English Cia 1

ENGLISH CIA 1
THE HAPPY PRINCE

1. Spot and highlight the presentation of pain and suffering in the story.
Pain and suffering are shown throughout this story in several different instances. The
happy prince whose statue was stood high and tall right in the center of the town could
see everything far and wide. He would look over the lives of people and weep looking at
those who were suffering in need of some help.
He first mentions a poor house, “far away in a little street” with a woman seated on the
table. She was thin and had a worn-out face with bruises and redness all over her hands
due to the needles she constantly used as a seamstress. She was embroidering flowers
onto a beautiful satin gown for on of the Queen’s bridesmaids. Her ill son slept on a bed
in the corner of the room with a fever and asking his mother for oranges that she could
not afford, due to which he was crying.
The next instant of pain and suffering is shown the next day when the statue talk about a
“young man in a garret” far away across the city. He was leaning over a desk covered
fully with papers and trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre. However, he
could not continue writing as he was too cold to do so. The fire is the grate was out and
he had no food to buy himself some food and satisfy his hunger.
The next day, we see an instance of young girl selling matchsticks for a living. She has
dropped all of her matchsticks into the river and she will be unable to sell them. She is
afraid to go back home without any money as she fears her father will beat her. She was
crying and was out in the cold street with no shoes, stockings or hat. This scene can also
be taken as a reference from the story ‘The Little Match Girl’ by author Hans Christian
Anderson.
We see many more instances in the story portraying pain and suffering through the eyes
of the Swallow. The poor were sitting by the gates of the rich in hopes of receiving some
money, clothes or food from them, in the dark, narrow lanes were the “white faces of
starving children” looking out into the streets, under the archway of a bridge were two
boys huddled up into each other trying to keep warm as they fall asleep only to be chased
away into the rain by a rude watchman.
These were all the instances in the short story which highlight the presentation of pain
and suffering that the Prince could not bear to see in his own kingdom which he had once
thought was only filled with happy and satisfied people who had no pain and problems.
2. What in the story is suggestive of futility in life with reference to Victorian

hypocrisy? Can you identify specific parts in the story that highlight the pretentious
nature of Victorian society? List the parts.
Futility in life means a life without any meaning, purpose or value. During the Victorian
Era, the was the state of the poor. Children were made to work from very young ages and
some families would even cast out their children onto the streets if they could not afford
to bring them up. The higher classes Victorians believed that it was their responsibility to
stay out of poverty’s way and blamed any defect in character on the poor.
This exact behavior is seen in the short story ‘The Happy Prince’. At the start, we see a
poor seamstress embroidering flowers onto a satin gown which would be worn by one of
the Queen’s bridesmaids. She is poor and has no money to get rid of her son’s illness or
to buy food. However, she still goes on doing her work to be able to earn some money. In
the meanwhile, the Queen’s bridesmaid who will be wearing the dress walks out of the
church wondering if her dress will be ready on time and calls the poor seamstress a lazy
woman for not finishing the dress faster.
The story also mentions a little matchgirl trying to sell matchsticks to people out on the
cold street but everyone ignores her and goes about their work as if they do not see her. It
is almost like she is non-existent or invisible.
As the Swallow goes around town, he sees several poor, hungry children and looking out
at streets with some hope in them that they will receive help but alas no one pays heed to
them. They are ignored, looked down upon in disgust by the higher class and chased
away from places.
Their lives hold no meaning and the upper class see them as a useless addition to the
society only good for doing their petty work and being their servants. They treat them
with utmost disrespect and do not bother about their well-being one bit.
All this is suggestive of the futility in life that was very clearly seen in the Victorian
society.
We even see the pretentious behavior of the upper class during the Victorian era at the
end of the story when the Mayor and the Town Counsellors were walking past the
withered statue. As soon as they saw that the statue did not have the precious stones and
gold plating on it, they decided that it was worth nothing and brought it down. They
melted the statue in the furnace and threw the heart of the prince in a dust heap where the
dead swallow was also lying.

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ENGLISH CIA 1

THE HAPPY PRINCE

2. What in the story is suggestive of futility in life with reference to Victorian

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