Examples of Short Stories from Literature

Example #1
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

The Happy Prince is one of the best stories written in English Literature
written by Oscar Wilde. The story shows how the elites of that kingdom
neglect the poor. And the statue of the Happy Prince takes the help of a
Swallow to help the poor of the city. One by one, the Prince starts losing his
precious stones, rubies, and gold leaves when the Swallow starts plucking
them to give to the poor that the Prince can see from his high pedestal.
The dramatic irony of the story reaches the climax when the city mayor
sees the dead bird and the ugly broken statue. When the statue is sent to a
furnace, God invites the Prince and the Swallow to live in the City of Gold in
heaven.

Example #2
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte sheds light on the
difficulties faced by the narrator of the story, due to depression after childbirth.
Her husband John, a physician, takes her to a countryside home for the cure
and assumes that she is suffering from hysteria. He doesn’t allow her to do
her favorite activities, like writing which helps her escape reality. She is also
distant to her child. After a while, she is obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in
her room and imagines that a woman, like her, is stuck in it and wants to
come out. To help the imaginary woman, the narrator starts peeling the
wallpaper. By the end of the story, John, sees her creeping around the room
and faints. The story also highlights how many women are ignored by their
spouses, leading them to depression.

Example #3
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is another wonderful example of a

short horror story. In the story, the anonymous narrator tells about the murder
of an old man that he has committed in cold blood because he had ‘vulture
eyes’. The story is told in the first-person narrative and explores the state of
mind of a person. The narrator has hallucinations after the murder when he
feels guilty. He convinces the readers that he is not insane. By the end of the
story, he continues to hallucinate and asks what to do to make the old man’s
heart stop. This is an excellent example of a short story having a few
characters and a complicated theme.

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