The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Question 1

What does it show?

“The poor dead woman whom he loved”

Answer 1

Shows a level of possession and also has links to Browning’s poems

Question 2

What does it show?

“So wistful at the day”

Answer 2

Wilde seems as if he is jealous of Charles Wooldridge’s inner peace and acceptance of his situation

Question 3

What does it show?

“Such a wistful eye”

Answer 3

The eyes are the keys to the soul - poses the question of whether the killer feels remorse as wistful could be interpreted as sad?

AO3: historical records show Wooldridge deeply regretted attacking his wife, was satisfied to remain in prison until his execution

Question 4

What does it show?

“Like a casque of scorching steel”

Answer 4

Has connotations of Hell and sin

AO3: homosexuality being a crime in the 19th century

Question 5

What does it show?

“My pain I could not feel”

Answer 5

It’s as if the world has compressed itself around the reader, he’s trapped in an even greater nightmare. All Wilde can feel is Wooldridge’s pain, his own problems/future slip to the side

Question 6

What does it show?

“I only knew”

Answer 6

Wilde places his crime in the same category as murder

AO3: shows how society viewed both situations, deeming them both as extremely sinful

Question 7

What does it show?

“The brave man with a sword!”

Answer 7

Wilde is not condoning what Wooldridge did, he sees it as being braver than cheating and taking no responsibility

Question 8

What does it show?

“Some strangle with the hands of Lust”

Answer 8

AO3: links with the seven deadly sins, parallels with society at the time

AO4: links with Porphyria’s Lover

Question 9

What does it show?

“The prison of its prey”

Answer 9

1. The prisoners are at the mercy of the justice system
2. Prisoners are often watched due to suicide
3. Makes them seem innocent

Question 10

What does it show?

“That the throat may thirst no more”

Answer 10

Is Wilde making the reader feel a sense of pity for Wooldridge as he will be experiencing this?

Question 11

What does it show?

“Cross his own coffin, as he moves into the hideous shed”

Answer 11

Brutal image of death and ultimately, consequences of actions

Question 12

What does it show?

“He does not sit…he does not wake…he does not rise…he does not know…he does not bend…he does not stare”

Answer 12

The anaphora shows the extent of suffering that Wooldridge is going through - evokes pity from the readership

Question 13

What does it show?

“The kiss of Caiaphas”

Answer 13

Sent Jesus to his death. Is Wilde comparing Wooldridge to Jesus?

Question 14

What does it show?

“With open mouth he drank the sun as though is had been wine!”

Answer 14

The semantic field of contemptment, driving him forward to his death

Question 15

What does it show?

“And watched with gaze of dull amaze”

Answer 15

All the prisoners, including Wilde are envious/amazed at Wooldridge’s peace of mind

Question 16

What does it show?

“But grim to see is the gallows-tree with its adder-bitten root”

Answer 16

Symbolic of death as these are used to perform executions, also has links to Satan through the snake imagery

Question 17

What does it show?

“And wondered if each one of us would end the self-same way”

Answer 17

Wilde suggests he and the other prisoners wonder if they’ll feel like Wooldridge one day

Question 18

What does it show?

“For none could tell what red Hell his sightless soul may stray”

Answer 18

Is Wooldridge really at peace inside? He committed murder, taking someone’s life into his own hands (playing God - links to Porphyria’s Lover) meaning he is condemned to Hell

Question 19

What does it show?

“The world had thrust us from its heart”

Answer 19

Social expectations meant that Wilde was in prison and serving his time with murderers. Shows how religious society was in the late 1800s

Question 20

What does it show?

“Who watched his lest himself should rob”

Answer 20

Prison guards were worried Wooldridge would kill himself - showing his guilty conscience/crime

Question 21

What does it show?

“The Regulations Act: the doctor said that death was but a scientific fact”

Answer 21

A law that meant there was a limit to the amount of religious expression in public - no emotion shown towards the prisoners whose punishment was death. Treated like animals, inhumane

Question 22

What does it show?

“And make his face a mask”

Answer 22

Wooldridge perhaps didn’t want to show any emotion? Conforming to gender stereotypes

Question 23

What does it show?

“We trod the Fools’ Parade!.. The Devil’s Own Brigade”

Answer 23

Shows how the prisoners are viewed - not as human

Question 24

What does it show?

“Terror was lying still”

Answer 24

Fear of the punishment. The work seems to be a distraction from their impending doom

Question 25

What does it show? "With yawning mouth the yellow hole gaped for a living thing"

Answer 25

Death is personified as actually seeking out the prisoners - they cannot escape their fate

Question 26

What does it show? "On Death and Dread and Doom"

Answer 26

The triplet emphasises their closed fate

Question 27

What does it show? "In a pleasant meadow-land"

Answer 27

Juxtaposition between Wooldridge and the other prisoner

Question 28

What does it show? "That endless vigil"

Answer 28

Religious connotations of praying. Ironic as their crimes go against God/The Bible

Question 29

What does it show? "Crept by each padlocked door"

Answer 29

Portrays the prisoners like animals. Inhumane

Question 30

What does it show? "And each evil sprite that walks by night before us seemed to play"

Answer 30

Shows how Death is mocking and teasing them, they are unable to escape the situation that they are currently in - evokes pity from the audience

Question 31

What does it show? "And once, or twice, throw the dice is a gentlemanly game"

Answer 31

Wilde is suggesting how in society, whether you are wealthy/upper-class or not this cannot save you from being punished AO4: contradicts what Browning implies in his poem "My Last Duchess"

Question 32

What does it show? "To those whose lives were held in gyves, and whose feet might not go free"

Answer 32

Suggests that ghosts and spirits roamed and tormented the prisoners - appearing 'real' to them, this would have evoked fear among the audience as it questions the idea of religion by adding a supernatural feature

Question 33

What does it show? "God's dreadful dawn was red"

Answer 33

A warning to the prisoners that death is near - connotations of hell through 'red' - juxtaposes the concept of God

Question 34

What does it show? "For Man's grim Justice goes its way, and will not swerve aside (...) the monstrous parricide!"

Answer 34

Mankind created the Justice System, the founders, in some respects depicted as the parents of the justice system and now mankind can't escape the consequences and are being killed which is what "parricide" is (the killing of a parent)

Question 35

What does it show? "There is no chapel on the day on which the hang a man"

Answer 35

There is no official way for the prisoners to repent their sins meaning they will be condemned to hell, evoking fear in Jacobean society

Question 36

What does it show? "Like ape or clown, in monstrous garb with crooked arrows starred"

Answer 36

The zoomorphism depicts the prisoners as animals as they have been institutionalised (lost their identity due to the system)

Question 37

What does it show? "Silently we went round and round (...) Horror stalked before...Terror crept behind"

Answer 37

Shows the monotony of prison life, its a vicious cycle of physical and mental pain with no escape

Question 38

What does it show? "Will be sterile and bare"

Answer 38

Showing how no life/foliage will grow over a grave of a criminal as the soil has been taunted by the sin of the prisoner

Question 39

What does it show? "They hanged him as a beast is hanged...and hid him in a hole...and gave him to the flies"

Answer 39

Show how inhumane the prisoners are treated - reducing them down to just meat/prey that the animals eat - breaking the societal chain as these men are now places below insects

Question 40

What does it show? "I know not whether Laws be right, or whether Laws be wrong"

Answer 40

Wilde is suggesting that the justice system is flawed