The Ballad of Reading Gaol | Crime Poetry Flashcards
What is the context of BRG
Wilde was sentenced to 2yrs with hard labour for having an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas (1895) - known as Prisoner C33
Hard Labour was to discourage further crime while the state was being provided with cheap labour, but often tasks were pointless
Focuses of Charles Woodridge - he murdered his wife in 1896 in a fit of jealousy, he cut her throat in the street then begged the police to arrest him.
Summarise the poem
1 - Introduced to Wooldridge & brief mention of his crime, he seems to be content and ‘wistful’ with being sent to prison.
2 - Wooldridge is hanged and the other prisoners cower at the idea. Wilde proceeds to describe the monotony of jail.
3 - Wilde describes the daily routine of the prisoners and how they are haunted. We are then shown Wooldridge’s funeral and further presented with Wildes views of the justice system.
What are the Crime Elements presented
Lack of Violence
Victims - the prisoners are presented as the victims of the justice system; the physical and psychological violence they face.
Punishment - Key Element, focus on the inhumanity of capital punishment and the pain it inflicts
Comment on Society - condemning the prison system and how it doesn’t allow forgiveness
What are the form, structure and literary devices?
TBORG
Ballad - allows Wilde to speak widely to the working-class, also emphasises the emotional aspects of the poem making the reader sympathise with the victims established
Rhyme Scheme - ABCBDB, creates a consistent pace - could reflect the prisoners routine.
Repetition - emphasises the position of the prisoners as victims (further shown through the lack of description and focus on their crimes) and acts as a reminder that in some way we all aren’t innocent, thus drawing sympathy from the reader.
Collective Narrative/First Person Narrative - brings focus on the criminal’s thoughts and feelings and their collective suffering
I never saw a man who looked…
so wistfully at that day
L11-12
yet each man…
kills the thing he loves
*repeated with slight variation each time
he does not die…
a death of shame
L55
they mocked…
the swollen purple throat
L520
The chaplain would not…
kneel to pray / by his dishonoured grave
L524
molten lead…
were the tears we shed
around, around they…
waltzed and wound; some wheeled in smirking pairs
the coward does it…
with a kiss,/ the brave man with a sword!
