The Happy Prince | Question Solutions
The Happy Prince Question Solutions
-Oscar Wilde
TEXTUAL QUESTION SOLUTIONS
Thinking About It
Q.1. Why do the courtiers call the prince ‘the Happy Prince’? Is he really happy? What does he see all around him?
Ans: The courtiers called him ‘the Happy Prince’ because he spent his life in the palace amid an affluence of wealth and comforts. He never experienced any sorrow and sufferance.
During his lifetime the prince was happy but when he died and a statue of him was built and placed in town then he happened to see the sorrow and sufferance of people. So he could no longer be happy.
He saw the rich enjoying a happy and comfortable life in beautiful houses and the poor suffering from poverty and hunger.
Q.2. Why does the Happy Prince send a ruby for the seamstress? What does the swallow do in the seamstress” house?
Ans: The Happy Prince sent a ruby to the seamstress through the swallow because she was very poor, she kept busy in knitting gowns for the attendants of the queen. Her child had been suffering from fever and was whining for an orange. The woman had nothing to feed the child except water. The Happy Prince felt sorrow for the woman and sent her a ruby to get relieved of her poverty.
When the swallow went to the seamstress carrying the ruby, the bird saw that the lady was asleep and the boy was crying behind asking for an orange. The bird hopped in and lay the ruby on the table and then he flew round the sick boy’s bed and fanned his forehead with its wings.
Q.3. For whom the prince sent the sapphire and why?
Ans: The Happy Prince sent the Sapphires to a young playwright and to a matchbox selling girl.
First, he sent a piece of sapphire to a poor young playwright because he was writing a play for the director of a theatre company. But he could not complete the play as it was very cold. There was no fire in the grate and hunger made him faint. The Happy Prince sent him a sapphire so that he could alleviate his poverty and complete the writing of the play.
Secondly, the prince sent another piece of sapphire to a poor match-box-selling girl who accidentally dropped the matchboxes in the gutter. She was in great dread of being beaten by her father if she did not bring some money. She had neither shoes nor stockings and his head was bare. So the prince sent a sapphire to the girl with a view to help her.
Q.4. What does the swallow see when it flies over the city?
Ans: When the swallow flew over the city it saw the rich making merry in their beautiful houses while the beggars were sitting at their gate being hungry. When he flew into the dark lanes he saw the white faces of starving children, looking out indifferently into the darkness. He also saw two hungry boys being chased by policemen.
Q.5. Why did the swallow not leave the prince and go to Egypt?
Ans: When the pieces of sapphire and the ruby were plucked out from the body of the prince then it became blind and miserable. The swallow took pity on him and did not like to leave him alone.
So the swallow did not leave the prince for Egypt.
Q.6. What are the precious things mentioned in the story? Why are they precious?
Ans: The precious things mentioned in the story are: the leaden heart of the Happy Prince and the dead body of the swallow.
They are precious because they understood the miseries of others and tried to help the needy and thus they sacrificed their lives for the well-being of others. 0 0 0.
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