Foreword: "The Nightingale and the Rose" is a tragic fairy tale in the aesthetic style written by Oscar Wilde. It is known as "the most beautiful fairy tale in the world". It caused a sensation since it was first published in 1988 and has been forever popular. It is recorded in the history of British children's literature. This fairy tale made Wilde's status in fairy tale literature no less than that of Andersen.

This fairy tale mainly tells the story of a nightingale who was moved by a young student's love for the professor's daughter and sacrificed her life to find a delicate red rose for him. However, the professor's daughter prefers jewelry to roses. The professor's daughter failed the young students, who turned around and abandoned the roses that Nightingale had bought with her life, and chose to pursue philosophy in books.

Different from Andersen's fairy tales that weave children's dreams of princesses and princes, Wilde's tragic fairy tales focus on the grief and sorrow in real life, intertwined with the conflict between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, and satirize the injustice and injustice in real society. Trapped. As Wilde said, "The purpose of art is not simple truth, but complex beauty." Reading Wilde's "The Nightingale and the Rose", you will receive an indescribable shock and touch from the complex beauty he created.

Today, I will analyze how this "most beautiful fairy tale in the world" reveals its gorgeous and cold beauty from three aspects: the story content, expression techniques and emotional expression of this fairy tale. In the fourth part of the article, based on the story of a nightingale dedicated to beauty in this fairy tale, I will talk about some thoughts on the pursuit of beauty in real life and work.

01. Analysis from the content of the story: Nightingale believes in true love and is willing to sacrifice herself for this noble emotion in exchange for roses, the symbol of love. In the end, her soul is sublimated in the sacrifice.

The story begins with a young student crying in the garden for the love he cannot get: the lover of his dreams asked for a red rose, but he was unable to do so. Other creatures in the garden, such as green lizards, marigolds, and butterflies, all laughed behind their backs that the young man suffered so much for a red rose.

The nightingale was amazed in her heart! She recalled that the thing she sang and praised day and night, wasn't it the love for which the young student in front of her was fascinated, painful and sad?

The Nightingale said, "What I sing about is his pain, and what I am happy about is his sadness." She sat quietly on the oak branch, thinking about the mystery of "love".

So Nightingale made a major decision. She would find a rose for this young man at all costs and help him realize his pursuit of love.

In my opinion, the simple and kind-hearted Nightingale experienced a spiritual baptism here. Before sensing the love of the young student, the nightingale sang night after night, singing for all the beautiful things in the world. However, she did not have the opportunity to personally come into contact with the things she sang about. She is immersed in her own world and sings for this complicated world. This is her unconscious pursuit and longing for beauty.

The cries of the young students brought Nightingale up close for the first time to the spiritual beauty she sang about. Seeing the young students grieving for love, Nightingale felt a kind of spiritual shock and satisfaction.

This kind of mental shock and torture due to the pursuit of love is the passion and mystery of love. The things the Nightingale sings about change from abstract to concrete, making her willing to pursue them.

It is winter, which is not the time for red roses to bloom. If you want to exchange for red roses at this time, you must use blood and swan song to water the petals and dye a beautiful red rose. The nightingale was not afraid of this. She said calmly, "Whose life is not precious, but love is more valuable than life. How can a bird's heart be compared with a human heart?"

The nightingale came to the young student and told him that he was about to get a rose. The Nightingale shouted: "The reward I ask from you is just to be a faithful lover... Although philosophy is wise, love is wiser than her; although power is powerful, love is greater than her."

The nightingale dedicated its bright efforts and poignant swan song, and a rose as red as fire was born in the nightingale's tragic dedication. The nightingale, as energetic as a gossamer, tried its best to convey its song to the world at the last moment of its life.

"The echo led the song into the dark purple cave on the hillside, waking the shepherd boy from his dream. The song flowed into the reeds by the river, and the reed leaves carried the message to the sea."

< p>Nightingale spends her life chasing love out of her sincere and passionate spiritual beliefs. She selflessly devotes herself to the love of others, and her only request is that she hopes that young students will always remain loyal to love. The Nightingale's pursuit coincides with the views of the Hungarian poet Petofi. Just as Petofi sang in his popular work "Freedom and Love", "Life is precious, but love is more valuable."

It is worth mentioning that "love" here is not limited. It is not about the small love between two people, but it means a higher level of perfect and pure spiritual pursuit.

Wilde admired sincere spiritual beauty, and even the great spiritual pain caused by spiritual destruction was like a treasure to him. Although the nightingale sacrificed her life, her blood and swan song made love freeze, and her soul also sublimated, spreading to all parts of the world as the song filled the air.

