2.1- Anthology Text- Wilde's autobiography

Tone
1. Reflective
2. Poetic
3. Lyrical
4. Sincere
5. Confessional
6. Philosophical
Mode
1. Extract from letter, published 5 years after Wilde's death
2. Unconventional
  1. Subverts genre conventions
  2. Direct address to reader
  3. Stream of consciousness- non-chronological
Audience
1. Wilde himself
2. Alfred- lover, nicknamed 'Bosie'
3. Fans of Wilde
4. Interested in prison in the late 1800s, and homosexuality
Purpose
1. To reflect
2. To inform others' opinions
3. To offer insight into his life and emotions
Annotations
1. Auxillary verbs
  1. 'shall'
    1. Future- unconventional
      1. Autobiographies usually reflect on past
2. Parallelism
  1. 'when my father sent me to Oxford and when society sent me to prison'
    1. Focus on change- from Oxford to prison
    2. No control of situation- 'sent'
  2. 'I turned good things of my life to evil, and the evil things of my life to good.'
    1. Reversal- chiasmus
    2. Love of Bosie to to bad- imprisonment
    3. Prison became valuable
3. Alliteration
  1. 'maimed, marred and incomplete'
    1. Nasal alliteration
    2. Lexical set of damage
4. Parentheses
  1. '- the beauty of... making it silver -'
    1. Can't see in prison
      1. Comforting
    2. Untainted by society
    3. Syndetic list
5. Indefinite gender neutral pronoun
  1. 'To regret one's... the lips of one's own life'
    1. Critical of others
    2. Self-acceptance

Resource summary

	Created by Grace Fawcitt over 6 years ago