Lesson Four The Nightingale and the Rose

1. Lesson FourThe Nightingale and the Rose Oscar Wilde

2. Warming-up: Discussion • What is the meaning of true love? • Who do you think is the true lover in the fairy tale? • The young student • The professor’s daughter • The nightingale

3. Background Information • Fairy tales • What is it? • Hans Andersen & Grimm Brothers • Features • Oscar Wilde • Art’s for art’s sake

4. Fairy Tales What is your favourite fairy tale?

6. Fairy tales and some interesting features 1. Use of personification • witches and queens • giants and elves (精灵) • princes and princesses • talking animals 2. Marvelous and magical things happen: • a boy may become a bird • a princess may sleep for a hundred years

7. 3.Always same ending and similar theme: • truth prevails over deception • generosity is ultimately rewarded • hard work overcomes obstacles • love, mercy and kindness are the greatest powers of all

8. Hans Christian Andersen • “The King of Tales” • The Little Mermaid • The Emperor’s New Clothes • The Ugly Duckling • The Princess and The Pea

9. (1854-1900) Irish-born novelist, playwright, poet, and critic Known for witty, often paradoxical, sayings that lampoon the social modes and behavior of the English upper classes of his time Championing the aesthetic movement, which is based on the idea of art for art’s sake Oscar Wilde

10. Oscar Wilde • “As a youngster he was exposed to the brilliant literary talk of the day at his mother’s Dublin salon.”  • “As an aesthete, the eccentric young Wilde wore long hair and velvet knee breeches （天鹅绒及膝马裤）. His rooms were filled with various objects such as sunflowers, peacock feathers, and blue china; Wilde claimed to aspire to the perfection of the china.” 

11. Oscar Wilde • Only novel: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) • Four most distinctive and engaging comedies: • Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) • A Woman of No Importance (1893) • An Ideal Husband (1895) • The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

12. Quotes from Wilde Ⅰ • Men become old, but they never become good.  Lady Windermere's Fan. • A man who moralizes is usually a hypocrite, and a woman who moralizes is invariably plain.  Lady Windermere's Fan. • Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed.  It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.  In Conversation. • Men are horribly tedious when they are good husbands, and abominably conceited when they are not.  A Woman of No Importance.

13. Quotes from Wilde Ⅱ • A bad man is the sort of man who admires innocence, and a bad woman is the sort of woman a man never gets tired of.  A Woman of No Importance. •  Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.  The Sphinx Without a Secret. • The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear.  Sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.  The Decay of Lying.

14. Quotes from Wilde Ⅲ • We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.  The Duchess of Padua. • The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.  Lord Arthur Savile's Crime. • To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance. Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young. • Young men want to be faithful and are not; old men want to be faithless and cannot.   The Picture of Dorian Gray.

15. Art for Art’s Sake • should not paint or write for financial, political or religious reasons. • “ Ah, I have read all that the wise men have written … my life is made wretched.” (para.3) • “ She has form. That cannot be denied. But has she got feeling? I’m afraid not. In fact, like most artists, she is all style without any sincerity.” (para.34)

16. “Art for art’s sake,” said Somerset Maugham , “makes no more sense than gin for gin’s sake.” The artist’s works, being part of his human activities, must be guided by his sense of moral responsibility, by what he conceives to be true, good and beautiful.

17. Words and phrases: 1. jewels (gems): emeralds（绿宝石）, ruby（红宝石）, sapphire（蓝宝石）, jade（翡翠）diamond • plants: daisy（雏菊）, rose, oak-tree（橡树）daffodil 水仙花 • animals: nightingale, lizard（蜥蜴）, butterfly • subjects: philosophy, metaphysics（形而上学）, logic • stringed instruments: harp（竖琴）, violin

18. 2. want: • 1)the condition or quality of lacking something usual or necessary for /from want of 由于缺少 The plants died for/from want of water. stayed home for want of anything better to do. • 2) pressing need; 贫困 to live in want = to live in poverty • 3) something desired: in want of = in need of Are you in want of money? He’s a person of few wants and needs.

19. 3. fling • 1) to throw violently, with force Don’t fling your clothes on the floor. • 2) to move violently or quickly She flung herself down on the sofa. She flung back her head proudly. • 3) to devote to He flung himself into the task.

20. 4. bloom • vi. to produce flowers, yield flowers, come into flower or be in flower开花 The roses are blooming. • blossom 1)vi. (of a seed plant, esp. a tree or plant) to produce or yield flowers, bloom The apples trees are blossoming. 2)vi. to develop Their friendship blossomed when they found out how many interests they shared.

21. 5. ebb n. The tide is on the ebb. • 2.The financial resources have reached its lowest ebb. vi. 1) fall back from the flood stage The tide will begin to ebb at 4 o’clock. 2) to fall away or back; decline or recede The danger of conflict is not ebbing there.

22. 6. linger • vi. 1) to be slow in leaving, especially out of reluctance The children lingered at the zoo until closing time. 2) to proceed slowly linger over one’s work (磨洋工） 3) to persist Winter lingers. • vt. to pass (a period of time) in a leisurely or aimless manner. We lingered away the whole summer at the beach.

23. 7. see • 1）see about doing: attend to, make arrangements for, deal with安排，处理 It is time for me to see about cooking the dinner. • 2) see something out: to last until the end of 熬过，度过 Will our supplies see the winter out? It was such a bad play we couldn’t see out the performance and we left early. • 3) see through sb./sth. The paper is too thick to see though. It was a hard time for us, but we managed to see it through. • 4) see to something: to attend to, take care of负责，留意 If I see to getting the car out, will you see to closing the windows?

24. 8. go • 1) go about something: to perform to do从事，着手 to go about one’s business Don’t go about the job that way. • 2) go after sb/sth to go after a job, a girl, a prize • 3) go against sb/sth Opinion is going against us. The case may go against us. • 4) go along : vi. to agree with, support We’ll go along with you /your suggestion. • 5) go round vi. 萦绕， There is a tune going round in my head. If there are not enough chairs to go round, some people have to stand. • 6) go back on sth Don’t go back on your promise. Never go back on your friends.背叛，出卖

25. 7) go by vi. He let the chance go by. A car went by. go by sth = according to, based on to go by the rules/the book • 8) go for sb/sth My wife went for me because I was late for dinner. Do you go for modern music? I find this report badly done, and that goes for all the other work done in the office. • 9) go into: to enter a profession, state of life to go into business/films • 10) go over vi.= change one’s stance He went over from the People’s Party to the Enemy’s Party. • 12) go through sth. vt = (some formalities) The country has gone through too many wars. They went through the new marriage service. • 13) go under vi= go bankrupt, fail She has so many worries, she is sure to go under.

26. Structure of the text • Part I (para.1 – 13) Nightingale struck by the “the mystery of love” . • Part II (para.14 – 34) Nightingale looking for a red rose to facilitate the love. • Part Ⅲ (para.35 – 45) Nightingale sacrificing her life for a red rose • Part Ⅳ (para.46 – 54) Student discarding the red rose