02. Analysis from the technique of expression: The secular girl, the cowardly young man, and the determined nightingale are in sharp contrast. They are Wilde’s insinuations about the rampant money worship and the talkative scholar

The article uses a lot of contrasting techniques to highlight the tragedy and rareness of Nightingale's sacrifice for love, but behind it lies the author Wilde's ridicule and lashing of the society at that time.

Wilde once commented on the young student in the work in a letter. He said, "In my opinion, he is a very shallow young man, almost as bad as the girl he thought he fell in love with."

In the story, the young student has always thought highly of himself. The nightingale is proud of having read through the books of sages, but despises non-human beings.

The young student said to himself: "Does (the nightingale) have feelings? I'm afraid not! She is actually like many artists, all she has is superficial form... Although we always It must be admitted that she has an intoxicating singing voice, but it is a pity that her singing voice is meaningless and not practical at all."

The irony is that young students who think they are well-read and wise cannot succeed. When it comes to roses, I can't think of a way to solve the problem except crying. After being cruelly abandoned by the professor's daughter, I can only blame the futility of love and turn to philosophy books. But the nightingale he looked down upon spent his life singing to water a bright red rose, and used his life's faith to pursue beautiful love.

Young students ridiculed Nightingale as "all superficial formalism" and "not practical at all." Little did they know that the bulky and dusty book they read was the real formalism. The positive image of young students chasing love and enlightening the beauty of nightingales at the beginning changed to the negative image of hypocritical philistines. The sudden and huge contrast made the article more ironic.

Such contrasts abound in the story.

The girl once pursued roses, but when she received jewelry, she decided to give up roses. "Everyone knows that jewelry is worth far more than flowers." In her eyes, red roses condensed with true feelings are not as good as jewelry given casually by rich people.

In the story, only the nightingale and the rose truly understand love. Secular girls don't understand, cowardly young people don't understand, and neither do green lizards, marigolds, butterflies and other bystanders who mock love. Sadly, in the ending, the nightingale dies and the rose is abandoned.

The sharp contrast between the characters and the unexpected ending of the complex bring huge emotional impact to the readers. Even Wilde himself sheds tears every time he rereads this story.

If you understand the era in which this story was born, you will better understand the social reality reflected in Wilde's story. The strong contrasting technique actually exposes the prevailing money worship culture, philistine philosophy and hypocritical morality in the Victorian era of the 19th century.

At that time, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, and major social changes had a disruptive impact on people. The major development of science and technology has brought great achievements to people's material life, and people's world view and values ??have been strongly impacted.

Carlyle, a famous British historian in the 19th century, lamented: "When the entire country only cares about money and is dominated by money, the next step is not to step on the ground, but to hang in the abyss. "Over the bottomed abyss."

Among them, the girl is the representative of money worship, the young man is the representative of philistine philosophy and hypocritical morality, and other bystanders, such as green lizards, marigolds, butterflies, etc. They are some people in society who follow the crowd, are ignorant and superficial. By portraying the image of a nightingale who is loyal to her beliefs and pursues her dreams, Wilde satirizes the materialistic society and ignorance.

03. Analysis from the perspective of emotional expression: The sacrifice of the nightingale and the rose is the spiritual beauty bursting out from the collision and destruction of ideals and reality. Art for art’s sake is Wilde’s unswerving pursuit of beauty until death.

On the last page of the book, there is this sentence:

“For Wilde, the artist is the incarnation of Jesus in modern society. His works are his pain and The crystallization of life is just like the nightingale dyeing the rose red with its blood."

The author Oscar Wilde is one of the greatest writers and artists in Britain and the main force of the aesthetic movement in the 1880s. He devoted his life to the pursuit of aesthetics and was a representative figure of aestheticism. Even before his death, he still murmured to himself, "Only beauty can be like this." His works without exception demonstrate flashy beauty and shocking artistic processing.

The weeping nightingale uses her life's final song to create a beautiful rose, which actually reflects Wilde's aestheticist artistic proposition of advocating "art above life". In his view, art is pure, has supreme status and eternal vitality.

Although the rose is not understood by the world and is eventually abandoned in the gutter, she truly exists in the world and will always remain in the hearts of people who believe in beauty. Love, as a representative of spiritual beauty, is Nightingale's lifelong belief. Rose, as the carrier of love, is the beauty that the nightingale is willing to sacrifice her life for. The nightingale's life is forever fixed in the moment of sacrifice because of her pursuit of the beautiful emotions of love, just like Oscar Wilde's unswerving pursuit of beauty until death.

