters

The Student is the first character in the story. He is a boy who dreams of dancing with the girl he loves, but he is worried because he does not have a red rose, that that was what the girl asked for in return of dancing with him. He dedicates his life to books: he likes Philosophy, and he considers books the only useful thing in life. We have an example of this when the Nightingale tells him that he is going to have his rose: “The Student looked up from the grass, and listened, but he could not understand what the Nightingale was saying to him, for he only knew the things that are written down in books”.

The three next characters could go together: the little Green Lizard, the Butterfly and the Daisy. They are all personified elements of nature. They think that it is ridiculous to weep for a red rose, and the Green Lizard even laughed outright.

The next character is our protagonist. The Nightingale is all goodness. She thinks that the most important thing in the world is love, and she even gives her life for love.

The three next characters could go together too. The three Rose-trees, although the important one is the one who has the red rose. He tells the Nightingale to die for a red rose.

The last character is the daughter of the Professor, the girl the Student loved. She makes much of material things and she looked down on the rose the Student gave her just because it had less material value than the jewels another boy sent her.

Time and Space

The action takes place in the room of the Student, when he is reading at the end of the story; in the garden that is near the Student's room's window, where we find the Rose-tree that has the red rose and where the Nightingale knows about the problem the Student has and the last places is the daughter of the Professor's house, where she despises the Student and his rose.

We can easily see in the story that the action develops in some hours. The evening and the night of one day, when the Nightingale listens to the laments of the Student, when he find the Rose-tree that can give her a red rose and when she dies building the red rose for the Student; the other period of time is the next morning, when the Student goes to talk to the girl he loves. In the story we do not see any flashback, we see a liner account.


The main words in this tale belong to the semantic fields of nature, knowledge and love. We are going to see different examples of this.

We see the semantic field of nature in “… asked a little Green Lizard..”, “… said a Butterfly…”, “…whispered a Daisy”, “He is weeping for a red rose -said the Nightingale”, “She passed through the grove”, “In the centre of the grass-plot was standing a beautiful Rose-tree”, “But the Oak-tree understood”, etc.

The semantic field of knowledge can be seen in “… cried the young Student”, “Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched”, “It is not half as useful as Logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true […] I shall go back to Philosophy and study Metaphysics”.

The Semantic field of love is present in these examples: “Here at last is a true lover”, “Surely Love is a wonderful thing”, “Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?”, “All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty”, “She sang first of the birth of love in the heart of a boy and a girl”.

Apart from these semantic fields, we can find some stylistic resources such as comparison, that is the most resorted stylistic characteristic: “His hair is dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are red as the rose of his desire; but passion has made his face like pale ivory”, “It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals”, “My roses are white, as white as the foam of the sea, and whiter than the snows upon the mountains”, “My roses are yellow, as yellow as the hair of the mermaiden […] and yellower than the daffodil that blows in the meadow […]”, “And a delicate flush of pink came into the leaves of the rose, like the flush in the face of the bridegroom when he kisses the lips of the bride”.

Another stylistic resource is personification. We can see that the main characters, apart from the Student, are animals or elements from nature, such as a little Green Lizard, a Daisy, a Butterfly, a Nightingale, a Rose-tree and an Oak-tree.

Other outstanding features

One remarkable thing is that at the end of the tale, when the Student says that the daughter of the Professor is ungrateful, we can see that the really ungrateful one is the Student himself, who look down on the Nightingale's life.

We can see that the most important theme in this tale is beauty, it is everything for the artist who gives her life for it, and the less important thing for her is materialism, represented by the Student and also by the daughter of the Professor. The Nightingale sacrifices her life to create the rose that will give love to the Student.

The bird is very ancient as a symbol in the cultural tradition. The bird is the symbol of immaterial beauty, and the election of a nightingale in this story has a deeper meaning: this is a lonely and shy bird. Our Nightingales is able to die in exchange for eternal love: Love, in our story is represented by the Rose, that is the most perfect flower in the world: “And the marvellous rose became crimson, like the rose of the eastern sky. Crimson was the girdle of petals, and crimson as a ruby was the heart”, “Here is a red rose! I have never seen any rose like it in all my life. It is so beautiful that I am sure it has a long Latin name”.

We can also see in this tale some elements I listed before, such as prototypical characters (the Student), or the number three (the Nightingale goes to three Rose-tree to find the red rose, and the characters that are with the Nightingale while the Student is moaning, are three: the Green Lizard, the Butterfly and the Daisy).