What is the theme of "The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde?

The main theme of Oscar Wilde's short story "The
Nightingale and the Rose" explores the effects of self-sacrifice in the name of what one
truly believes in.

In this story, the nightingale is a bird
who hears an Oxford student cry for the want of a lady, who is apparently his "true
love". The woman in question had requested specifically a red rose from the
love-stricken man as a token of true devotion. Only with the flower will the lady
respond to the man's request for love.

The nightingale, who
is a believer in true and eternal love finds that there are no red roses in the garden.
However, a true believer at last, he pinches his own heart against the thorn of a white
rose and turns it red with its own blood. This, the nightingale does to reinstate his
faith in love and his true believe that love shall always
prevail.

We find out in the end that all is worthless. The
lady rejects the rose and the Oxford lad realizes that it was all caprice on his part.
The bird, however, is still dead. However, the story shows us that no sacrifice is too
small when one does it with a true mission in mind. However, the story is (as many works
in Wilde's tradition) open-ended: Was it worth it, after all? Who actually wins in an
ultimate demonstration of true faith? Does the nightingale die in vain? These are the
ultimate questions that are subtlety laid to the reader, and it is the reader who will
have the final say after all.