04. Based on the story of a nightingale dedicated to beauty, let me talk about some of my thoughts on the pursuit of beauty in real life and work

Although "The Nightingale and the Rose" is a tragic fairy tale, However, the whole article exudes a magnificent sense of beauty. Wilde uses gorgeous diction to paint a bright and lively color on the sad background, so that readers can gain a beautiful experience in the reading process and let readers feel a deeper and more meaningful feeling. Sadness gives readers endless aftertaste.

Through the story of the nightingale’s devotion to beauty, I have a deeper understanding of beauty and life. This understanding is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

①Keep a beautiful heart A sensitive heart is good at discovering the beauty in life.

Nightingale is happy to enjoy all the beauty in life. In her opinion, "It is a pleasure to sit in the green forest and watch the sun in the golden chariot and the moon galloping in the white pearl chariot." The smell of hawthorn is so fragrant, and the bell flowers in the valley and the wild grass on the hillside are so beautiful."

Everything in the world is a wonderful existence in the eyes of the nightingale. It is for this reason that she is attracted by human emotions. convinced and willing to sacrifice for it.

Rodin, the greatest realist sculpture artist of the 19th century, once said, "Beauty is everywhere, and only those who are sincere and emotional can discover it."

In real life , we should also be people who are good at discovering beauty. Like the nightingale, we should always keep our emotions excited and explore the beauty around us. The brilliance of beauty may not bring us substantial material help, but it can enrich our spiritual world and allow us to live firmly and bravely in the secular world.

For example, you can record the beauty around you by learning photography, and train yourself to discover, notice, and record the beautiful moments and stories around you. Maintaining a sensitive heart actually requires us to be good at observing life. In my opinion, learning photography is the best way.

②Stick to yourself and be yourself in a complicated world, rather than imitating other people’s lives

When green lizards, marigolds, butterflies, etc. laugh at young scholars, the nightingale But silently made up his mind to exchange for the rose at all costs. The existence of bystanders such as the green lizard is Wilde's criticism of those ignorant and empty-minded mediocre people. At the same time, Wilde also used this to show that he had a firm stance on aestheticism and would not follow the trend and go along with the world.

As San Mao said, "If the heart has no place to rest, it will wander wherever it goes." If we do not stick to our original aspirations, then we will lose our souls and become mediocre people who drift with the crowd. However, everyone who sticks to himself will inevitably encounter temptations from the outside world in the secular world, and there will even be some mediocre people around him who try to assimilate you.

In a complicated world, it is particularly important to keep a clear mind at all times. We must be like the nightingale, firm and brave, not to conform to the world, not to imitate other people's lives.

I know a riding friend, Kuang Lu. After graduating from college, many people enter the workplace and go their separate ways, but he knows what he likes and what kind of life he wants. So, when all the classmates around him were in 996, he started to travel around China on his bicycle, and single-handedly filmed a cycling documentary "Xingjiang".

Don’t blindly follow the rhythm of the people around you, don’t envy or imitate other people’s lives, and bravely pursue your own life. This is the true nature of our new generation.

③Even if real life is not satisfactory, don’t give up the pursuit of a better future

The rose that the nightingale exchanged for her life was not cherished, but was abandoned in the gutter, and The bodies of the nightingales lay close together. Wilde did not arrange a warm ending for this story, but put naked humanity and truth in front of readers.

In real life, we will also encounter such a blow. Perhaps the ideal we pursue with all our heart is like that fragile rose, not tolerated by the world. However, even if the real world is not ideal, we must do our best to pursue a better future.

In the recently popular Douban high-scoring movie "Young You", Chen Nian, who suffered school bullying, excerpted this sentence from her English textbook: "We all live in the gutter. There are still people looking up at the stars.”

This is Wilde’s most widely circulated quote. It is Wilde’s belief, and it is also the belief of countless ordinary people who stick to their dreams. "Living in the gutter" is the fate of Nightingale and Rose, the situation of Chen Nian and Xiaobei, and a portrayal of ordinary people like you and me, being carried forward by the trend of the times. But life in the gutter does not prevent us from looking up at the stars; life that is unsatisfactory does not prevent us from continuing to pursue our dreams.

Conclusion:

"The Nightingale and the Rose" is a representative work of Wilde's aestheticism. The exquisitely conceived storyline, graceful and smooth rhetoric, and tragic and heroic devotion all reflect the spirit of Wilde's aestheticism. Bring out the brilliance and dazzle of literary beauty. Through this story, readers can see the charm of aestheticism, feel the impact of emotional destruction, and be moved by being loyal to their beliefs.

In daily life, we should also have a soul that is good at discovering beauty, to feel the exquisiteness of all things in the world, and to protect our souls from being polluted by the complicated world and from being tempted by utilitarianism, like the nightingale. Be equally loyal to your own pursuits and beliefs.