Bi3IT 41 OSCAR WILDE: THE BALLAD OF
Structure
41.0 Objectives
41. I Introduction
4 I2 Historicai. Biographical and ldcological Pcrspcctivc
41 .? (krol - A Discussion
1I1cHallad ?f'l<c~./~ling
4 1.4 St~mmingUp "
4 1.5 - S uggcsted Reading
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41.0 OBJECTIVES
[Link] of this unit is to famil'iarisc thc rcadcr \\,it11the lit*~.times and \\orlis
of Oscar Wilde ( 1856- 1000). Coming as it docs at the cnd of tlic ccntur!. tlic pocn.~
7hc Hnllncl ofliectding Gctol ( I 896) encapsulates thc literal? mo\~cmcntsnncl
controversies of the a ~ cDealing
. as it does with the thcmcs of sin, g ~ ~ ial t~ ~ d
redemption it cannot escape comparison \\ it11 anothcr lanclmarlt pocm \\,rillell nbo~ira
hundred \.cTirs carlicr, Colcridgc's 7 h e liin7e c ! f ' / l ~ cAncicnl kIoriner ( 1798). A
cstc~lsivecoriiparati\lc anal~qsisof tlic t ~ v o ' p o c ~\\:ill
~ i s be iinclertaltcn Iatct- in ~11cilllit.
The attempt \\.ill be not only tb [Link] for the poem po. sc but to place it
in the contcst of dominant socialt political. religious and ideological issl~csof thc
da~:.
' 41.2 INTRODUCTION -- - - -- ..
Tlic readcr is advised to read thc unit from tlic end first. Begin b! reading tlic tcxt 01'
t l ~ cpocm and scc l-~o\vmuch :\.ou can ~~ndcrstand. It is alna! s bcttcr to approach o to.;
~,vithoiltan), preconceived ~ ~ o t i oand
~ l sinformation. Attcr that comc baclt and rc:lcl t h ~ .
biograpl~ical.l~istoricaland contcst~laldiscussions probided in tllc L I ~ I This
I ~ . ~.carl~~i!g
\\.ill cnliancc >*ourappreciation and unclcrstauding of thc tcxt and provide: ndd~t~un,lI
insights to your initial reading of tllc tcxt.
--- - -... - -- . -
41.2 HISTORICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL AND
IIIEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE --- - - - -.
Oscar Wildc is diffici~ltto place in l i t c r a ~his
. to^? silicc as Ilc hlr71sclf ad~ll~ttcd.
lic
dcvotcd his genius to life ratl~crt11cu-1to his art. Wildc toda: silr\/lvcs as a ligut-c'01'
fasci~iatingmytholog> where thc works ~ncvitabl! seem sccoiidar~to tlic Icgcnci vf
the man.
Oscar Wilde \\.as born in Dublin in 1854, .the son of a11clnincnt surgcon tlc attu11;lcd
Trinity Collcgc. Dublin and then Magdalenc Collcge. Osford. \\.hcrc 111 tlic last !car5
of tllc scventies hc startcd tlie cult o f Aestheticism. of making all art of litk HIS fi1.s~
book Poems was publislicd in 188 1 and 7 % l'ictr~rc
~ of I.)o~~c/n
(;YL-I!J f0110\\ cd 111
189 1. His first stagc successes callie in 1892 \vlt11 l,n~(\l~,
R'r.n~k~~17io'~ :c I ~ I I I I1 II.)I,c
acclailii camc wit11 A Won7cm qf Si~hstnnce( 1893) and An IL/LJC/~ /-l~/rh~nli/ o~icl1 llc~
X?
of'Being Ernest both in 1895. SCIIOI~C
It~~portc~ncs was refilsed license in England but Oscar \?riltle
jvns publisl~edin France in 1893.
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. , '.
. .
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Oscikr Wilde
t : his significant works occupy thc last two d o e s of the niilctcoith century.
