1) After learning the text, do you think "the Nightingale", "the Rose", "the Student", "the Girl" or other figures have symbolic meanings? What are they?
2) Why does the author seem to have to chosen "the Student, the Girl, the great dusty book, Philosophy" and so on as the targets of his ridicule and contempt?
3) Do you think love is a useful thing? After all, the Student didn't succeed in using the red rose to win the girl's heart. Does that prove that love is useless? Illustrate your ideas.
1.Symbolic Meanings Nightingale: symbolizes "pure love, self-sacrifice and artistic spirit' Rose: symbolizes "the beauty and cost of sacrifice for love" Student: symbolizes "an idealistic love and the powerlessness of knowledge" Girl: symbolizes "worldliness, utilitarianism and indifference to true love"
2.The student is ridiculed because he "looks idealistic but is actually utilitarian and weak". The girl is ridiculed because she represents "the vulgarity and indifference of the real world". Philosophy is ridiculed because it is used by the student as a refuge to escape reality and as a weapon to deny emotions and values.
3.I believe that love is not divided into being useful or not. If love begins with the intention of obtaining something, then it becomes very utilitarian. When we think love is useless, it might be because we are understanding and using it in the wrong way.
1.The nightingale symbolizes pure, selfless love and sincere idealism.
The red rose symbolizes the essence of true love.
The student symbolizes idealistic but superficial lovers.
The girl symbolizes materialism and vanity.
2.Wilde ridicules the student, the girl, and even philosophy in dusty books to criticize the hypocrisy and shallowness of Victorian society, where materialism and rationalism had distorted people’s understanding of true love and beauty.
3.Love is absolutely a useful and meaningful thing, and the student’s failure to win the girl’s heart does not prove that love is useless—instead, it reveals that superficiality and materialism make people unworthy of true love.
1. All these characters are symbolic. The nightingale symbolizes sacrificing for love, the rose represents beautiful love, the student is an idealist lost in his own fantasies, and the girl is vain and materialistic.
2. The author just wants to satirize that the student is a book worm who doesn't understand love, and the girl only cares about material things. Those philosophical theories are useless in the face of true love.
3. Love definitely works! The student didn't succeed because the girl is vain, not because of love itself. The nightingale's sacrifice is so precious. You can't measure love by whether it succeeds or not.
The nightingale symbolizes sincerity, the rose represents true love, while students and others represent stupidity and materialism.
The students failed to hold on to true love. The girl measured love by material things and became even more foolish. Philosophy suppressed love.
I believe that love is useful, pure and noble. The students failed to win the girl's heart because she didn't love him, or perhaps because she was materialistic. The rose is just an excuse for the girl to reject the boy. Love is the collision of two souls, not a comparison of appearance and power.
1.I think they have symbolic meanings. The Nightingale symbolizes pure love, the Rose symbolizes the price of love, the Student symbolizes innocence, and the Girl symbolizes utilitarianism and materialism.
2.Because the Student representative is an idealist and does not persist in love; the Girl represents egoism and focuses on material things; the Philosophy satirizes the need for rationality.
3.I believe that love is not useless, it depends on how to love. The reason why the Student failed to win the girl's heart by using the red rose is that his love was too naive.
1.The Nightingale symbolizes true love The Rose symbolizes the beauty of love The stduent is not a true lover 。Girl symbolizes someone who does not believe love instead like money and high power 2.The auther wants to criticize the problems of moden society like girl is utilitarianism and the cool attitude to love .The student do not value the cost of love and it is not a ture lover
3.I think love is useful it can motive people to make progress and try their best to comr true it it can also bring emotional value of course it must be true love
1.The nightingale symbolizes the pure soul martyred for an ideal; the red rose symbolizes pure love being objectified and trampled upon; the student symbolizes a hypocrite who engages in empty talk and utilitarianism; the girl symbolizes worldly materialism. Secondary images also carry profound meanings: the oak tree is a witness of nature and creatures like the lizard symbolize vulgar onlookers.
