Lesson Four

Use the dialogues in the text to dramatize the story.

Students’ Participation

Structure

Nightingale struck by the “the mystery of love”

Nightingale looking for a red rose to facilitate the love

Nightingale sacrificing her life for a red rose

Student discarding the red rose

Questions

1. The author Oscar Wilde and his doctrine “art for art’s sake”

2. What is the genre of this story? And its characteristics?

Questions

1. The author Oscar Wilde and his doctrine “art for art’s sake”

Art for art’s sake:

A phrase associated with the aesthetic doctrine that art is self-sufficient and needs to serve no moral or political purpose.

Questions2. What is the genre of this story? And its

characteristics?

Fairy tales

Characteristics:

- fairies play a part

- contain supernatural or magical elements

- children’s stories

- full of veiled comments on life

Suggested Answers

Characteristics:

1) personification of birds, insects, animals and trees

2) vivid, simple narration --- typical of the oral tradition of fairy tales

3) repetitive pattern

Questions

1. What are the symbolic meanings of “Red rose”, “Lizard” “Butterfly” and “Nightingale”?

Suggested answers

Symbolic meanings:

Red rose --- true love, which needs constant

nourishment of passions of the

lovers.

Lizard --- cynic (cynical people)

cynic: a person who sees little or no good in anything and who has no belief in human progress; person who shows this by sneering and being contemptuous.

Suggested answers

Symbolic meanings:

Nightingale --- a truthful, devoted pursuer of

love, who dares to sacrifice his

own precious life

Student --- not a true lover, ignorant of love, not

persistent in pursuing love

Wilde’s comments in a letter to one of his

friends(May 1888):

   The nightingale is the true lover, if there is one.  She, at least, is Romance, and the student and the girl are, like most of us, unworthy of Romance.  So, at least, it seems to me, but I like to fancy that there may be many meanings in the tale, for in writing it I did not start with an idea and clothe it in form, but began with a form and strove to make it beautiful enough to have many secrets and many answers.    

Other analyses

The Student's one-sided preference for word knowledge over emotions is clear from the moment he first sees the rose.  "It is so beautiful," he says, "that I am sure it has a long Latin name" . 

The Student, the young woman, and their society are all one-sided psychically.  They have devalued the "capacity to love", here symbolized by both the Nightingale and the rose.

Other analyses

  The relationship of head and heart is a central concern of Wilde's fairy tales.  Promising to provide the red rose "out of music by moonlight" and to "stain it with my own heart's-blood," the Nightingale asks of the Student only that he "will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, "  But the Student cannot understand what the Nightingale says, "for he only knew the things that are written down in books.” He has too much "head" knowledge and almost no "heart" knowledge.

Other analyses

Wilde is right that the only lover is the Nightingale.  The wholeness it achieves is symbolized by the discarded, devalued rose.  In the end, the Student and the young woman reject the wholeness offered by that symbol.

What kinds of figurative speeches are used in the text?

PersonificationSimile and Metaphor

Climax and Anticlimax

Figurative Speeches

Personification

--- give human forms or feelings to animals, or life and personal attributes to inanimate objects,

or to ideas and abstractions.

e.g. Time, you old gypsy man,

Will you not stay,

Put up your caravan

Just for one day?

Figurative Speeches

Simile and metaphor

Simile:

…her voice was like water bubbling from a silver jar.

…as white as the foam of the sea…

Metaphor:

...and the cold crystal moon

Figurative Speeches

Climax

--derived from the Greek word “ladder,” implies the progression of thought at a uniform or almost uniform rate of significance or intensity

e.g. I came, I saw, I conquered.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.

Figurative Speeches

Anti-climax:

--- stating one’s thoughts in a descending order of significance or intensity, often used to ridicule or satire.

eg. 1. As a serious man, I loved Beethoven, Keats, and hot dogs.

2. For God, for America, for Yale.

3. You manage a business, stocks, bonds, people.

And now you can manage your hair.

