Weekend Quote #45

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."

Taken from Wilde's play The Importance of being Earnest. This quote attracts my attention because that's exactly what I do every single day. I always leave my house with my diary and a pencil case in my bag.

Well, I've been keeping diaries since I was 10 or so. I don't write everyday, unfortunately, but I always bring it anyway, because I love reading it over and over again. It's funny to see how time and experience form you.

Besides, by having a diary, I can always track people I fall in love with. (Want to guess who are on the list?)

That's the quote for this weekend. Want to share yours?

The Importance of Being Earnest: Funny, but Absolutely not Important

I've just finished Oscar Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest, which is the first Wilde play I ever read. My experience with Wilde has only been his super-sarcastic-but-tragic short stories, which I hate and love at the same time. So this feels new.

The plot involves a guy named Jack who leads a double life. In London, he is known as Ernest Worthing, while in the country he is John 'Jack' Worthing who has a brother named Ernest. His friend, Algernon, also leads a double life, which Jack calls “Bunburying,” because he makes up an invalid person named Bunbury to get away from things. Jack is in love with Algy's cousin, Gwendolen, and she is too, in love with him – or to put it more plainly, his name. Algy, curious to know his friend's life in the country, goes there as Ernest – Jack's brother. There he meets Cecily, a young girl under Jack's guardianship. He likes her, and she likes him as well – as Ernest. To make things more complicated, Gwen goes there as well to meet his fiance, Ernest. The rest is for you to read.

The play is witty and funny, but if you're looking for serious stuff or moral lesson, the book is not to be recommended. It mostly contains Wilde's smart sarcastic remarks on life and society. The plot itself is not so different from normal Shakespearean comedy, and therefore, enjoyable. Better still, it contains nothing inappropriate. It's perfectly funny, and not at all serious.

Having praised it so much, I still don't understand why I don't give it a good score on Goodreads. I only give 3 stars for it. Maybe it's because the language is so so simple and straightforward, not at all romantic or beautiful. Even though I don't really like it, it's still a worthy book to read. 

The Happy Prince and Other Tales: For Children or Not For Children

This book consists of five short stories intended for children (sort of), though whether they are or not for children is exactly what I'm going to write about today. But I will write about only three of them. I cannot find it in my heart to read The Devoted Friend again and not interested to read Remarkable Rocket. So, here are three of the five.

The Happy Prince

This story is about a statue of a prince that was sad because he couldn't help the people in the city. As the winter approached, he met a swallow who agreed to help him day after day. The prince sacrificed himself for people's sake, losing his eyes and the gold that covered his body to help the poor. The swallow had so great affection for the prince that he wouldn't leave him alone. Unfortunately, the people show little gratitude for what the prince had done for them.

I would recommend this story for kids above 12 y.o. The nature of the story might be less appropriate for younger readers.

Nightingale and the Rose

The story is about a young scholar who was in love with a girl – his professor's daughter – and wanted to ask her to be his dancing partner. But she said she would dance with him only if he could get her a red rose. A nightingale overheard this and was resolved to get a rose for him. The nightingale tried to find the rose but couldn't. Then she learned that the only way to get a red rose Is by sacrificing her life. She did that, claiming that “love is better than life”. In the morning, the scholar got his red rose and presented it to his lady. But she refused it, saying that another guy had given her a jewel, therefore she would dance with him instead. The scholar threw the rose away and was determined not to love again.

Almost like the Happy Prince, this story is far from happy ending story, and also only appripriage for older children, I'd say 12 y.o.

The Selfish Giant

The story is about a giant living in a castle. At first he didn't want to let the children play in his garden, but he got all year long winter and the other seasons didn't want to visit his garden. One day, he saw children playing in his garden and thought it was beautiful. He realised what a selfish person he had been all along. He saw a child trying to climb a tree but couldn't, so he helped him, and the child thanked him and kissed him. Although from that day onwards he let the children play, he never saw again the kid who had kissed him. Before he died, the kid returned, and asked him to join him in Paradise.

I truly love this story. Perhaps it is the most suitable for children of youngest age. I'd say kids from 5 y.o onwards can read the story without any damage done to their mind or heart.

Weekend Quote #16

“There is no Mystery so great as Misery.“

So short? Yes, but it's based upon so many paragraphs that I ave read from Hugo's Les Miserables. It seems that I haven't gotten over the thing yet, right? Yes, I haven't. Hugo seems to find satisfaction in describing every facet of human suffering – political instability, poverty, family problem, world's system, name them all. And at the end of these descriptions, I come to the point where everything becomes blurred, where the world is a sphere with no way out. Truly, misery becomes a great mystery. How to solve everything? Hugo doesn't answer that question satisfactorily. Only God knows exactly what to be done with all these things happening in the world.

