[0:00]Hi everyone, welcome to Miss Adams Teachers English language and literature A level. In this video, we are going to be having a little look at the extract from De Profundis from the voices in speech and writing anthology. I'm going to take you through key points to do with context, we'll have a look at the complex nature of the genre, audience and purpose before we get cracking analyzing some key quotes and thinking about how Oscar Wilde sounds, his voice. That further ado, let's get started.
[0:33]Okay, so De Profundus, the piece that we're working with is an extract taken from De Profundus as a much larger text. Um, it's a piece that Oscar Wilde wrote whilst he was in Reading Jail. Um, and really the extract that we're dealing with is all about him working his way through ideas to do with self-acceptance and talking us through some of the things that people said he should do about his time in prison and what it really means to him to kind of make peace with who he is. Uh some keywords for you on context. First of all, let's just look at his life time, so 1854 to 1900. He died in 1900 a little while after, um, he got out of prison, um, from sort of TB, but I mean it it was brought on by um, the hardships of being in jail. Now, uh, De Profundis was written whilst he was in prison and it was actually published a little after his death in 1905, but even that was a very, very highly edited version. His uh, his friend Robbie Ross published it uh post-humously. Uh, but it wasn't until like the 1960s that the actual whole copy um, was was published. Now, a couple of people you need to be aware of from his life. So, um, his lover, uh Bosie, otherwise known as Lord Alfred Douglas, um, is one of the potential recipients of De Profundis, this letter stroke biography. Um, one of the reasons that um, Oscar Wilde ended up in Reading Gaol was because of the difficult relationship between him and Bosie and Bosie's uh, father, the Marquess of Queensberry. Um, and actually what happened, a lot of people just assume, oh well, yes, he went to jail because he was a homosexual and that that is true because we are in a period where homosexuality was um, illegal, but what actually happened was he tried to sue Bosie's father for criminal libel because he had written some uh slurs about him to do with homosexuality. Um, and kind of handed it in in a theatre, so it was a sort of public uh public slander, and the suggestion is, is that Bosie convinced um, Oscar Wilde to, yeah, to to defend himself and accuse him of slander. But of course what that actually meant is within that court case, they established all sorts of evidence that led to his arrest and subsequent imprisonment for gross indecency. Now, all the while, it's important to realize that Oscar Wilde did actually have a wife, uh her name was Constance Wilde or originally Constance Lloyd, um, who suffered dreadful ill health and also died around the time that um, Wilde came out of prison from complications uh in surgery from a back injury. They had children, um, and it's such a kind of complicated relationship because, you know, there is no doubt that he loved his wife and children, but at the same time he was also thoroughly in love with this other man called Bosie. And a lot of the money that perhaps could have gone to his family was lavished on Bosie, or trying to kind of keep up with his lifestyle, Bosie being of a of a uh a sort of a higher class um than him. The reason why all of this is relevant is because all of these ideas, all of these things that have happened to him, uh is the material that he is grappling with in De Profundis. Um, so and for that reason, it means that the gap, the genre, audience purpose of this piece is quite complicated. So Edexcel have popped into the autobiography section and that's fine because to a degree it is an autobiography. But actually how it began was a letter, um, and it, you know, and not a kind of normal letter, it was 50,000 words long, which is why it now is kind of considered an autobiography. But please bear in mind that initially it was a letter and it was one of the ways that he kind of managed his existence in Reading Gaol because it was a horrific experience of hard labor. But some of the prison guards liked him and so gave him this opportunity just to keep writing, writing, writing, and it was one of the things that, yeah, held him together. So, that means that the audience is quite complex. So there's a sort of private audience to consider, there's the fact that originally the letter was to Bosie, yeah, but it was also for himself. It was also something to see him through. Um, but there there is, you know, and for that reason, there are kind of different audience, um, sorry, different purposes here. It was a love letter to a degree, although it wasn't all full of roses because he was very, very angry with Bosie. So there was a lot that was to do with a private audience to Bosie expressing his love and anger about what had happened. But the aspects of it that are for himself is about catharsis, it's about self-expression, um, it's about getting through. So when you consider it as a private or as having a private audience, then the purposes are as such. But Oscar Wilde was no fool, you know, he was an incredibly famous writer, of course he knew that it would be for public consumption as well. Of course he recognized that eventually it would have a public audience. And so when you then think about the public audience, it's it's got two kind of purposes because he's writing to the critics, to his critics, to the people that shamed him, to the people that put him in prison for doing nothing worse than loving someone. But also he is writing to his fans in the clever, witty style that they would have appreciated. So for that reason, it is also about educating and informing, it's about saying, no, this is who I am and this is what you have to understand about me.
