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The Nightingale
Initially a sympathetic character, the Student ultimately emerges as the antagonist of "The Nightingale and the Rose." By claiming to be deeply in love with the girl, the Student inspires the Nightingale to sacrifice her own life in a quest to bring him a red rose. When the girl rejects the flower, however, the Student carelessly tosses it into the road, concluding that love is a waste of time. This dishonors the one request the Nightingale has made of him—to be a true lover—but it is in keeping with his personality. Throughout the story, the Student reveals himself to be excessively preoccupied with rationality and practicality, to the point that he is literally unable to understand the Nightingale's emotional words to him. The Student, then, illustrates the pitfalls of extreme intellectualism; his need to understand everything in terms of rules and results blinds him to "useless" qualities like selflessness or beauty.
The Student Quotes in The Nightingale and the Rose
The The Nightingale and the Rose quotes below are all either spoken by The Student or refer to The Student. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Nightingale and the Rose Quotes
Here at last is a true lover…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. His hair is as dark as the hyacinth-blossom, and his lips are as red as the rose of his desire.
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When the Nightingale first overhears the Student talking about his need for a red rose, she sees him as the embodiment of everything she sings about. Her remark that she sang about him even before meeting him even suggests that her songs have created this real-world manifestation of idealized love. In the end, of course, the Student will prove to be anything but a perfect lover, but this idea that art can make the ideal real is vindicated in the Nightingale's creation of the rose. Her physical description of the Student, meanwhile, further emphasizes her affinity with the world of Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperia
"He is weeping for a red rose," said the Nightingale.
"For a red rose?" they cried; "how very ridiculous!" and the little Lizard, who was something of a cynic, laughed outright.
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The Nightingale is not the only observer who notices the Student's unhappiness, but the Lizard—along with a butterfly and a flower—can't understand why anyone would cry over a rose. Wilde attributes this confusion to "cynicism"; because the Lizard sees the rose simply as a physical (and not very useful) object, he finds the Student's emotion absurd. In this sense, however, he actually resembles the equally "rational" and "practical" Student, who ultimately proves incapable of understanding the rose's meaning as a symbol of love and sacrifice. Instead, he views the rose as a tool, tossing it aside when he discovers that Dolorem et quae. Exercitatione
The Student looked up from the grass and listened, but he could not understand what the Nightingale was saying to him, for he only knew the things that are written down in books.
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When the Nightingale explains how she intends to get the Student his rose, the Student responds with literal incomprehension. Interestingly, Wilde attributes this to the Student's learning, suggesting that his knowledge and rationality are preventing him from grasping deeper emotional truths—most notably, the love that the Nightingale has just been extolling. The Student's intellectualism, in other words, is actually hindering his ability to understand the world around him (and especially the motivations of others). Relatedly, it is also impacting his ability to experience life fully and richly: one of the things the Student can't understand is the Nightingale telling him Dolorem et quae
She has form…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. She thinks merely of music, and everybody knows that the arts are selfish. Still, it must be admitted that she has some beautiful notes in her voice. What a pity it is that they do not mean anything, or do any practical good.
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The Student's response to the song the Nightingale sings for the Oak-tree is ironic on multiple levels. First, and most obviously, the Student's claim that the Nightingale is selfish runs counter to the entire plot of Wilde's story. The Student's misinterpretation of the Nightingale's song is therefore a fundamental misreading of her entire character—not to mention, of course, his own, since the story's conclusion suggests that it is he himself who lacks emotional "sincerity." His criticisms, though, are in keeping with those often leveled at Wilde himself (and other writers associated with Aestheticism), since the emphasis on "art for art's Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus
What a wonderful piece of luck…here is a red rose! I have never seen any rose like it in all my life. It is so beautiful that I am sure it has a long Latin name.
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The morning after the Nightingale's death, the Student wakes up to find the rose she has created on a branch outside his window. His response is disappointing. Juxtaposed with the Nightingale's death, the Student's words seem shallow and self-centered; given how miserable he had claimed to be just a day earlier, he ought to be overjoyed to find the rose, but he instead seems to take it as a mildly pleasant surprise. He also, of course, mistakenly attributes the appearance of the flower to "luck," further underscoring his inability to read the world around him. Most frustratingly of all, he Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecat
What a silly thing Love is…It is not half as useful as Logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and…in this age to be practical is everything.
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As the Student walks away from his argument with the girl, he swears off love altogether, betraying the Nightingale's request that he always be a "true lover." What's more, his reasons for abandoning love imply that he never really understood it in the first place, since he expects it to prove "useful" to him. This flies in the face of Wilde's depiction of love throughout the rest of the story, which suggests that the purest form of love is—like the Nightingale's—one that has no practical benefits to the person giving it. As this passage makes clear, however, it is not Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Volup
So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read.
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"The Nightingale and the Rose" ends with the Student retreating to his studies and poring over the "great dusty book." This is, first and foremost, a commentary on the Student's hypocrisy (or, at least, lack of self-knowledge): the Student claims to be interested only in what is "practical," but the material he is reading presumably can't be very practical, or it would have seen more recent use. The book's dustiness, however, also evokes images of death and decay, and therefore contrasts strongly with the Nightingale's earlier description of the joys of life. Unlike the Nightingale, who lovingly recalls watching the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecat
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The Student Character Timeline in The Nightingale and the Rose
The timeline below shows where the character The Student appears in The Nightingale and the Rose. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Nightingale and the Rose
As a Nightingale sits in her nest in an Oak-tree, she overhears a Student speaking mournfully about his sweetheart, who has said she will not dance with him unless...
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The Student continues to bemoan his unrequited love, imagining in great detail how the girl will pass...
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The Nightingale decides to help the Student, and flies to the center of the garden to speak to the White Rose-tree. She...
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Her mind made up, the Nightingale flies back to the Student and tells him the good news, asking simply that he honor her sacrifice by being...
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After the Nightingale sings, the Student criticizes her performance, saying that it is stylistically impressive but emotionally shallow. He then returns...
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Hours later, the Student looks outside his window and sees the rose. Delighted, he says that it is the...
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The Student plucks the rose and takes it to the girl at her father's (the Professor's) house....
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In response, the Student huffs that the girl is "ungrateful," and throws the rose into the street to be...
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As the Student walks away, he thinks about how irrational and impractical love is and concludes that he...
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