Syntactic device

Inversion …yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched.

(for emphasis) …Crimson was the girdle of petals, and crimson as rub

y was the heart. She passed through the grove like a shadow and like a s

hadow she she sailed across the garden. Night after night have I sung of him.

Difficult sentences

“She has form, that cannot be denied but has she got feeling? I am afraid not. In fact, she is like most artists; she is all style without any sincerity. She would not sacrifice herself for others.” he said to himself, as he walked away through the grove.”

Who is “she”? What does the sentence mean?

Vocabularyjewels (gems): emeralds （绿宝石） , ruby （红宝石） ,

sapphire （蓝宝石） , jade （翡翠） diamond

plants: daisy （雏菊） , rose, oak-tree （橡树） , daffodil

（水仙花）animals: nightingale, lizard （蜥蜴） , butterfly

subjects: philosophy, metaphysics （形而上学） , logic

stringed instruments: harp （竖琴） , violin

Words and Expressions

Want: 1)the condition or quality of lacking something usual or necessary

for /from want of 由于缺少The plants died for/from want of water.stayed home for want of anything better to do.

2) pressing need; 贫困to live in want = to live in poverty

3) something desired:

in want of = in need ofAre you in want of money? He’s a person of few wants and needs.

Words and Expressions

fling1) to throw violently, with force

Don’t fling your clothes on the floor.

2) to move violently or quickly

She flung herself down on the sofa.

She flung back her head proudly.

3) to devote to

He flung himself into the task.

Words and Expressions bloomvi. to produce flowers, yield flowers, come into flowe

r or be in flower 开花 The roses are blooming.

blossom 1) vi. (of a seed plant, esp a tree or plant) to produ

ce or yield flowers, bloom The apples trees are blossoming.

2) vi. to develop Their friendship blossomed when they found out how many interests they shared.

Words and Expressions ebbn. 1.The tide is on the ebb.

2.The financial resources have reached its

lowest ebb.

vi. 1) fall back from the flood stage

The tide will begin to ebb at 4 o’clock.

2) to fall away or back; decline or recede

The danger of conflict is not ebbing there.

Words and Expressions lingervi. 1) to be slow in leaving, especially out of reluctance

The children lingered at the zoo until closing time.2) to proceed slowly

linger over one’s work (磨洋工）3) to persist

Winter lingers.vt. to pass (a period of time) in a leisurely or aimless

manner.We lingered away the whole summer at the beach.

Word Studysee see about doing: attend to, make arrangements fo

r, deal with 安排，处理   It is time for me to see about cooking the di

nner. see something out: to last until the end of 熬过，

度过Will our supplies see the winter out?

It was such a bad play we couldn’t see out the performance and we left early.

Word studysee through sb./ sth

The paper is too thick to see though.

It was a hard time for us, but we managed to see it through.

see to something: to attend to, take care of负责，留意If I see to getting the car out, will you see to closing the windows?

Word studygogo about something: to perform to do 从事，着手

to go about one’s business

Don’t go about the job that way.go after sb/sth

to go after a job, a girl, a prize go against sb/sth

Opinion is going against us.

The case may go against us.go along : vi. to agree with, support

We’ll go along with you /your suggestion.

Word sudygo round vi. 萦绕，

There is a tune going round in my head.If there are not enough chairs to go round, some people have to stand.

go back on sth Don’t go back on your promise.Never go back on your friends. 背叛，出卖

go by vi. He let the chance go by.A car went by. go by sth = according to, based onto go by the rules/the book

Word study go for sb/sth

My wife went for me because I was late for dinner.Do you go for modern music?I find this report badly done, and that goes for all the other work done in the office.

go into: to enter a profession, state of lifeto go into business/films

go over vi.= change one’s stanceHe went over from the People’s Party to the Enemy’s Party.

go through sth. vt = (some formalities)The country has gone through too many wars.They went through the new marriage service.

go under vi= go bankrupt, failShe has so many worries, she is sure to go under.