📖 Chapter 5: The Happy Prince

Answer: The courtiers called him the Happy Prince because he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed to enter. He was called happy, and he was indeed happy in his life. However, after death, when his statue was placed high above the city, he could see all the ugliness and misery of the city. He saw the poor seamstress with her sick son, the young playwright who was cold and hungry, and the little matchgirl who was crying. So, he was not really happy anymore — his leaden heart wept for the suffering he saw around him.

Answer: The Happy Prince sends a ruby for the seamstress because she is poor and her little boy is ill with fever. He is asking for oranges, but she has nothing to give him but river water. The Prince wants to help her. The swallow takes the ruby and lays it on the table beside the woman's thimble. Then he flies gently round the bed, fanning the boy's forehead with his wings. The boy feels cool and falls into a peaceful sleep.

Answer: The Prince sends the first sapphire to the young playwright who is trying to finish a play but is too cold and hungry to write. The second sapphire is sent to the little matchgirl who has dropped her matches in the gutter and is crying because her father will beat her if she does not bring home money. The Prince sacrifices his eyes to help these suffering people.

Answer: When the swallow flies over the city, he sees the rich making merry in their beautiful houses while the beggars sit at their gates. He sees white-faced starving children looking out listlessly at the black streets. Under the archway of a bridge, two little boys are lying in each other's arms to keep warm, and the watchman shouts at them to move away. He sees the contrast between the rich and the poor.

Answer: The swallow did not leave the Prince and go to Egypt because he loved him too well. He had been with the Prince for many nights, helping him in his good deeds. When the Prince became blind, the swallow said he would stay with him always. Even as winter came and it grew colder, the swallow refused to leave because of his love and loyalty to the Prince.

Answer: The precious things mentioned in the story are the leaden heart of the Happy Prince and the dead swallow. They are precious because they symbolize the greatest virtues — love, sacrifice, compassion, and kindness. The Prince gave away all his gold and jewels to help the poor, and the swallow gave up his journey to Egypt to stay with the Prince. Their hearts were full of love and selflessness, making them more precious than gold or jewels. God told His angel that these were the two most precious things in the city.

Answer: Yes, this is a common human experience — feeling warm inside after doing a good deed, even in cold surroundings. Once I helped an elderly neighbour carry her groceries home on a cold winter day. Although my hands were cold, I felt a strange warmth inside me. It made me realise that kindness and compassion create their own warmth, which comes from within and not from external conditions. This is the warmth of the heart that the swallow felt after helping the poor seamstress.