[6:59]So if you were lucky enough to get De Profundis in the exam, because I think it is such a brilliant text, you can really show off your um skills in tackling AO3 with how the context and the gap are so interlinked and so complex. But now let's get on to the good stuff. Let's get on to some key quotes. Again, as always, I'm just going to take you through six or seven quotes, I'm not doing a line by line, um, but hopefully I'll give you some nice, um, you know, useful information about voice and literary linguistic devices. Generally, when we're looking at this, there is all sorts of kind of self-reflection and self-awareness, um, there are moments of challenge and defiance and refusal to accept behaviors. Um, there are moments where the voice is quite confessional, there are moments where the voice is quite anecdotal, and there are moments where the voice is unmistakably unapologetically wild. And you'll see what I mean when we start looking at some of the little wildisms in the text. But let's look at the first one. Of course, the opening. I want to get to the point when I shall be able to say quite simply, and without affectation that the two great turning points in my life were when my father sent me to Oxford, and when society sent me to prison. Oh, there's so much to say. So first of all, um, note the fact that we are in present tense. I want to get to the point. So immediately we understand that Wilde is saying, I'm not there yet. I'm not able to say that these two things were the great turning point in my life, so there's a sense that he's almost looking to feel a sense of closure. So he wants to get to that point. And notice um, these adverbials quite simply and without affectation. Yeah, so he wants to be able to say this quite simply and without affectation. So not only does he want to say it, but he wants to mean it, yeah. He wants to come from a place of truth and honesty. Now, in this second half of this, uh quite complex sentence. The two great turning points in my life were when my father sent me to Oxford and when society sent me to prison. Look at the balance of these coordinate clauses. Okay, there is such balance in them. They're syntactically parallel, when my father sent me to Oxford, when society sent me to prison. There's a lot of repetition in there as well, but look at the agency. Okay, so my father sent me, so father is the subject. Wilde is the object. Society is the subject, Wilde is the object. Okay, when father sent me to Oxford, when society sent me to prison. So this is about a kind of sense of maybe almost powerlessness that that he didn't have agency over his life at these two points, which might be one of the reasons that he's struggling to get to that point because they were completely out of his control. So, rockem sockem opening there for you to analyze. Okay, moving on, um, so this is again, this idea of him sounding very self-aware, but you get this very persuasive um tone coming through as in because he's using rhetoric, um, in the way that he is describing um, his sort of sense of self. And I love all the repetition here. You can say repetition, but if you want the fancier terms, you want to check these bad boys out. So, the important thing, the thing that lies before me, the thing that I have to do. So notice how we have got Anadiplosis here. So it's at the end of this phrase and it's at the beginning of this next phrase. That's what makes it Anadiplosis, but it's also Anaphora because you've got the thing that lies before me, the thing that I have to do. So it's also at the beginning, but notice the vagueness of this noun thing. You know, it's like he's struggling to get it out. Um, it's eventually it's only here that we get what the thing actually is. But notice how it creates this idea of how sort of daunting it is. So the thing that that I have to do if the brief remainder of my days is not to be maimed, marred, and incomplete. Oh, he knows he's not got much time left. Is not to be maimed, marred, and incomplete. Is to absorb into my nature all that has been done to me to make it part of me to accept it without complaint, fear, or reluctance. Right, so we've got these three triads here. This first one is so emotive and metaphorical, this idea of the of the of his days being maimed and marred. So that's obviously connotes massive pain, it's torturous, it's suffering. Um, it's violent, marred means to be tainted. Um, so there's this idea about things being his days being full of pain, full of anguish, um, almost like full of corruption. Um, and it's these two words are tied together so beautifully through this nasal alliteration, maimed, marred. So it's got quite a kind of dark feel to it. Um, and then we've got this uh the next triad at the very end of the sentence. So again, see what I mean about feeling quite persuasive. He needs to do it without complaint, fear, or reluctance. So it comes back to those um adverbs that we talked about at the beginning about being, you know, quite simply without affectation. He doesn't want to feel bitterness. He wants his life to feel whole and the only way that he can do that is to actually accept what has been done to him. So notice again the agency. It's about other people's actions. Um now, I mentioned before about these kind of moments of wildisms. Um, and I think this is a perfect example. So notice how the voice becomes very, very powerful, very declarative, very, very confident in the supreme vice is shallowness, whatever is realized is right. Now what makes this particularly wild is his use of epigrammatic form. These two declarative sentences are epigrams. Now, Wilde used epigrams all the time in his writing. All you need to do is look at the opening of Dorian Gray and read the preface and it's a series of epigrams or little kind of memorable witicisms. And you can see the tone here as well. If you're able to say that this convention is particularly wild in, then of course you're going to be hitting AO3 for context. But look at the meaning in them. The supreme vice is shallowness. So check out the emotive nature of this pre-modifying adjective. Okay, you can also call it an attributive adjective because it comes before the noun, but the point is is that it it's