Concetti Chiave
- Oscar Wilde used the pseudonym C-3-3, his prisoner number, to publish a ballad after his release from Reading jail.
- The poem is centered on a soldier sentenced to death for killing his lover, portraying him not as a ruthless killer but driven by love and possibly intoxication.
- Prison is depicted as a transformative experience, turning a guilty man into a victim and symbolizing mankind's tragic destiny, akin to Christ and Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner.
- The ballad critiques societal hypocrisy, highlighting that while society condemns external violence, it overlooks other forms of metaphorical "killing."
- The poem follows the ballad genre with plain language, repetition, and a six-line stanza structure, using colors symbolically to convey deeper meanings.
Wilde's imprisonment and pseudonym
In 1896 Wilde was imprisoned in Reading jail , to 1897. This ballad was begun after his release.
It was published under the pseudonym of C-3-3, Wilde’s own number as a prisoner.
The poem starts in media res and it is formally built around the story of a soldier who has been sentenced to death in Reading jail for having killed his lover. The poem is made up of 107 stanzas divided into six sections. It doesn’t show traces of Aestheticism.
The soldier isn’t a ruthless assassin: he has killed not because of cruelty or greed or hate, but for love, probably was drunk because he was found with blood and wine on his hand.
How does prison serve as a transformation?
The prison transforms a guilty man into a victim: whatever he may have done, suffering and being deprived of liberty are in themselves a form of expiation and purification.
The soldier becomes the symbol of man’s tragic destiny: he is seen as a sacrificial victim who pays for man’s sins. The analogy with the figure of Christ is clear, but also with Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
The fundamental injustice is not just that a man’s life is going to be taken away but also that this happens within a context of society’s general hypocrisy.
All the people kill, in a way, or in another: with words, a look, money and greed, some repent and some don’t, but society doesn’t punish them because they don’t use external violence as did the prisoner.
Colors and their meanings
In the ballad there are some colors: Scarlet (coat of the guard’s uniform) represent courage and patriotism;
Red suggests passion but also blood and murder; Grey is associated with prison, squalor and lack of life;
Blue suggests hope and freedom but there is only a little.
The poem is typical of the ballad genre in which there are a plain language, repetition, similes, metaphors, internal rhymes and an apparent simplicity of thought which hides profound truths and tragic contents; but the stanzas are made up of 6 lines and the rhyme scheme is abcbdb, traditionally were 4 and the rhyme scheme were abab.
Domande da interrogazione
- What pseudonym did Oscar Wilde use for his publication after imprisonment, and why?
- What role do colors play in Wilde's ballad, and what do they symbolize?
Oscar Wilde published his ballad under the pseudonym C-3-3, which was his prisoner number during his time in Reading jail from 1896 to 1897.
Colors in the ballad carry significant meanings: Scarlet represents courage and patriotism, Red suggests passion and murder, Grey is linked to prison and squalor, and Blue symbolizes hope and freedom, albeit sparingly.
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