The Happy Prince

Here’s a summary of the chapter “The Happy Prince” and the answers to your questions, explained with emojis for easy understanding.

Summary of “The Happy Prince” 👑🐦💖

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The story “The Happy Prince” begins with a magnificent statue of a Prince, adorned with fine gold leaves, sapphire eyes, and a large ruby on his sword hilt. He stands high above the city on a tall column. One night, a little swallow, on his way to Egypt, decides to rest between the feet of the Happy Prince.

As the swallow prepares to sleep, he is surprised by drops of water falling on him, despite a clear sky. He discovers that the Happy Prince’s eyes are filled with tears, and tears are running down his golden cheeks. The Prince reveals that when he was alive, he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed, and his courtiers called him “the Happy Prince”. Now that he is dead and placed high above the city, he can see all the ugliness and misery of his city, and though his heart is made of lead, he cannot help but weep.

The Prince then asks the swallow to become his messenger. He requests the swallow to take the ruby from his sword hilt to a poor seamstress whose child is ill with a fever and crying for oranges. The swallow initially expresses reluctance to stay, wanting to go to Egypt, but feeling sorry for the Prince, he agrees to stay for one night. He delivers the ruby and gently fans the boy’s forehead with his wings, making the boy feel cooler. Upon returning, the swallow feels “quite warm” despite the cold, which the Prince explains is because he has “done a good action”.

The Prince then persuades the swallow to stay longer. He asks the swallow to pluck out one of his sapphire eyes and take it to a young playwright who is too cold and hungry to finish his play. The sapphire will be sold for firewood. The swallow initially resists, saying he cannot do that, but eventually obeys. The playwright becomes happy, believing the sapphire is from an admirer.

Finally, the Prince asks the swallow to pluck out his other sapphire eye and give it to a little matchgirl whose matches have fallen in the gutter and are spoiled. Her father will beat her if she does not bring home money, and she has no shoes or stockings. The swallow, now having made the Prince blind, declares he will stay with him always.

The swallow flies over the city and reports back to the Prince about the suffering of men and women he has seen: the rich making merry while beggars sit at the gates, and starving children in dark lanes. The Prince, wanting to alleviate this misery, commands the swallow to pick off the fine gold leaves covering him, leaf by leaf, and give them to the poor. The swallow does so, making the Prince look dull and grey, but bringing joy and bread to the children.

As winter sets in, the swallow grows colder and colder but refuses to leave the Prince, loving him too much. Knowing he is going to die, he bids the Prince farewell and kisses him on the lips, then falls down dead at his feet. At that moment, the leaden heart of the Prince’s statue snaps in two.

The next morning, the Mayor and Town Councillors see the shabby, now useless, statue and decide to pull it down and melt it. However, the broken leaden heart will not melt in the furnace, so they throw it on a dust heap where the dead swallow is also lying. In the end, God asks one of His Angels to bring Him the two most precious things in the city, and the Angel brings the leaden heart and the dead bird. God declares them rightly chosen, promising the bird will sing in Paradise and the Prince will praise Him in His city of gold.

Answers to the Questions 🤔

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1. Why do the courtiers call the prince ‘the Happy Prince’? Is he really happy? What does he see all around him? 👑😊🌆

   • The courtiers called him ’the Happy Prince’ because he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed to enter.
   • When he was alive, he says he did not know what tears were. So, in that sense, he was happy in his ignorance of suffering.
   • Now that he is dead and a statue, he can see “the ugliness and all the misery of my city” all around him.

2. Why does the Happy Prince send a ruby for the seamstress? What does the swallow do in the seamstress’ house? 💎🧵👶

   • The Happy Prince sends a ruby for the seamstress because he sees her seated at a table, her face thin and worn, with coarse, red hands pricked by the needle from her work. She is embroidering flowers on a gown for a maid of honour. More importantly, her little boy is lying ill with a fever, crying and asking for oranges, but his mother has nothing to give him but river water. The Prince wants to help alleviate their suffering.
   • In the seamstress’ house, the swallow hops in and lays the great ruby on the table beside the woman’s thimble. Then, he flies gently around the boy’s bed, fanning the boy’s forehead with his wings, which makes the boy feel cooler and allows him to sink into slumber.

3. For whom does the prince send the sapphires and why? 💙✍️👧

   • The Prince sends his first sapphire eye for a young man in a garret who is a playwright. The young man is leaning over a desk covered with papers, trying to finish a play, but he is too cold to write any more, has no fire, and hunger has made him faint. The Prince intends for the playwright to sell the sapphire to a jeweller, buy firewood, and thus finish his play.
   • He sends his second sapphire eye for a little matchgirl. Her matches have fallen in the gutter and are all spoiled, which means her father will beat her if she does not bring home money. She also has no shoes or stockings, and her little head is bare.

4. What does the swallow see when it flies over the city? 🌃👀貧富

   • When the swallow flies over the great city, he sees the rich making merry in their beautiful houses.
   • Simultaneously, he sees the beggars sitting at the gates.
   • He flies into dark lanes and sees the white faces of starving children looking out listlessly at the black streets.
   • Under the archway of a bridge, he sees two little boys lying in each other’s arms trying to keep themselves warm, saying “How hungry we are!”. A watchman then shouts at them to leave, making them wander out into the rain.

5. Why did the swallow not leave the prince and go to Egypt? 💖❄️

   • Initially, the swallow, despite wanting to go to Egypt, felt sorry for the Happy Prince when he looked sad and agreed to stay for one night as his messenger.
   • He then shows he has a “good heart” when he agrees to stay a night longer for the playwright.
   • After plucking out the Prince’s second eye, the Prince becomes blind, and the swallow declares, “You are blind now… so I will stay with you always”.
   • As winter progresses and it gets colder, the swallow “grew colder and colder, but he would not leave the Prince, he loved him too well”. He prioritises his love and loyalty to the Prince over his own survival and desire to go to Egypt.

6. What are the precious things mentioned in the story? Why are they precious? 🙏💔🐦

   • The two most precious things mentioned in the story are the leaden heart of the Happy Prince and the dead swallow.
   • They are precious in God’s eyes because they represent ultimate selflessness, compassion, and love.
     • The Happy Prince’s heart was full of sorrow for the suffering of humanity and led him to sacrifice all his beauty and precious jewels to help the poor. Even after being melted down, his leaden heart would not break and remained whole.
     • The swallow gave up his own life and the chance to go to Egypt to stay with the Prince and assist him in his acts of charity, enduring the bitter cold and ultimately dying at the Prince’s feet.
   • God deems them precious because the little bird “shall sing for ever more” in His garden of Paradise, and the Happy Prince “shall praise me” in His city of gold. Their actions reflect divine virtues.