Now I am neglecting my responsibility as a good quoter. This week's quote is taken from Oscar Wilde's short story – heartbreaking short story – “The Happy Prince”, which is not so happy. The Prince has been anonymously giving nearly everything he has to the people in the town, but he is eager to give more and more. So he asks the swallow his friend to tell him how's the town folk doing rather than telling beautiful stories from all around the world.

I think misery becomes so mysterious because most of those who suffer do not really know the why they suffer and how they can get out of their suffering. Another reason, misery is also, as stated above, something very hard to solve. And aren't mysteries things hard to solve?

Anything you want to share?

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Shorty July: Oscar Wilde's The Young King

I knew I had to write some Oscar Wilde the first time I joined this meme. I've been thinking of writing about something from The House of Pomegranates, but I have to leave out Fisherman and His Soul today, for I'm not emotionally strong enough to tell my thoughts decently. So I come to the less-heartbreaking story, which is the story of The Young King.

In Bahasa:

Cerita ini mirip dengan cerita-cerita dongeng pada umumnya, bercerita tentang seorang raja yang masih muda dan berasal dari kalangan biasa. Sang raja begitu menyenangi barang-barang yang indah dan terobsesi dengan hobinya itu. Sang raja akan dilantik, dan ia sudah memesan pakaian, mahkota, dan tongkat kerajaan yang begitu megah dan indah untuknya.

Pada malam sebelum ia dimahkotai, sang raja mendapat tiga mimpi. Ketiga mimpi ini memperlihatkan kepada sang raja harga yang harus dibayar orang lain untuk memuaskan keinginan egoisnya. Sang raja pun terbangun, shock dan merasa bersalah.

Ia akhirnya memilih untuk tidak mengenakan satu pun dari barang-barang yang telah ia pesan. Sang raja berangkat dengan mengenakan baju biasa yang ia pakai sebelum menjadi raja, dan mahkota dari jalinan daun dan tongkat kayu. Orang-orang menertawakannya, namun ia tidak peduli. Sang uskup menolak memulai upacara tersebut, dan beberapa kesatria ingin membunuh sang raja, yang mereka nilai menghina negara mereka dengan penampilannya. Namun, saat sang raja berbalik, ia terlihat begitu agung, karena Tuhan sendiri yang memahkotainya.

Cerita ini sebenarnya sangat sederhana, namun mengandung pelajaran yang berharga. Beberapa kalimat terus melekat dalam benakku, seperti:

“'Will they not know me for a king if I have not a king’s raiment?' 'They will not know thee, My Lord'”

Kalimat itu tampak begitu kontras dengan kutipan terkenal dari William Shakespeare, “My crown is in my heart, and not on my head.”

“‘Shall Joy wear what Grief has fashioned?’”

Cerita pendek ini begitu penuh dengan pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang menggelitik hati kita untuk melihat apa yang sebenarnya terjadi di dunia ini, tempat si kaya dan si miskin begitu jauh berbeda, dan masing-masing saling tidak peduli pada yang lainnya.

In English:

This is a story about a young king who loved beautiful and rich things, and for his coronation , he asked the best that he could get for his garments, his sceptre and his crown. But at the night before his coronation, he saw three dreams, each showing him what the others must pay for his luxury. He woke up in horror and guilt after seeing such a dreadful nightmare.

In the morning, he refused to wear the clothes, sceptre, and crown, beautiful as they were, but he chose to wear a simple raiment instead. His servants protested, as they thought it would not befit a king to be crowned in such appearance. Even the bishop that was to crown him refused him. But in the end, the Lord himself crowned the young king with great splendour.

The story is actually very simple, easy to understand, but contains so many precious lessons for us. I can't throw away some sentences from my mind, such as:

“Will they not know me for a king if I have not a king’s raiment?”

“Are not the rich and the poor brothers?”

“Shall Joy wear what Grief has fashioned?”

In this world where the rich and the poor live in different dimension, each neither think nor understand each other's problem and sufferings, those questions I found very touching.  

When Kindness Goes Unnoticed (Part 2)

In the last article we discussed about the kindness of people in Wilde's Happy Prince and Nightingale and the Rose. We will now see people's reaction to it and the reason behind that reaction.

