Our group was assigned section three of Oscar Wilde’s “Ballad of Reading Gaol.” This is a powerful section in which nature and mankind are dissected and given specific roles. The prisoners become one united voice under the title “we”. They are no longer individuals who have committed individual crimes, but one collective voice, “We knew we were The Devil’s Own Brigade”. They share pointless chores (“We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors, and cleaned the shining rails…”) that imply a dreary monotony of their lives in prison, “We forgot the bitter lot that waits for fools and knaves…” In this united existence, they seem to experience a complete loss of self. Their bodies become a parade of shaven heads and leaden feet (a “merry masquerade”) in which they cease to exist other than as a group. They even share the same emotions of dread, fear, and a united chill and tremble passes amongst them when they are reminded of the grave (a constant reminder that their time is limited). In the light of the pending hanging, the section takes on an acute and eerie reality of mortality and it being outside of their control. Their mortality rests in the power of others (the ones that Wilde names): the warder, the Chaplain, The Governor, and the Doctor. These men of power loom over the united “we”. Similarly, Wilde uses personification of nature to present an impending and powerful threat. Section three begins with the romantic image of a creepy prison with “stones [that] are hard”, the “dripping wall is high”, “beneath the leaden sky”: the image illustrates a dark fortress, absolute in gloom and impregnable. Within the following stanza the “scaffold” is given the characteristics of a warrior (the prisoners are considered its prey). The concept of extending human senses to nature encompasses the entire section, so much so that Oscar Wilde dedicates an entire stanza to the human description of the already dug grave, “With yawning mouth the yellow hole gaped for a living thing; the very mu cried out for blood…” The open grave almost becomes the door to hell: open and waiting to swallow its victims. Oscar Wilde gives more detail to the setting (specifically to the nature surrounding the persons) to offer a more complete personality to the mud, the sky, even the prison walls. In doing so, he gives is able to demonstrate the insignificance of men (the prisoners) and the destructive and angry force that is nature. It is a very disconcerting section, in which Oscar Wilde seems to comment on the littleness of man (and the even lower worth of the enemies of society) against nature and the unavoidable death that waits for everyone.
Danielle Fisher, Sarah Andresen, Mary DelRosario, Rachelle Moscova
British Literature: Romantic Through Modern 