2.1 Oscar Wilde

Question 1

Genre / Mode?

Answer 1

A long letter, published as a book

Question 2

Audience?

Answer 2

Lord Alfred Douglas, LGBT+ people, Wilde fans

Question 3

Purpose?

Answer 3

Informs and explains

Question 4

Voice? (4)

Answer 4

Meditative, contemplative, philosophical, self-accepting

Question 5

Published in…

Answer 5

De Profundis was published in 1905

Question 6

Generic conventions? (4)

Answer 6

Paragraph structure, chronology, first person, addresses audience / reader

Question 7

De Profundis means…

Answer 7

‘From the depths’ in Latin

Question 8

Wilde was imprisoned after…

Answer 8

Having gay relations with Lord Alfred Douglas, whose father had him imprisoned in Reading Gaol

Question 9

‘I turned the good things of my life to evil and the evil things of my life to good.’ Analysis?

Answer 9

Past tense, has been completed; parallelism, other’s opinions of him; emotive; first person, GC; ends positively

Question 10

‘It is no less a denial of the soul’ analysis?

Answer 10

Present tense, important and unconstructed; heightened language; themes of religion and identity

Question 11

‘If the brief remainder of my days is not to be maimed, marred and incomplete,’ analysis?

Answer 11

Wilde died shortly after; tripling, impactful and alliterative; syndetic list; conditional tense

Question 12

‘The beauty of the sun and moon, the pageant of the seasons, the music of daybreak.’ Analysis?

Answer 12

Tripling; familiar collocation; rich images and metaphors- Victorian writing style; emotive

Question 13

‘Meant for me as much as for anybody else.’ Analysis?

Answer 13

Repetition of ‘m’ sounds; contrasts, ideas of society at time; emphasis

Question 14

Impact on audience?

Answer 14

Feeling of Wilde’s grief, sense of self; appreciation for natural life