The Happy Prince Summary Class 9 | Notes | NCERT Solutions | Questions Answers |
The Happy Prince Summary
The Happy Prince Summary : This is a story written by Oscar Wilde. The Happy Prince, a sculpture, was covered with gold leaves and precious gems. He overlooked the city from the top of a building. One day, a swallow bird took shelter under the Happy Prince because he was flying to Egypt. The bird asked the prince why he was so unhappy, and then learned that he was not happy at all but rather miserable because he had no friends in this city to talk to or share his sorrows with. The king told the bird that till he was alive, he was happy in his palace. At that time, he did not know about what was going on with his people and did not care. When the king died, a statue of him went up high over the city. But then he saw that there were many poor people in the city and became sad because of their misery and suffering.
The Prince’s sculpture had gold leaves on his body, two sapphires in his eyes, and a ruby shining on his sword handle. The people loved the beauty of the statue. But when the bird saw the tears in the Prince’s eyes because he could see how unhappy people were, he decided to become a messenger for the prince so that he can be happy again.
This made the Prince happy that he could help. He asked the bird to take his ruby and give it to the seamstress who needed money for her sick son. The swallow did what he said, and he asked the bird if it wanted to stay with him. And it did.
Another time, the Prince asked the bird to take out one sapphire from his eye and offer it to the poor dramatist who couldn’t afford fire. This was because the playwright was feeling very weak and hungry and needed more time to finish his play. The bird followed the Prince’s instructions.
Once, the prince saw a girl who was being beaten by her father. The prince felt bad and asked the swallow to take out his other eye and give it to the girl. But the swallow said no because then he would be blind too and could not help her. But the prince insisted and so they gave it to her.
The Prince couldn’t see the people’s suffering or distress anymore. The swallow, staying with the happy prince, took leaves from the Prince and offered them to poor people. And it did this, even though the Prince didn’t have much gold left on him. It took all of his leaves of gold, and then he looked sad and dark. Soon, winter came and there was snow everywhere. The bird became cold and did not leave the prince. He got sick, but he did not leave him. Eventually he became too tired to live any longer and died from exhaustion. Then there was a sound that seemed like something broke inside the sculpture – it sounded like something broke in it.
The sculpture was sad after the kind swallow died. So it broke into two pieces. The Mayor and Town Councillors saw this and threw it in the furnace to get rid of it. But when they melted it, the broken heart didn’t melt. They got rid of it because there’s no use for a broken heart that doesn’t melt, so they threw it on top of where the dead swallow was laying.
Soon, God asked one of his Angels to bring the two most valuable things from the world. The Angel brought the leaden heart of the Prince and the dead swallow. God welcomed them with open arms in his garden of Paradise and called them his best creations.
NCERT Solutions of The Happy Prince
Think about it
Question 1. Why do the courtiers call the prince ‘the Happy Prince’? Is he really happy? What does he see all around him?
Answer: The courtiers used to call the prince ‘the Happy Prince’ because when he was alive, he did not know what tears were. He lived in the Palace where there was no sadness. When he passed, they made him into a statue and placed it up high so that he could see all over the city. He is not at all happy. He gets to see the poverty and ugliness of his city from there.
Question 2. Why does the Happy Prince send a ruby for the seamstress? What does the swallow do in the seamstress’ house?
Answer: The Happy Prince sent a ruby to the seamstress because she was poor. Her son had fever and asked her for oranges but the only thing she had was river water. The swallow was the bird that the Happy Prince had asked to give a ruby to a seamstress. When the swallow went to her house, he found her asleep and the little boy was tossing and turning in bed. The swallow put the ruby on a table next to his mother’s thimble. He then went around and fanning him with his wings until he felt better and fell into a deep sleep.
Question 3. For whom does the prince send the sapphires and why?
Answer: The prince sends the two sapphires of his eyes each for a young writer and a match girl.
The young writer wanted to finish a play for the Theatre Director, but he was too cold and hungry. There was no fire in the grate and he had fainted from hunger. The Happy Prince sent one of the sapphires in his eye to him so that he could sell it to the jeweler. With the money, he could buy firewood and finish his play.
A girl was using matches to light the street. Her matches fell in the gutter. But she was not sad because her father would beat her for mistakes. The Happy Prince sent the other sapphire so she would not get beaten up by her dad when he sees she has got it.
Question 4. What does the swallow see when it flies over the city?
Answer: When the bird flies over the city, it sees the difference between rich and poor people. The rich people are having fun in their beautiful houses whereas the hungry children are looking out at dark streets. She gets to see the imbalance between the rich and the poor.
Question 5. Why did the swallow not leave the prince and go to Egypt?
Answer: The swallow never left the prince and went to Egypt. The prince became blind after he gave away his sapphires to needy people. The swallow decided to stay with the prince as he was so kind.
Question 6. What are the precious things mentioned in the story? Why are they precious?
Answer: The things that were mentioned in the story are: the leaden heart of the Happy Prince and a dead bird. These things are precious because they were generous and kind. The Happy Prince gave away his ruby sword to help a poor seamstress take care of her son. He even went on to give away his sapphire eyes, and became blind without them! He kept giving gold leaves from his statue to people who needed help.
A little bird wanted to go to Egypt with his friends. But he was not able to because the Happy Prince needed him more. The prince told him that he would let the little bird fly free if he agreed to stay with him and help people. So the bird stayed and helped people, but died of a broken heart when the prince did not return from a journey. When God asked one of his angels to bring two most precious things, He said that what was right was that one angel should bring back both the leaden heart of the Happy Prince and the dead bird from Paradise where they live in peace forever.
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