Resumen the young king and other stories

THE YOUNG KING AND OTHER STORIES

OSCAR WILDE

Level 3

SUMMARY
By

Mónica Liliana Guerrero Castiblanco

STORIE 7 – THE SELFISH GIANT

A giant returns home after seven years to find some children playing in his wonderful garden. He sends them away and builds a wall around the garden. When spring comes, there are flowers everywhere except in the giant’s garden, which is cold andbare. One day, the giant looks out of his window and sees that his garden is full of children again and the trees full of flowers. He notices a small boy crying next to a tree that is still bare. He realises that he has behaved badly and goes out to talk to the children. They all run away from him except the small boy. The giant puts the boy in the tree, who kisses him, and the children come back.The small boy then disappears for years until one day the giant sees him with cuts on his hands and feet. The boy tells the giant that he wants him to come and play in his garden in the sky. Later, the children find the giant dead under the tree, covered in white flowers.

STORIE 1 - THE YOUNG KING

The young king was only 16 years old when hunters found him in the forest. He had been born tothe Princess and given to a poor woman in the woods to raise him. “When the young king is plucked from the obscurity of the forest to take his rightful place at the palace, he is happy at first to see the beautiful things he has to wear. But after he dreams of the poor people, struggling to make the clothes and even dying to get the jewels that are needed for them he doesn’t want them anymore. Thepeople, however, do not want a king who does not look like a king. On the day of his coronation, the young king puts on his old clothes, takes up his old stick and puts on a crown of wild roses. He is jeered by the crowd as he walks to the church. While he is talking to the priest, a group of angry government officials come into the church and insist that he cannot be king. At that moment a shaftof sunlight comes through the windows and transforms his appearance into one far more beautiful than anyone has ever seen. The priest declares he has been crowned by somebody greater than himself, and is therefore king.

STORIE 6 – THE STAR CHILD

A group of woodcutters find a small child in the forest, wrapped in a gold coat covered in stars. The child had fallen from the sky. One of thewoodcutters decides to look after the boy, despite having many children of his own and being very poor. The child grows into a beautiful-looking boy, but he is mean and unkind to every one around him and believes he is superior. One day a beggar woman comes to the village and claims that the star child is her long lost son. He rejects her and sends her away. At this point, his good looks disappear andhe is now an ugly boy. He vows to repent and find his mother. He searches for three years, and then one day he is bought by an old man and imprisoned in his house as a slave. The old man, who is really a magician, tells him to go and bring him a piece of white gold from the forest. With the help of a rabbit, he finds the gold but gives it to a starving man. The old man hits him, and orders him tobring a piece of yellow gold. This he finds too, but again he gives it to the starving man. This happens again with a piece of red gold. As he is walking through the streets, people comment on how beautiful he is and hail him as their new king. The star child says he is not because he is the son of a beggar woman. Finally he meets the king and queen, the king being the starving man he had giventhe gold to, and the queen his mother. He is crowned king, and every one is happy because he is a kind and generous king.

STORIE 2 – THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA

The Infanta is the twelve-year-old daughter of the King of Spain. A big show is put on for her birthday with music, magicians and rides, but the funniest act is an ugly dancing dwarf. The Infanta throws him a rose, which he...