2.1 [Auto]Biography: De Profundis- Oscar Wilde

Question 1

Mode

Answer 1

Autobiographical letter written from prison

Question 2

Audience

Answer 2

Primary audience= Lord Douglas

Wider audience=
Historians,
Early Edwardians
Late Victorians
Followers of his literature
Modern audience : LGBTQ+ community, academics

Question 3

Purpose

Answer 3

Anguish at imprisonment; defiance; reflective
Condemn society
Cathartic letter
Give voice to the oppressed/ those imprisoned for love

Question 4

Context

Answer 4

Edwardian era- first pubished in 1905 but complete version not published until 1949

Irish writer, poet and dramatist

He was the object of celebrated civil and criminal law suits involving homosexuality. He was convicted of homosexuality, while his lover, lord Alfred Douglas, escaped punishment- most likely due to his elite social standing

For the first month of his incarceration he was tied to a treadmill for 6 hours a day with only a 5 minute break every 20 minutes.

Prison regulations ruled that prisoners couldn’t write poems or plays, but could write letters home. Rules didn’t specify how long letter could be so Wilde wrote for 3 months

De profundis was addressed to Lord Douglas and given to him on Wilde’s release.

Question 5

De Profundis

Answer 5

Latin for ‘out of your depth’

Question 6

Epigrammatic form

Answer 6

Each paragraph ends on a profound statement

(Wilde is known for these)

‘I turned the good things of my life to evil, and the evil things of my life to good’
- parrallell phrasing= reflective tone

‘The supreme vice is shallowness. Whatever is realised is right.’
- 2 declaratives= epiphany, he feels enlightened

‘To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest ones’ own development. To deny one’s own… denial of the soul’
- anaphora
-personification
-didactic message