Characterisation of the Nightingale

The most important character in the short story “The Nightingale and the Rose” by Oscar Wilde is the Nightingale, who functions as the heroine or the protagonist. The Nightingale is a bird, but she is personified by the author, who gives her speech, thoughts and feelings like those of a human being.

Except that the Nightingale is a female bird, the outer characterisation of the protagonist also informs us that “her voice was like water bubbling from a silver jar” and that she has a “nest in the holm-oak tree”.

Inner characterisation

The bird’s inner characterisation reveals that her most important traits are empathy and altruism/self-sacrifice. Empathy is revealed from the very beginning, when she is impressed by the Student’s love pains and seems to be the only one who understands him: ““Here at last is a true lover,” said the Nightingale. “Night after night have I sung of him, though I knew him not; night after night have I told his story to the stars, and now I see him.”; “But the Nightingale understood the secret of the Student’s sorrow, and she sat silent in the oak-tree, and thought about the mystery of Love.”

Also, the bird has a high, idealistic opinion of love, considering this feeling a value, something priceless:

Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the market-place. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.”

Because the Student’s suffering has such a strong effect on the Nightingale, she first proves to be altruistic, as she decides to set off and help him by looking for a red rose in the garden....