This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (New International Version). Love, pain and sacrifice are the main themes in one of the bible’s most quoted passages found in 1 John 4:10. These three themes, are arguably the main themes of the new testament of The Bible which focuses on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for his love to the people. Love, pain and sacrifice are also among the most prominent themes in Oscar Wilde’s “The Nightingale and the Rose.” Having even the most basic knowledge of the story of Jesus Christ, it is inevitable for one to recognize the religious significance that this story offers to its readers. Throughout the story, Wilde makes various references to …show more content…
Correspondingly, Wilde’s tale talks of a lover who suffers greatly because he is missing a red rose which is a symbol of love (Wilde 2621). In the bible, before Jesus’ coming, Jerusalem suffers greatly as it is struck down by plagues and desolation as recorded by the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 9: 11 (NIV). The sorrow of the student compares to that of Jerusalem before the Nightingale and Jesus Christ sacrifices himself in order to relive them of their pain and suffering. Upon learning of the sorrow of the student, the Nightingale starts a quest to find the object that will ease his pain for she recognizes the beauty and the value of the student and of love. As the story continues, one learns that the price for the red rose is a high one, as the nightingale must pierce its own heart with a thorn in order to obtain it ((Wilde 262-263). This point in the story is one that resembles Jesus’ story greatly and Wilde’s reference to the thorn serves as a confirmation for the connection of the two stories. In John 19, Jesus’s price to pay for the salvation of the “bride” is described as a painful sacrifice which must end with his own death (Matthew16:21). The …show more content…
The moral of the nightingale’s death and Jesus’ crucifixion is one of love, pain and sacrifice. Wilde’s use of biblical symbols and themes make his story comparable to the death of Jesus Christ who dies for his love for Jerusalem. The parallels of these stories are found from beginning to end and one who is familiar with the story of Jesus will undoubtedly recognize it, at least in part, in “The Nightingale and the Rose.” The emphasis on the painful sacrifice is very prominent in both stories and the final lessons learned from each one, coincide greatly with one
When love is in attendance it brings care, faith, affection and intimacy. This is proved true in the spectacular play A Midsummer Night's Dream written by William Shakespeare. This play displays the facts about lust, hatred, jealousy and their roles in something powerfully desirable. It is entitled love. Love is present everywhere, in every form, in every condition and even when one least expects it.
Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is, at first glance, a novel about a young, handsome man’s demise as he travels into a world of self- indulgence, immorality, and evil. Though the predominant motif of beauty versus ugliness is the main take-away point, Wilde’s use of symbols, particularly flowers cannot go unnoticed. From characterization to depicting religious allusions, flowers are frequently used in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Clearly, the novel’s use of roses, orchids, lilacs, and the like has an underlying meaning, which will be explored and analyzed in this essay.
The problem we find in this story, and in puritanism, is that it presents contrasting views of love. Attachment to earthly possessions, to other people in fact, is discouraged, because everything physical leads to temptation and damnation, and ultimately hell, while the road to salvation of the individual wanders through a spiritual discipline, rigour, austerity. A man should not love his wife more than he loves God; in fact, it is recommended that he not derive pleasure from his wife, but rather seek suffering, in order to redeem himself from his earthly condition, his impure state.
In the midst of a crisis, many people rely on their human instincts to quickly respond to the situation. Society idolizes these types of hero’s, and, often times, awards them medals for their courageous deeds. George Clemenceau, a French statesman from World War 1, said “A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he is not a man of action… You must act as you breathe.” While Clemenceau applauds immediate action, he fails to recognize that many situations simply become worse because of immediate decisions. When crisis’s strike, one should not act quickly and instinctively, but should evaluate the situation and asses the right course of action.
In Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Salome, and The Picture of Dorian Gray we see certain themes and similarities that reflect
Obsession in its nature is toxic; it turns people into gods, and leaves no room for their actual selves. Celebrities are the idols of the modern world, where ever they go, a fan follows them dying to get their attention. Dorian Gray, who was loved by nearly all of London for his charm and beauty, who’s biggest fan, Basil, worship of him lead to bitterness. The theme of obsession in The Picture of Dorian Gray is seen through both those who worship Dorian Gray, and the portrait, which is the object of Dorian's obsession. Although Wilde displays obsession through Basil's worship of Dorian, and even Dorian's obsession with himself and his youth, the modern day celebrity is a parallel to Dorian, who is worshipped by many at first for their beauty, wealth or fame, but the nature of the worship eventually leads to chaos.
Wilde’s play demonstrates how idealism influences individual’s potentiality to make fate-determining decisions. He does so through the character development of Robert and Gertrude Chiltern. The Chilterns’ idealistic attitudes regarding fiscal, social, and matrimonial issues play large roles in steering the plot to it’s exultant conclusion. For Robert, staying true to his ideals earned him a happy ending. For Gertrude, being gracious and flexible in her ideals led to her to a jubilant outcome. The two married characters bring balance as well as a genuineness to the nature of idealism. Whether an individual is persisting in their convictions or modifying their standards, idealism leads to characters determining their own destinies.
“Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back.” A quote by Arthur Rubinstein. I ibelieve iArthur iRubinstein iis itrying ito iexplain iif iyou ilove isomething, iyou igive ia ipart iof iyourself ito iit. You isacrifice iuseless iparts iof iyourself ibecause iyou iappreciate ithat ilife iis itelling iyou ithat iyou ineed ito igrow. When iyou ilove ipeople iand igive ithem ia ipiece iof iyourself, irather iyou're iallowing ithem ito itake ian advantage iover iyou iin isome iway, iand ithey ilike ithat ibecause iit's iwhat ithey iwant. There are three main types of love shown in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet such as Romantic love, Unrequited love and the love Juliet and her nurse share.
The Scarlet Letter is about the Hester Prynne, a woman who was married, but got pregnant while the husband was away. This causes the town to ostracize her, especially because she does not reveal the identity of the baby's father. Then, Hester's husband comes back to town and tries to weed out the priest who has been the father the whole time, and make him sick with guilt. This book has many Romantic concepts throughout. The importance of the individual and the significance of nature are both very Romantic ideas that are strewn all throughout The Scarlet Letter. Romanticism was a movement that originated in the late 18th century. It was a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Reason. Romanticism is mainly about the primacy of the individual and the importance of nature . Much of the big plans in the plot are made in the forest. Hawthorne almost always spends a little bit more time talking about nature when it appears. “This rose-bush, by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness...” (42) Nathaniels spends about half of a page describing the past of the rose-bush. This shows how he cares about the importance of nature, which is one of the main concepts of Romanticism. The way The Scarlet Letter is written in first person-omniscient also shows how Hawthorne believes in the primacy of the individual. The focus on Hester explains the way this book has the Romantic concept of the primacy of the individual. Although the story is mainly focused on Hester, Arthur Dimmesdale, the adultering priest has many Romantic themes about him.
...t speak to her lover only through the window of her room. At night, she would go to her window while she thought her husband was sleeping, claiming that the song of the nightingale kept her awake. After the nightingale is killed by the husband, the lord keeps the body with him always as a sign of devotion to the lady.
Later in the story, the narrator builds the theme of religion by indirectly revealing a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This devotion is taken t...
The Picture of Dorian Gray can be defined as a symbolic representation of a dialectic between two aspects of Wilde's personality. Dorian is an archetypal image by which both aspects are fascinated. This suggests that his behaviour symbolizes Wilde's unconscious (i.e. unacknowledged) attitudes. Dorian is characterized by his evasiveness and his obsession with objets d'art. For example, when Basil comes to console him about Sibyl's death, he is unwilling to discuss the matter. He does not want to admit the possibility that his behaviour was reprehensible. He tells his friend: "If one doesn't talk about a thing, it has never happened. It is simply expression, as Harry says, that gives reality to things" (107). Later, after murdering Basil, he again seeks to avoid acknowledging what he has done: "He felt that the secret of the whole thing was not to realize the situation" (159).
Arguably one of John Keats’ most famous poems, “Ode to a nightingale” in and of itself is an allegory on the frail, conflicting aspects of life while also standing as a commentary on the want to escape life’s problems and the unavoidability of death. Keats’ poem utilizes a heavy amount of symbolism, simile and allusion to idealize nature as a perfect, almost mystical, world that holds no problems while using imagery taken from nature, combined with alliteration and assonance, to idealize the dream of escape from the problems life often presents; more specifically, aging and our inevitable deaths by allowing the reader to feel as if they are experiencing the speaker’s experience listening to the nightingale.
In “Ode to A Nightingale,” a prominent significance to Keats is his idea of the conflicted interplay in human life of living and death, mortal and immortal, and feeling versus the lack of feeling or inability to feel. “The ideal condition towards which Keats always strives because it is his ideal, is one in which mortal and immortal,…beauty and truth are one” (Wasserman). The narrator plunges into a dreamlike state when hearing a nightingale sing. As the nightingale sings, he shares its elation and feels the conflicting response of agony when he comes down from his dreamlike ecstasy and realizes that unlike the nightingale in his imagination, “Thou was not born for death, immortal Bird,” his life is finite (61). “Where palsy shakes a few, sad last gray hairs, where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies” (25-26).
A very intelligent novelist, Oscar Wilde, catches his reader’s attention in his satirical play, An Ideal Husband, through a humorous drama filled political scandal and blackmail. Wilde sucks his audience into the romantic comedy by placing the reader with the characters throughout all their battles—in which he points out their bad habits and their faults. Wilde accomplishes drawing readers in by creating the satirical message of his play through satirical elements such as exaggeration, sarcasm, and irony.