~ o s of
A fciv wbrds about the times wouldanot be out of place since Wilde's works are
incstricably linked with the social and lndral a t ~ ~ ~ a s y lof~ et lr~c cage. It has beell said .
that 'Yhc nineties" was not a period but a state of mind - that is, ththerc arc manye
lvritcrs who cluo~~ologically speaking were 1110st prod\~ctivuin that decade, yet had
nothius in common with its supposed spirit. It is therefore difficult to ca~llprebei~d
ninctconth cent~~ry England on the basis of a single philosophy. Nu~l~eroils
philosopliics began to takc shapc, making it an angc of t~.emcndousinitiative, ijplicn\.nl
Victorirrn Poetry and contradiction. Tlle geueral uplleaval in society originated froill the gap bet\\ ccli
wl~at11111 wanted and what he achieved.
Scientific pl~ilosophiesand faadf philosophies emerged from the then domlnant
enlpiricist world view. They however failed to provide an adequate nltcrnativc for
belief, for man to withdraw his faith in God and posit all his hopes on the Bcnthain~tc
pllilosophy of utilitarianism
Men like Coleridge, Mill, ~ n l o l d Carlyle
, tried to provide adequate solution to tllc
battle between science' and religion, God and Mmlmon, 'tn~thand half-truth. The!
believed that all suffering results froill ignoraitcc and llence the need to acquirc tllc
right knowledge. coleridge7s philosopl~y\vas a reaction to the empiricist ideological
framework. The epistemological shift fro111the visible to the invisible [Link]
that the highest tn~thsare those which are beyond thc range of en~piricalexperience.
Coleridge's doctrine expressed the revolt of the hun~aizmind against the inental and
physical finites of society, His philosopl~yis grounded in a conformity to hur~lanand
religious values and belief in the predominance of the mind for acq~~iring knowledge,
With time however the Coleridgean principles of integrity. trai~scendentalknotvledgc
and Christial~values of love and prayer began to crack under pressure fro111 socio-
ecoilonlic realities. The possibility of ~iltimatetnith and value seeined dottbtfi~lnild
convictioil in all kinds of moral, intellectual and social certainties was vanishing.
Hence towards t l ~ eend of the nineteenth ceilt~lr):a belief gained ground that art and
morality/society were two separate realms and the fornler was coilsidered complctel!
independent of the latter. Thus art mid literature had nloved into a new phase. tl~ro~igh
critics remained divided over how t o best describe this phase of cult~~ral histor!'. To
refer to it as a l~omogeneousand uniform decade would be misleading. since man! of
the essential attitudes of the nineties had their roots in the sevei~tiesand eighties:
specifically the Aesthetic Movement which has o,ften become synonymous \\ it11 the
innovations of the nineties. The word Decodtnce has broader application but sut'fcrs
from an ambiguity - suggesting sonletinles a coillbination of plrysical lassitude and
psychological and moral perversity, esenlplified for example in J-K. Huysinan's
novel A Reboz~[Link] phrasejn de sidcla is a more useful term for it points to the
~ t linlited to a
preoccupations of the last years qf the ilineteenth century w i t h o ~being
single decade and can also cover particular manifestations such as decndtnce or
aestheticism.
In so far asjfin de sidcle refers to a serious and consistent cultural attitude it has t\vo
essential characteristics : the conviction that all established forins of iiltcllectual and
moral certainties are vanishing, and that the new situation requires new attitudes ill
life and art, and the related belief that art and morality are entirely separate realills
and the former must be regarded as wholly a~ltoi~omous. Hence the doctrine arose of
artfor nrt :I:sake. It must however be noted that "the nineties" was a state of mind
that originated in Europe. One has to go to Frei~chliterat~lreto observe the genesis of
this psychological phelxomena.
If j n de sidcle tried to establish a break with established Victorian attitudes, then tllc
break was not p~icular~y'clean, for in a literary sense there are lines of develop~ncnt
that link thejin de ,siQcbpoets with t l ~ Romantics
e - Keats" Blake and particularl!
Coleridge.