2.Wilde deliberately employs these images to achieve precise satire and scorn. The student represents hypocritical intellectuals who indulge in empty talk about philosophy and theories of love, yet remain completely oblivious to genuine suffering and sacrifice—their emotions are essentially utilitarian and selfish. The girl is the embodiment of materialism; her choice directly declares the utter defeat of spiritual value in the face of material wealth. Those dusty, heavy books and philosophy symbolize rigid dogma entirely divorced from lived experience, serving as tools for embellishment and escapism. Through these three elements, Wilde constructs a portrait of a vulgar, utilitarian, and hypocritical worldly society, thereby contrasting the supreme purity of the ideal and spirit of sacrifice represented by the nightingale and delivering sharp criticism of his era.
3.One cannot simplistically categorize love as useful or useless, as its essence transcends mundane definitions of utility. In Wilde's allegory, what the student pursues is not love itself but a utilitarian calculation that treats the rose as a tool to exchange for benefits. His failure precisely unveils a profound irony: when people attempt to instrumentalize love to achieve some practical purpose, love itself perishes, and its failure becomes inevitable. At the same time, through this satire, Wilde defends love's transcendence of utilitarian considerations—its true value does not lie in its usefulness for gaining rewards but rather, like the nightingale's sacrifice, exists as a pure ideal and spiritual force. It is precisely because of this nature that love holds the intrinsic power to endow life with passion and meaning, which likewise refutes any claim of its uselessness.
1.The Nightingale is the symbolic of pure,selfless love and artistic devotion,willing to sacrifice itself for an ideal.The Rose is the symbolic of true love,scrifice ,and beauty born from pain and blood.The Student is the symbolic of rationality,but not realise the true love.The Girl is the symbolic of materialistic view of love,valuing possessions over sincere emotion.Other figures are symbolic of empty theoretical knowledge.
2.Because wilde thus mocks a society that outwardly celebrates "reason" and "practicality"while being inwardly cold and insincere
3.I think the love is a useful thing Good love bring people a sense of happiness.However,love is not necessary.
The Student fails not because love is useless, but because he misunderstands it，he seeks a utilitarian outcome rather than embracing love’s true essence. The Girl’s rejection exposes the emptiness of materialistic love.
1. In Oscar Wilde's "The Nightingale and the Rose," the figures are rich in symbolism: the Nightingale embodies selfless, idealistic love and artistic sacrifice; the Rose represents beauty and passion forged through suffering; the Student stands for shallow intellectualism and emotional immaturity; the Girl symbolizes materialism and fickle societal values; while minor characters like the Lizard and Butterfly reflect cynicism towards true emotion, collectively critiquing a world that prioritizes utility over genuine feeling.
2. Wilde targets the Student, the Girl, and Philosophy for satire to expose Victorian society's flaws. The Student's reliance on dusty books and empty rhetoric mocks academic detachment from real emotion, the Girl's rejection of the rose for jewels ridicules materialism, and Philosophy symbolizes dead, impractical knowledge—all contrasting with Wilde's aesthetic belief that art and beauty should be valued for their own sake, not for utility or social gain.
3. The Student's failure does not prove love useless; instead, it reveals his love as transactional and immature. True love, exemplified by the Nightingale's sacrifice, holds intrinsic value beyond practical outcomes. Wilde suggests that love, like art, is meaningful in itself—it enriches human experience even when unappreciated, challenging a world that reduces everything to mere usefulness.
Nightingale: Symbolizes pure love and sacrifice, representing the self-dedication.
Rose: Symbolizes love, with its red color signifying passion.
Student: Embodies the conflict between reality and ideals, desiring love but prioritizing practicality.
Girl: Represents secular values, valuing material possessions (e.g., jewelry) over emotional connection.
2. Through absurdity, the author exposes the dissolution of ideals by reality and criticizes utilitarianism’s trampling of innocence and beauty.
3. Love is useful, but it depends on how you use it. The nightingale's sacrifice is meaningful because it gives with sincerity; the student fails because he treats love as a transaction. Love is not "useful just because you use it," but valuable only when treated with sincerity. In short: Love is not a tool, but an action.
