The Nightingale and the Rose

An allusion is a reference to a (usually well-known) event, person, artistic work, etc. For example, the Nightingale’s sacrifice and impalement on the rose thorn recall the biblical sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who wore a crown of thorns and allowed himself to be pierced with nails to the cross for the sake of humanity. Her song of “the Love that is perfected by Death […] [and] that dies not in the tomb” also recalls Jesus’s sacrifice (65), undying love for humanity, and rising from the dead, as discovered by the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalen when they open his tomb. This allusion develops the story’s exploration of The Nature of Love and Sacrificing Oneself for Love by lending the Nightingale’s sacrifice an air of holiness.

As in many fairy tales, the animals, plants, and other natural features (such as the moon) in “The Nightingale and the Rose” are anthropomorphic representations of animals, humanlike in their ability to speak and sympathize with others. They all have traits typically associated with humans: the Nightingale is portrayed as thoughtful, the Lizard as skeptical, and the Oak-tree as sympathetic.