Oscar Wilde The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Oscar Wilde
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
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Slide 1: Slide
EngelsMiddelbare schoolvwoLeerjaar 6

This lesson contains 29 slides, with interactive quizzes, text slides and 1 video.

time-iconLesson duration is: 45 min

Items in this lesson

Oscar Wilde
The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Slide 1 - Slide

Death penalty
in favour
100% against it
not sure

Slide 2 - Poll

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

Slide 3 - Open question

Slide 4 - Video

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

Slide 5 - Slide

 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 . 
 

Slide 6 - Slide

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.

Slide 7 - Slide

You can skip questions 1+2 

Slide 8 - Slide

Excerpt 1
Read the poem while answering the questions as a guide to better understanding. 

Slide 9 - Slide

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).



Slide 10 - Slide

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!

Slide 11 - Slide

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).

Slide 12 - Slide

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

Slide 13 - Slide

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.

Slide 14 - Slide

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.

Slide 15 - Slide

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.

Slide 16 - Slide

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.




Slide 17 - Slide

Question 12: In which 2 ways can the word shivering be explained? (line 69) 
  •  shaking due to the cold morning air, / shaking from emotion





Slide 18 - Slide

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.




Slide 19 - Slide

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

Slide 20 - Open question

Excerpt 2
Read the poem while answering the questions as a guide to better understanding. 

Slide 21 - Slide

Question 14: Which stanzas in excerpt 2 contain a precise description of hard labour?
  •   Stanzas 1 and 2.
 







Slide 22 - Slide

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).







Slide 23 - Slide

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
 







Slide 24 - Slide

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).
 







Slide 25 - Slide

Excerpt 3
Read the poem while answering the questions as a guide to better understanding. 

Slide 26 - Slide

Question 20: Explain what the poet means in lines 4 to 5? 
  •   After the execution, the dead body is burned in the grave.










Slide 27 - Slide

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.









Slide 28 - Slide

Slide 29 - Link