1.the nightingale:self-sacrificing love and purity
the rose:a symbol of true love and tragic devotion
the student:a superficial romantic,who is unwilling to do something
the girl:a materialist who values profit and lacks of romantic feelings
2.the student always talks about love but he even didn't do anything while the nightingale struggled to get the red rose.Afer being rejected,he threw the rose without hesitation and thought love is unless.At the end of the article,the boy decided to study philosophy,but the book was covered with dust.Obviously,the boy seldom read it.The author wanted to express that without reality, knowledge is also empty talk and can't create true love.
the girl didn't care the precious rose and refused the boy because the rose didn't match her dress.This exposed her utility and didn't know what is love.The author takes this opportunity to satirize the bad social atmosphere of measuring value by wealth.
3.I think love is useful,which represents priceless love.In the article,The rose failed to win the girl's heart,not because love is useless, but because girls don't understand true love.Love can improve your spiritual state and form a spirit of dedication
The Nightingale symbolizes the pure love.lhe Rose symbolizes the beautiful love.The Student symbolizes the intellectual emotion.The Girl symbolizes the vanity.
To criticize the superficiality of Victorian
society, highlight the gap between ideal love and reality.
Love is useful but not useless.They didn't know what love really mean.Love can enrich their emotions and spirtual form.
1.The Nightingale: It stands for pure, selfless love. It gives up its life to make a red rose, showing true devotion.The Student: He is an idealistic but naive person. He dreams of love but quits quickly when facing trouble
2.The Student: He talks a lot about love but does nothing real. When the girl rejects him, he goes back to his boring books at once. He is not a true romantic.The Girl: She cares only about material things. Her choice makes a joke of real love. The Philosophy: They stand for dry, useless theories. These books can’t teach the student what love really is.
3.True love is about sincerity and devotion, not about winning someone’s heart. The nightingale’s sacrifice is valuable in itself.Love’s value is not about practical gains. It makes our spirits rich and our lives meaningful. The nightingale’s love shows us the beauty of devotion.
(1).The Nightingale is the most radiant character in the story.It symbolizes pure love,selfless dedication,and the spirit of sacrifice for the sake of love.The Red Rose symbolizes passionate and pure love.This love is extremely precious and can only be obtained at a great cost.The Student symbolizes rigid,ungrateful and selfish the lover who does not understand love.The Professor's Daughter represents the materialistic tendencies of society.The Oak tree is one of the few figures who understands the Nightingale and possesses sympathy.It symbolizes the good-natured but weak bystander.The Lizard,butterfly,Daisy:they laugh at the Nightingale in the story and symbolize the vulgar,shallow and numb masses.
(2). The reason Wilde "had to" choose these objects for ridicule is that only through their indifference, foolishness, and vulgarity can the "Beauty" and "Love" pursued by the Nightingale be highlighted as precious, and such pursuits be shown as tragic in that society.
(3).I think love is a useful thing.The student's failure can't prove that love is useless.In the journey of life, we often need to make a choice between our future and love. You will eventually understand that the future is more important than love, and you will also understand that love is more precious than the future. But in the end, you will understand that the right person will stand in your future. Scientific research has confirmed that a good romantic relationship can directly affect our physiological functions, making us healthier and living longer.In the article,the student does not understand real the love.
The Nightingale: symbolizes selfless, genuine love and artistic devotion.The Rose: stands for the beauty and fragility of true love.The Student: represents empty romantic idealism and detached intellectualism.The Girl: symbolizes materialism and shallowness.
Wilde mocks them to criticize Victorian society’s materialism and the disconnect between academic knowledge and real emotions. The Student and philosophy show useless theoretical learning, while the Girl reflects superficial worldly values.
Love is not "useful" in a utilitarian way but is spiritually invaluable. The Student’s failure only shows the Girl’s shallowness, not love’s uselessness. True love’s value lies in its purity and spiritual meaning, not tangible rewards.
1.The Nightingale: Symbolizes pure, self-sacrificial true love.The Red Rose: Symbolizes the ideal, rare, and fragile nature of true love.The Student: Symbolizes superficial, sentimental.The Girl: Symbolizes materialism, vanity, and the degradation of love in modern society.
2. As an advocate of "art for art’s sake," Wilde uses the Nightingale to contrast with these ridiculous figures. The ridicule highlights that only sincere, spiritual pursuit art has enduring value, while materialism and empty intellect are trivial and pathetic.