One writer who absorbed the lessons df the age not wisely but only too well, who
achieved a tragic celebrity wit11 relatively slender talents and wl~osoname is still a
symbol fcr the wholefln de sidcIe period and state qf mind is Oscar Wilde. Mistrust
~f theory and system, and a corresponding stress on sensation and inlpression is
perhaps the best description of Oscar Wilde's art.
I Exercises
1. Give a brief account of Wilde's life and works.
Oscar Wiltlc
I
2. What was the mental and ideological condition of the age in which Wilde
was writing?
3. What were the major inoveillents of thc agc?
1 -
I
41.3 THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL: A DISCUSSION
The Bnllnn' of'Headi~g Gaol was written in [Link] a l~undredycars earlicr:
1798 to be precise, came a'poem The 8ime oj'the Ancient Mnriner by Coleridge
which built the foundation on whicll Wilde was to build a hundred ycars later. So any
esclusive discussion of the former, without puttiilg'it in the pers~ectiveof the latter
will not be unfair to the poem; it will also fail to provide any gli$~pseofthe
iiltellectual nloveincnt 'of the age. The Rime was Colcridge's chirefcoiltribution to 7'11c
L~vicnlRnllnd,~(1798). It is a long poenl written in the ballad forin and divided into
seven sections: T11e Mariner either out of anger or irritation shoots the albatross; for
this l ~ e i n o ~ ~ s he is punished by the curse of life in death, However when love
criine
gushes froin his heart at thc sight of the water snakes, the horrible spell breaks and
the albatross falls froin his neck. To kill the albatross is a sin, therefore, tlle [Link] the
. action follows with an inexorable fatality. The Hinie~is,.a tale of guilt, penance and
expiation and each section of the poem reveals a new stage of the act of expiation; it
is the saga of a guilty soul and the poem illarks in clear stages the passage from criine
through plulishment to such redeinptioil as is possibIe in this world.
The Rime is essentially a religious poem deeply rooted in Cllristian ethics. Several
kinds of reIigious feelings are merged as Coleridge deals.~vithsin, remorse, pcnancc,
punishment, qconfessioll,grace and redeinption at successive stages of tlie narrative.
The validity of tlle gospel is affiriiled and re-affirmed vis-a-vis the progress of events.
Killing the albatross is a sill and the Mariner is punished for it in inyriad ways.
However his act of love in admiring the water stlakes saves him fiom the curse and
tllere is a return to tlie old world after t l ~ eresolution. Howcver tlle jvorld to which lle
retunis is a different one, for the,Mariner is now an enlightened man, a man wjth
knowlcdge.
More than physical woes, the Marincr suffers froin existential loneli~lesstypical of
Roinailtic heroes. Tlle other inembers of tllc crew have rejccted him and hc suffers
alone and in silence. The lack of certitude ill the Mariner, his solipsistic fear is
understandable keeping in mind the trial he is undergoing. But what is noteworthy is
the note of hope - not only does penance deliver him from his torturous physical
condition, but aIso from solitude and ignorance. .In fact his suffering is a process of
spiritual growth and enlightenn~ent..His expiation is possible only because of his
lovc. again a Christian concept of life. When he can see beauty in the deadly water
snakes - he is at once released and he is able to pray, tlie body of the albatross fall?
11itothe sea and lle is refreshed with a gentle sleep. The different episodes of tlic
narrative call be seen as componei~tsof "something great, sometliing one and
Victorimi Poetry ~ n d l \ , ~ s ~ b-l ctllc
- " plicno~iicnaof SIC. pcn~tcliccand rcsolut~onI c tllc phcnomcna ot'
lrfc accord~ngto Clir~st~nn pli~losopli\~,.Tl~c
suffcr~~lgof the Mar~ncrbcco~ncs
mean~nglcssunlcss ~t 1s scc11as a part of his pcnancc - "The man liatli pcnnlicc done.
