The Ballad Of Reading Gaol

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1896

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Background

Historical Context: The Victorian Penal System

The penal system during the Victorian period (1837-1901) is remembered today as extremely harsh, though it did undergo some progressive reforms during this period. British prisons at this time (called “gaols,” and pronounced as “jails”) were unsanitary and bleak. Many people incarcerated there had been sentenced to hard labor, considered a particularly severe form of penal servitude. Hard labor often involved spending many hours each day completing pointless tasks, such as turning a heavy metal handle called a crank or walking on treadmills—the point wasn’t to be productive, but to be punitively exhausted. Inmates who resisted or misbehaved were often subjected to corporal punishment or had their food taken away. In some prisons, including Reading Gaol, incarcerated men spent most of their time isolated in their cells; when they were allowed outside, they were forced to wear caps to cover their faces and were not allowed to converse with each other. These policies—known as the “Separate System” and the “Silent System,” respectively—were meant to encourage prisoners to penitently reflect upon their crimes.

There were some efforts to reform the penal system during the Victorian period, especially as progressive ideas about incarceration became more prominent. A series of acts passed by the British Parliament between 1850 and 1900 sought to improve prison life by prioritizing the rehabilitation of convicts. For example, this period saw the introduction of borstals, or separate prisons for young people, where they could be held more safely and potentially redirected away from criminal life on release.

Authorial Context: The Trial and Incarceration of Oscar Wilde

In 1895, Oscar Wilde become embroiled in a series of lawsuits involving the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of Wilde’s lover Lord Alfred Douglas. Upon learning about Wilde’s relationship with his son, Queensbury publicly accused Wilde of the crime of sodomy (the contemporary British term for illicit sexual activity). In response, Wilde sued Queensberry for criminal libel. In presenting his defense, Queensberry brought forward evidence that proved that Wilde had in fact engaged in homosexual activity with Douglas and other men. Wilde was forced to drop his suit. He himself was then charged with sodomy and gross indecency, as homosexuality was a crime in Victorian Britain. In 1897, Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years of hard labor.

Wilde was incarcerated at several prisons before arriving at Reading Gaol: He was sent to Newgate Prison for processing before being moved to Pentonville Prison. His hard labor in Pentonville consisted of walking on a treadmill and picking oakum, which meant separating the fibers of old navy ropes. After a few months, Wilde was transferred to Wandsworth Prison, where he was forced to declare bankruptcy and lose his possessions. Only in November of 1895 was Wilde transferred to Reading Gaol, where he was assigned to the third cell on the third floor of Ward C, making his prisoner identification number “C.3.3”—the only name by which he was addressed at Reading. There, he continued to fulfill his sentence of hard labor, until he became very ill and was allowed to stop.

Wilde would have met Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a trooper of the Royal Horse Guards who had been sentenced to death for murdering his common-law wife, a few months after being transferred to Reading Gaol. Wooldridge cut his wife’s throat during an argument; then, immediately repentant, he confessed to a police officer. Wooldridge was sent to Reading Gaol to await his hanging, which took place on July 7, 1896. Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol describes Wooldridge’s time at the prison and his execution, and the poem is dedicated to Wooldridge as “C.T.W.”