3.Love is not "useless"—the Student’s failure does not prove love’s uselessness, but rather the failure of his superficial understanding of love and the distortion of love in a materialistic world. Love’s "usefulness" is not in transactional success , but in its ability to awaken human sincerity, devotion, and nobility. The Student’s failure is a failure of his own shallowness and society’s materialism, not love. True love—like the Nightingale’s—is never useless; it is the most precious spiritual wealth that resists the emptiness of a utilitarian world.
1.The Nightingale symbolizes pure.The Rose stands for the beauty. The Student represents superficial idealism about love. The Girl symbolizes emotional coldness.
2.The student is actually ignorant of its true nature. The Girl embodies the vanity of the upper class.
3.Love is a useful thing. The student’s failure stems from his own shallowness and the girl’s materialism, not from love itself.
1.The nightingale: symbolizes selfless, pure and sacrificial love. The rose: symbolizes idealized, sincere love - beautiful, fragile and requiring sacrifice to obtain. The student: represents shallow, intellectualized love rather than sincere emotional investment. The girl: symbolizes materialism and vanity.
2.The author criticizes the hypocrisy and shallowness of the Victorian society through satirizing these characters and concepts. Girl: Her preference for material gifts rather than roses reveals the vanity and materialism of the upper class, who value status more than sincere emotional connections. The philosophical/ancient books: These represent empty intellectualism and cannot impart true empathy or emotional intelligence. The student's reliance on these books prevents him from understanding or practicing true love.
3.I my opinion,love is a useful thing.Althought the student didn't use the red rose win the girls heart.The sacrifice made by the nightingale to create that rose was a pure and selfless love, with intrinsic value, even if it was not recognized. This love proved that love can inspire courage and the spirit of sacrifice.
1.-The Nightingale: Symbolizes pure love, selfless sacrifice, and the purity of art.
The Rose: Symbolizes the beauty and heavy cost of sacrificing for love, serving as a tangible embodiment of sincere affection.
The Student: Symbolizes an idealistic pursuer, who is full of longing for love yet somewhat naive and weak.
The Girl: Symbolizes a worldly and utilitarian value orientation, representing indifference to genuine emotions.
2.The author mocks them to show the gap between ideal and reality: dusty books are impractical knowledge; the student is idealistic but inactive; the girl represents materialistic utilitarianism. This criticizes utilitarianism’s harm to true love and humanity.
3. Yes, love is useful. The student’s failure comes from the girl’s utilitarianism, not love’s worth. Love brings spiritual power and inspires sacrifice , and one failure can’t deny its eternal value.
1. The Nightingale symbolizes selfless love and sacrifice. The Rose symbolizes the result of such love. The Student symbolizes superficial pursuit of love. The Girl symbolizes materialism.
2. Because they represent shallowness, materialism, and the emptiness of pursuing knowledge without true emotion, going against the value of sincere love.
3. Love is useful. The Student's failure doesn't prove love is useless, but shows his love is not true. True love has intrinsic value beyond such superficial success.
1. The Nightingale: It can sacrifice its life for true love, symbolizing pure idealistic love.
The Rose: Represents the beauty and fragility of love.
The Girl: Measures feelings by material things, holding a worldly and utilitarian value system.
The Boy: He is obsessed with the concept of love in books but does not understand the essence of love.
2. Wilde ridicules "the Student, the Girl, the dusty books, and Philosophy" because: the Student is immersed in philosophical books but does not understand true love, while the Girl values material things more than emotions.
3. Love is "useful". The Student's failure in love does not prove that love is useless. His "failure" stems from using the rose to win the girl's affection, not from love itself. The "value" of love lies in emotional experience and spiritual resonance, not in utilitarian "rewards" — the nightingale's sacrifice for love is itself an interpretation of the value of love, representing a spiritual pursuit that transcends pragmatism.
1.Yes, I think they have symbolic meanings.The Nightingale is the symbol of the true lover.The Rose is symbolic of the true love and the great things.The Student stands for the people who are insincere and look down on love. The Girl is symbolic of the people who desire for lust and disregard for affection.
2.As far as I am concerned, the reasons why the author criticizes them are they look down on true love and the author hate the influential officials.
3.From my perspective, I think love is a useful thing. I think that doesn't prove love is useful. For one thing,I believe that love gives people strength and inspires us to strive hard for a better future.For another,love should only be given to the right people and for the right thing.Only in this way can your love have a positive effect.Just as the saying goes "Love can make people complete."