alld pcnancc lllorc \v111 do'.". E\cn 111sfantaslcs. drcanls and ~iiglitniarcsIlar~i~on~sc to
cvokc a sensc of gracc tliat s a c s thc Mar~ncr
The lieav!. religious impcrati\ie bcllind thc s! mbols and images strcngthc~~
Colcridgc-s arymcnt for the \lalidit! and adcquac!, of ~.cligiot~s nornis. Tllc albatross
is a s!.mbol. csisting bct\\.ccn the litcral and tlic [Link] is sr~pposcclto be (1
Iiarbingcr of pcacc ancl prosperity and to take aua: its lifc is an act of sill \\ hicli
cndangcrs onc's u \ \ ~ bcing
i and tliat of one-s compa~iio~is. Colci-idgc i n fact suggcs[s
3 pantlicistic oncncss \\.ith nature as tllc albatross is a s!.niboI [Link]'s prcscncc for
tllc Marincr. Tlie shooting of tlic bird bcco~iicssignificant onl!. in the contcst of this
fact. Colcridgc thouglit of nature as an "ctcmal languagc \\~lliclispol<cof Gocl's
~~rcsc~icc-'.Drouglit and a pitiless sun si~ggcst;Istate of spiriti~nl\\astc. Tlic "blood!.
sun" ho\\.cver is [atcr rcplaccd b!. a gcntlc light. It is a positive linear mo\.clilcnt from
dcatli to lifc. dnrkncss to light, dcspair to liopc. froni gi~iltto cspln~latio~l. fi-on1
dcspa~rto rcdc~nptio~~. fl-oni s~ffcringin isolation to a return to Olic \\.ol-lclof 1iic11..l7lc'
Mariner lio\vcvcr fails to acliicve a final sal\iatio~l- "I pass. like ~iiglitli'011iland to
In~id"'"..Ycttllc discoi~rscmovcs around tlic tlicnic of conformit!. to di\,i~icIcgislation.
By shaping t l ~ cs!.mbols into a consistclit \\rholc and subordinating tlicm to n single
plan Colcridgc communicates a spiritual ~n!.tli o.f a dark and despairing crisis ill tlic
human soul.
Tllc poc111proyrcsscs in a s!,nibiotic relation ofactiotl as [Link] ancl thc condition of
the sp11.1~ :IS C J ~ ~ L .sI i; ~ b ~ c q i ~ c ~
tlic
i t lspiriti~al
!~ condition bccc~mcstlic CL~LISC.;111cI
actiot~stlic cl'fcct. TIicrc can be scparation in Colcriclgc's pliilosoph!~bct\\,ccn Lllc
~noraln ~ the ~ dspi1-ilual. no possibilit!. of spiritual rcgc~icrntio~i \\.itlioi~t~corrcs~,oncli~ig
gro\\.tli in i~ndcrstnndinghuman bchaviour.
Tliccra 11~11ichbegan \\.it11 the L!IYICCI/ Hcilkid\ c a m to a closc \\ it11 :lie Acstlict~c
Movement of tlic XO's and tlic 90-s. One of tllc malor \\ r~tcrsof tlie pcr~od/mo\cnlcnt
\\as Oscar Wildc \\liosc \\arks had strong Romant~cundertones con\ c! 111gmessages
of lo\~cand despair. 'lhc Rctllrislc~fKensi1t7,qI;cctrl( 1894) is a bnllnd In S I \ scct~onsIt
tclls of tlic lianging of a ~iii~rdcrcr for killing the \\oniali hc lo\ cd Likc 717~~ /?IIIILJ ~t IS
also a talc of crime and pl~[Link] talc is narratcd b) a fcllo\\ pr~soncr\\ Ilosl:
s! ~iipatliicsarc clcnrl!* \\ it11 the co~ldcnincdIiian for hc is po\vcrfi~l!I anarc of the
nrbitrarincss of rnnn-lnadc In\\s. Liltc life-in-death of 7'l.l~Kt117c. 717~0HLI~/CIL~ I S ;I
discourse on uniting for dcatli in tllc prcsclicc of palpablc and ncti~aldcatli The first
tlircc scctio~isnarrate the sis \\.ccks spent \ \ n i t ~ ~for
i g dcatli. the foi~rtli~ C S C I - I ~ Ct11c
S
csccution and its cffccts on tlic other prisoners. Tlic ~icuiscct~on1s dc~otcdLO tlic
poct's rcflcctions on cscci~tio~l and thc prison as a place for rcf'o~m n~idrcpcntancc
Tlic concluding part is a kind of nn cpilogi~u\\ hicll reiterates the ccntml tlicmc of tllc
poem - "All men k ~ l tlicl thing tlic!. lovc"
In strict contrast to 7 ' l . l ~l<1117c,
W~ldc's71tc Hc~llo~isu~gcsts loss of Il~rth111C ' l i r ~ s t ~ a ~ ~
tdcolog) and the fi~t~lit!. of Christian cthics for tlic English soc~ct! 'l'llc H~~llr~cl IS 3
stoq. of crime and pi~nish~ilcnt but allus at ~ i sal\
c a t i o ~or~rcdcmption 111 thct tllc
attc~nptsat sctting tlii~lgsright 1s mockcd at and ridiculed. The nlan lias nlurdcrcd thc'
\\'oman hc lovcs and spends thc first tlircc scct~onsnaiting "to s\\ ~ng"T1ic ~ S O I I !