it's the greatest vice or sin. Okay, um, is shallowness. So superficiality, not looking deep. He's saying look deep within yourself, that is what he is doing. Um, and it's so straightforward, this declarative simple sentence. And then we've got another declarative sentence here. This is complex, but it's just it's just very short. You can tell because obviously you've got your double verb here. Um, whatever is realized is right. So this is about saying, you look deep into yourself, even if you don't like what you see, you're still seeing something that is true, that is right. That is the most important thing. So yeah, there is a real sense of power in the declarative sort of nature of these epigrammatic forms. Okay, moving into the sort of final section. This is the beginning of the last paragraph, and I think it's quite interesting that he moves into this quite anecdotal voice. Um, you know, starting with the the these adverbials when first I was put into prison. So a little bit more conversational. When first I was put into prison, some people advised me to try and forget who I was. It was ruinous advice. So we've got this, um, oh sorry, the arrow is not in the right place. Um, some people, so vague language, that's coming from the indefinite determiner. Notice how he's not sort of naming and shaming and then he makes reference to other advice that he was given by some people later. So it's this idea that everyone has an opinion on how he should be um, responding to his time in prison. Um, but again, note this, we've got this simple declarative, it was ruinous advice. Ruinous, again, another emotive pre-modifying adjective, or attributive adjective if you prefer. But I said that it's anecdotal, but it is of course quite defiant as well. It's saying, no, I'm not going to listen to what other people say to forget who I was. That would be ruinous. And in this section, he talks about all of the things that he would lose if he weren't to be accepting of who he was. I know this section's quite long, but I I think it's important to look at um each bit. So he says, it would mean that I would always be haunted by an intolerable sense of disgrace. So there's a lovely metaphor suggesting a kind of ongoing suffering or an ongoing trauma. And once more, he likes his pre-modifying adjectives that pack a punch, it's an intolerable sense of disgrace. And that those things that are meant for me, as much as for anybody else. So there we get that defiance again, saying, I am a person just like you. I deserve these things. Now, in our parenthesis here, see the hyphens. He then describes all of the things that he deserves. The beauty of the sun and moon, the pageant of the seasons, the music of daybreak and the silence of great nights, the rain falling through the leaves, or the dew creeping over the grass and making it silver. All of those things, so so much there. We've got Asyndetic listing, so demonstrating the vast things that he deserves. It's all quite syntactically parallel. He's using sensory language, there's metaphor, there's a semantic field of nature and kind of the the idea of almost like showmanship that nature is like a show, something to be observed and enjoyed. Um, but once you come out of the parenthesis, he's basically saying all of those things would be tainted for me. So that verb tainted says all of these things that he would normally take solace in would be corrupt, would be ruined. And they would lose their healing power and their power of communicating joy. So we've got this lovely personification of nature there. He's telling us what nature does for him. It's quite, it feels quite sort of romantic, you know, with a capital R, this idea of, you know, taking solace in in nature and and how powerful um nature can be. So the point he's making is if I don't accept who I am and what I've done and take all of that into myself, I won't get to feel joy in nature. It won't help me, you know, because his life will be maimed, marred, and incomplete. Last one just to look at, obviously going to the very end of the extract, and we're back to this idea of challenge and power in his voice and you got it again with that comes these sort of epigrammatic forms. To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul. So powerful. Um, and again, it's it almost like sums up the point. You mustn't regret because if you regret, you can't move forward. You mustn't deny, you mustn't pretend it didn't happen because otherwise your life is a lie. It is no less than a denial of the soul. It's a denial of your very essence of who you are, and he's saying who I am is not wrong. There is nothing wrong with who I am. Note we're in present tense, so there's a kind of sense of this being a kind of life lesson to continue forward. And one of the reasons that it feels quite epigrammatic, um, is the anaphoric structure, so, you know, to regret, to deny. And again, it's it's it's vaguely syntactically parallel, you know, it's not bang on, but it's certainly there. We've got a personification here, uh to put a lie into the lips of one's own life, so the idea that your life is a vessel that can speak, that can tell truths about who you are. Then we've got this lovely bit of litotes here, it is no less than a denial of the soul, i.e. it is a huge denial of the soul. This is, I mean, this is such a powerful piece of writing about self-acceptance and it carries through to the 21st century. This is such a timeless piece of writing and it's so ahead of its time. Um, but you can understand, can't you how what I was saying before about the different audiences, how this is yes, to Bosie, but it's also to himself, it's also to his fans, it's also to his critics. Um, anyway, that's it for me. Uh, I hope that was useful. If there are any parts of the extract that I've not covered, but that you'd like any advice on, or you've got any questions about voice or the techniques, please just get in contact with me in the comments and I'll come back to you. Do subscribe if you haven't already and thank you uh if you have, um, because then you'll just get announcements of when these videos are ready because I'm working my way through. Um, that's it for me. Thank you so much for watching. Happy revising.