1. Symbolic Meanings in The Nightingale and the Rose
The Nightingale: Symbolizes self-sacrificing ideal love.
The Red Rose: Embodies true love, fragile in a material world.
The Student: An empty idealist using the rose as a courtship tool.
The Girl: A shallow materialist valuing jewels over love.
2. Reasons for the Author’s Ridicule
Wilde, an aestheticist, criticizes them to highlight the split between spiritual pursuit and utilitarian reality:
1. The student’s bookish love lacks devotion.
2. The girl’s materialism contrasts with true love’s value.
3. Is Love Useful?
Love is not a tool. The student’s failure lies in his utilitarian mindset, not love’s uselessness. True love is spiritual, not judged by courtship success.
1.The Nightingale represents pure and authentic love. The Red Rose stands for true love.The Student symbolizes theoretical love、ideal love.
The Girl representing realism.
2.By ridiculing these targets,the author contrasts the nightingale’s noble, selfless love with the shallow, utilitarian values of the secular world, emphasizing the gap between ideal love and real-world fake.
3. Love is useful.The reason for Student’s failure is his own misunderstanding of love, not love itself.
1. The nightingale symbolizes the spirit of sacrificing oneself for love.
The rose symbolizes the pure and ideal love.
The student symbolizes the idealist who only talks but does nothing.
The girl symbolizes the utilitarianism.
2. The author chose the student, girls, and "Philosophy" as the objects of ridicule, in order to criticize idealists who only talk but do nothing and utilitarians. If the student truly pursued love, the "Philosophy" wouldn't be covered in dust. Through this, the author satirized that the student talk a lot about love but do nothing. The fact that the girl didn't value the sincere red rose indicates her utilitarianism. The author satirized utilitarianism by writing the girl. "Philosophy" was used to satirize the gap between ideal love and reality.
3. I believe that love is not useless. On the contrary, it can provide people with strength in many cases. Red roses in the text symbolize sincere and pure love. However, the girl pursues utilitarianism, so the failure of the student does not negate the significance of love. I think love is not a necessity in life, but it is a very good flavoring agent in life. Perhaps when a person feels depressed and painful, love precisely has unique value and can give people warmth, comfort and spiritual strength.
• The Nightingale: It stands as the selfless devotion that defines true love.
• The Red Rose: It represents true love’s essence—idealized, rare, and delicately vulnerable.
• The Student: He is a symbol of shallow sentimentality, lacking a genuine grasp of love’s depth.
• The Girl: She epitomizes materialistic vanity, reflecting how love has been degraded in a modern, profit-driven society.
2.
As a fervent proponent of the "art for art’s sake" doctrine, Wilde sets the Nightingale in stark opposition to these absurd characters. Through this satirical contrast, he underscores a profound truth: only art rooted in sincere, spiritual pursuit possesses lasting worth, whereas materialistic obsessions and hollow intellectual posturing are nothing but trivial and pitiful pursuits.
3.
Love is by no means "futile". The student’s failure does not discredit love’s value; instead, it exposes the shallowness of his superficial understanding of love and the distortion of love’s true meaning in a materialistic world. Love’s "value" does not lie in achieving transactional gains, but in its power to awaken human sincerity, dedication, and nobility. The student’s downfall stems from his own shallowness and the pervasive materialism of society—not from love itself. True love, as embodied by the nightingale, is never futile; it is the most precious spiritual treasure, serving as a bulwark against the soulless emptiness of a utilitarian world.
1.In the story, the nightingale symbolizes pure love, self-sacrifice, and artistic spirit, while the rose represents the beauty and cost of sacrifice for love. The student embodies idealistic love but also the powerlessness of knowledge, and the girl stands for worldliness, utilitarianism, and indifference to true love.
2.The student is mocked for appearing idealistic yet being actually utilitarian and weak. The girl is ridiculed for embodying the vulgarity and indifference of the real world. Philosophy is also mocked, as the student uses it to escape reality and deny emotions and values.
3.I believe love shouldn’t be judged as useful or useless. If love starts with the intention of gaining something, it becomes utilitarian. When we think love is useless, it’s likely because we misunderstand or misuse it.
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