and dcspair of tlic criminal is ho\\ cvcr sllarcd b\. 111sfcllo\\ prisoners (11111 11,c 111 I ~ L J
lc'imc) l'hcrc ts ho\\cvcr no movcnlcnt to\\ards sp~situalyro\\tll or c~ll~glltcn~ncnt.
duspitc dccp nlc~~tal and ph).sical ag,on!- thcrc is no co~ifcss~on or pra? cr. Ilc acccpts
cvcr\-th~[Link]! -
'
Hc did not \vrin%his hands nor \.[Link]
And azain -
And strange it n a s to scc him pass
Will7 ci .,step .so lig171crnd SCI!I.
>to Atiti V I ~ * L I Mi:, ~' I~. , . > I ; ; S . L ~II~II?
~ look
So wistfilly at the day,
And strange 12 was to think that he Oscilr Wilde
Had such n debt to pay.
Thcre is only "Black Dcspair" and "crooked shapes of Tcrror" in the Goal. Not only
for the condmled, but also for his fellow prisoners hope is dead for they
'wondered tf each one of 14s would end the sedf- sai?le way"
Thc agony of prison life and the inhuinan treatincnt of the Governor, the prison
Wardcns, thc Doctor and thc Cllaplain constitute of his suffcnng. Yct in spite of his
penance therc is no gracc and redcmption -he is hanged like a beast and therc isn't
my rcquicm for his soul either ... He has no redemption at the end because "he docs
not win who plays with sin 7 In the secret House of Shame". In fact at every step
Christian ideology fails to save him.
While in The Rinze love is the means of salvation and redemption, in The Ballad it
leads to destruction and despair. Love is treated cynically by the poet - "For each
ntan kills the thing he loves / Yet each man does not die" - he kills the woman hc
loves. Cruelty has three dimensions here - the cruelty of the crime, the strong
inlpression that such cruelty is pervasive and thc [Link] his punishment by an
equally guilty society.
Wildc departs from thc supernatural world of Coleridge and situates his poeill against .
the nineteenth century English social background. The miserable living coilditions in
the prison, the stifling ovcrwhelrning presence of authority (statc) and the inequity of
justice are highlighted in tl~cfifth scction. The poem sho\vs total cynicisill and
irrelevance, if not total rejection of institutions - both mml-made aid divine. The
arbitrariness of law is anphasiscd and hence thc possibility of rcden~ptiontl~rough
penance is also bleak. The end of tl& era mood of despair is reflected in repeated use
of such tenns as "yellow face of Doom", "Cavc of Black Despair", "dead was hope':
"Man's grim Justice". A society perched on the edge of corn~ptionand despair finds
graphic illustration. Uillike The Rime which abounds in supernatural elements, The
Ballad has a predominatrtly gothic touch - the macabre details of the grave,
quicklitlle dissolving the body, religion too takcs on a gotllic face. The prison is a
place of horror and sl~aincwhcre man mistreats n~an- Christ would have been
ashanled to sce the actions of his children.
