Oscar Wilde The Ballad of Reading Gaol

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 6

Oscar Wilde

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Death penalty

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100% against it

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Read the introduction on page 79.
Type or upload a short summary of this page in which you mention at least 5 facts.

This poem is a ballad

In the next slide you will find the characteristics of a mediaeval ballad. 

 1. A ballad always tells a story.

 2. The story is quite simple, as is the use of language.

 3. The most common topics of ballads were disloyalty , lost love, revenge and death.

 4. The supernatural and fantasy play significant roles

 5. Ballads often contain repetition and standard groups of words and/or sentences.

6. The storyline often jumps from one idea to another unexpectedly.

7. Ballads lack both long descriptions and words that can be taken for granted.

8. The narrator shows a clear lack of emotion, even when telling the most horrible details, therefore acting like a journalist giving an neutral version of the incident.

9. A ballad usually contains stanzas including four lines.

10. It has the simplest structure of rhyme: ABCB. Only the second and fourth lines rhyme with one another.

11. Almost every line contains a fixed number of syllables: the first and third lines contain eight syllables, while the second and fourth have only six.

12. These syllables are divided into iambics . 

 

Question 1B: Which of these does this ballad contain? 

•  Characteristics 1, 2, 3, 5, 12 (metre is iambic)
  

Question 1C: In what regard does the structure differ from a mediaeval ballad?

• More lines of verse in the modern version (stanzas including six instead of four lines) 
• Adapted rhyme scheme (abcbdb instead of abcb)

 

d. Characteristics 4 and 6 to 8 inclusive.

You can skip questions 1+2 

Excerpt 1

Read the poem while answering the questions as a guide to better understanding. 

Read lines 1-5. 

Question 3: What is suggested in lines 3 to 4? 

• That the murder was committed under the influence of alcohol (wine).

Read lines 7-12. 

Question 4: What harsh contrast becomes apparant when comparing lines 8+9 to line 1? 

• The contrast between poor prison clothing and the elegant uniform of the regiment, as well as that between the grey and scarlet colours.
  
• The Guards’ traditional helmet was the famous ‘bearskin’, while he now accepts the total humiliation of having to wear a cap!

Question 5: What is the paradox in the second stanza?

•  Line 10 is a paradox of 12: light and gay (=happy) as opposed to wistfully (=sad).

Read stanzas 3+4

Question 6a: What conclusion might one draw from stanza 4 regarding the type of prisoner present? 

• There were prisoners serving both short and long sentences, and that those convicted of serious crimes were separated from the rest.

Question 6B: Which line supports this conclusion?

• Line 24

Read stanza 5

Question 7: What conclusion might one draw from Wilde's reaction?

• He was not previously aware of Wooldridge’s fate, this is obvious from his level of anger.

Question 7B: Explain line 30

He was so upset that he even forgot his own misery.

Read stanzas 7, 8 and 9  (very famous and often quoted!)

Question 8a: What is Wilde trying to explain

• ‘Everyone eventually kills the one they love’

Question 8B: How should one therefore interpret line 54?

• In contrast to Wooldridge, some people get away with it. The yet indicates the contrast to the following lines.

Read lines 55-96

Question 9A: What do the final 7 stanzas have in common?

• They all begin with the phrase He does not …..

Question 9B: What does this common component suggest? 

• This component always describes what he does not do, thus showing a brave man (line 55) who passively accepts his fate.

Question 10: How was Woolridge executed? 

• By means of hanging. (lines 59 to 60)

Question 11: Explain lines 65+66

• Prisoners who face the death penalty are often so afraid that they choose to commit suicide.

Question 12: In which 2 ways can the word shivering be explained? (line 69) 

•  shaking due to the cold morning air, / shaking from emotion

Question 13: How are the figures of authority attending the execution described?

•   All are described very negatively. The chaplain (line 69) is shivering (dressed in white, the colour of innocence!), the sheriff (line 70) with a firm face, the governor (line 71), dressed in black – the colour of death – with a tragic look, the foul-­‐mouthed doctor (line 75) checking his watch impatiently, the hangman (line 81) who comes in like a thief in the middle of night.

Rephrase what excerpt 1 was about.
(short and simple)

Excerpt 2

Read the poem while answering the questions as a guide to better understanding. 

Question 14: Which stanzas in excerpt 2 contain a precise description of hard labour?

•   Stanzas 1 and 2.

 

Question 15a: Which chores do they describe? 

• Tore rope, rubbed doors, scrubbed floors, cleaned rails, soaped the plank, sewed sacks, broke stones, turned the dusty drill and sweated on the mill.

Question 15B: Which of these did Wilde hate the most, and how does he indicate this?

• Tearing rope, the only activity of which he also describes the physical hardship (bleeding nails; a severe discomfort to anyone who writes a lot).

Question 16: Which lines contain internal rhyme (rhyming words within the same line). 

•   Line 3: doors – floors, line 13: lay – day

Question 17: How did the prisoners try to ease the hardship of their work as much as possible?

• Line 9: bawled hymns

 

Question 18: The hard work made the prisoners indifferent and numb. What sight did change this attitude?

•   Lines 18 to 24: The sight of the newly dug grave of a fellow prisoner who was due to be hanged (swing)

Question 19: What metaphor does Wilde use in lines 19 to 20?

• A menacing monster: sitting with its mouth wide open, waiting to be fed a man (living thing).

 

Excerpt 3

Read the poem while answering the questions as a guide to better understanding. 

Question 20: Explain what the poet means in lines 4 to 5? 

•   After the execution, the dead body is burned in the grave.

Question 21A What is the basic sentiment of the second stanza?

•  There is no reason to mourn once he is dead, as he has received just punishment for his crime.

Question 21B: Is this Oscar Wilde's own opinion or that of Victorian society?

• It is, of course, the opinion of Victorian society, which the poet himself ridicules.

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