Essay On Reading Goal In Reading Town By Oscar Wilde

In witnessing the execution of a man who murdered his wife, Oscar Wilde wondered how anyone could have committed this action against a person who they hold affection towards. When he first started to understand his emotions, he expressed an unparalleled rage towards such selfish people. He grew angry due to societal standards allowing this man show his love when Oscar Wilde himself, being gay, could not. “In Reading Goal in Reading Town there is a pit of shame and in it lies a wretched man eaten by teeth of flame, In a burning winding-sheet he lies, and his grave has got no name”(Reading Goal, part 6 stanza 1 line 4-6). In this sentence, Wilde describes the man using phrases such as “wretched” and “lying in a pit of shame” to create a very harsh and negative tone.
He continues on to say that he has been “eaten by teeth of flame” which shows how he feels about the actions and consequences that the man went through. The jail and the gallows are as harsh, in Oscar Wilde's mind, as being consubment by a purely destructive force such as fire. Wilde goes on to show how, in the chaos of the hanging and the grueling life in prison, the man had been ravished by the harshness that had appeared near the end of his life. He writes about his feelings towards the man and his nonexistent punishments, “The man had killed the thing he loved, and so he had to die.” (Reading Goal, part 6 stanza 2 line 11-12). This directness in the line highlights his pure rage towards the criminal. He does not use any metaphors or creative text that could use to get a different meaning from the sentence. This is a very strong example on how Wilde feels about the consequences of those who killed their loved ones, with fire and fury. Yet for all this anger that Oscar Wilde has towards the man, he still feels pity for