The author himself said in a notable quote:

“The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out. ” - Oscar Wilde

I'm not saying that it is necessary to be credited for some good deeds you do, because as we see in the last article, the satisfaction we feel for doing a good thing is enough. But the above quote implies that our good deed is sometimes nt appreciated because nobody knows about it. Ignorance is the keyword.

Ignorance of the deed

In the Happy Prince, people in the city knew nothing about what the Happy Prince and the Little Swallow did for them. As a result, they didn't appreciate the did. Those who actually do something good don't always look like it. The Happy Prince couldn't move, so he was aided by the Swallow to do what he wanted to do. Similarly, for one reason or another, somebody perhaps doesn't want his name to appear when he does something for the sake of others.

The Swallow on the other hand, could fly, so many people knew about him. But they didn't know what he was doing, thinking of it as nothing more than a peculiar phenomenon. In the same sense, sometimes we see people being busy with thing we don't understand, without knowing that they are doing something good to us. As the result, we say no thanks to them.

The Nightingale too, died without the scholar knew what she had done for him. Thus, while calling the girl he liked “ungrateful”, he was ignorant of his own ungratefulness towards the gift of the Nightingale.

Ignorance of the motive

In Nightingale and the Rose, when the scholar saw the Nightingale sang for him, saying how she would make him a red rose, his respond was not good at all. Even though he did not understand a word she said, the song of a Nightingale is still a wondrous gift, since it's so beautiful. But because he didn't know the motive behind the singing (that is to give him a last message) he showed no appreciation to it.

And even when they knew..

Why, the girl in Nightingale and the Rose wasn't grateful at all for the rose although she knew that the scholar loved her. She chose a “better” gift. So, even when our good deeds are well-known and well-understood, there will still people who choose not to be grateful. But it doesn't stop us from doing good, does it?

When Kindness Goes Unnoticed (Part 1)

Among those in his era, Oscar Wilde was perhaps the most frank. His sentences are strong, clear, and simple, yet show his deep thoughts on the subject of life. This thing is true even in his short stories for children. These stories, although simple, always touch the hearts of the readers due to their sad and somewhat annoying ending. I'd like to focus on two of those stories, where kindness has been the theme sounded along the storylines: The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose. What I'd like to underline is how kindness and people's reaction to it described in these stories.

Motive of Kindness

“And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot chose but weep.” - The Happy Prince

The kindness that the main characters in the story show is unconditional, pure-hearted kindness, full of good intentions towards the subjects of kindness. The Happy Prince was moved by the sufferings he saw in the city, the Nightingale by the 'love' he saw in the scholar. Both of them felt sorry for people they knew little (if not nothing) about, and they expressed it in most noble way, giving what they have for them.

The Swallow in the Happy Prince story, however, although kind, showed kindness for a different motive. He didn't do it for the sake of the people at first, feeling that people had never done him any good anyway. But he liked and admired the Prince for his kindness, and felt that by doing so he helped the Prince to do what he wants. But as he did so, he found the work so satisfying.

Sacrifice

“Death is a great price to pay for a red rose.. Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?” - The Nightingale and the Rose

All three of them sacrificed their best for people. That is kindness. They didn't do kindness because they had leisure times. In fact, the Swallow needed to migrate to Egypt when the Prince asked him to stay. They didn't do it using their “leftovers”, something they didn't need any longer. They did the best that they could.

The Nightingale gave her best song and her life to help the scholar.  She had sympathy for the scholar and book initiative to help him.The same thing goes with Happy Prince. He saw the sufferings of the people and sympathized them. Thus, he took initiative to help them; he gave them his precious belongings.What about the swallow? He sacrificed his journey to the south to help the prince, and later, to keep him company. The Prince had told him to go, but he stayed. It's an act of kindness towards the blind Prince.

The Reward

And what's the result of being kind? What do you get when you show kindness towards people? In both of the stories, the 'good guys died, miserably. Nobody cared about them anymore. The ending is so tragic I couldn't cry. Is there nothing, then, they could get from doing kindness?

"It is curious," he remarked, "but I feel quite warm now, although it is so cold."
"That is because you have done a good action," said the Prince. - The Happy Prince

Whether the Swallow realised it or not, he felt 'warm' for doing good. He felt the satisfaction and joy for doing good. The same thing applies to the Nightingale and the Prince. In both of the stories we do not see any regret in those three characters, even though they died at the end.

But what about the persons the helped? I'll focus on that subject in the next article.