The effective use of syn~bolsis as much strategy in Wilde as it is in Coleridgc, Whilc
in The Rime synbols are used to establish the validity and efficacy of the Christian
world view, in The Ballad .they become symbols of the inefficacy of Christianity.
Natiirc and rcligioil becomc sylnbols of fcar, despair and dissolution, That is how the
profoui~dand the sublimc are made profane in The Ballad - "God's dread'firldawn ",
thc Chaplain syinbolise t l ~ uttcr
c irrclcva~ccof thc divine. The ccntral issue of
destruction is rcitcrated repeatedly through thc systcm of symbols.
Yet each Inan kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Solne do it with a bitter look,
Sonze with ajlattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The bravc inan with a sword!
A morbid preoccupation with death and destruction is noticeable in the pocm -
beginning with capital punishment, the grapl~icdetails of the execution, to the horror
of the corpsc in the grave. The Hallcrd is nearly a11anarchist's poem where evcn a
noble emotion like love is treated with violence, and a deep undertone of
faithlessness and cynicisnl permeates everything. The narrative of The Ballad moves
Victorian Poetry in an opposite direction to that of The Rune - a movement froin life to death. light to
darkness, hope to despair.
The human conditioil in the two poeins have been dealt with differently. Yet thc cnls
of the problem is the same in both the poems - the problem of t l ~ eessential lonellncss
of man, though again the nature of the loneliness is different. The Mariner kills an
albatross which is an act of sin and has grave cosmological effect - death, starvation
and havoc on the seas. Yet the same act also leads to salvation. Unlikc the kllll~lgof
the bird, the murder of the woman in The Bclllnd is not an act of sin and the poet
almost sympathises with the murderer, defending the criminal's act - every man kills
the things he loves, yet every man does not die. But behind this stateineilt is a
philosophy - that man is by nature cruel and destructive, and his act of love 1s also an
act of destructio~~. This murder has no cosn~ologicalimplication. The pr~soll
conditions continue to be as inh~uinanas before, be also suffers the fruit of his actions,
though his fellow prisoners offer him silent sympathy. The Christian apparatus is
overwhelmed by the socio-political apparatus. Thc pocnl alternates between ail cleg!
on the human condition and a protest against the inhumanity of man-made lans.
Wilde's prison house is a micro-cosmic version of the doomed finality of the largcr
world Wilde espresses serious reservatioils about theories and systeills - thc law fails
to distinguish between the guilty and the innocence and hence to dcliver justice. Tl7e
Rime on the other hand progresses through a belicf 111 systeins and nrlcs. Coiiforn~it~
to order enables man to easily distinguish between right and wrong. And ~tis this
belief in a system which makes it easier to categorise the killing of the bird as sin for
which the fellow prisoners curse the Mariner. But in The Bnllc~dthe fellow prisoners
are lost without any philosophy of life and have no choice but to syinpatl~iscwith the
crimiilal and sail in the sane boat. If we assume that by syn~patl~ising tvitl~thc
criminal they identify with him, then the murder acq~iiresa coliective d~mens~on. 7he
Bnl2ad explores the perplex~tiesof these inoral desperation - th~iigshave fallen apart
and the centre cannot hold.
The poem under discussion is a ballad which has a forcefiil and direct effcct.
Emphasis is achieved by repetition of words. phrases. sentences and sta~lzasthough at
places these repetitions become both tiresoine and puerile. An atmosphere of dcspa~r
and gloon~is established by repeated use of words like "alone", "terror". "impotent
despair", "Pale anguish", "degraded" etc. The total effect of this poenl of 660 lines is
one of 'death' which is essentially the theme of tile poem. While The Kinw has four
line stanzas, The Ballad progresses through six line stanzas.
Endnotes:
1. Basil Willey. Nineteenth Cenhdry Stzldies - Essays on Samuel Taylor
Coleridge.
2. The Rime qf Ancient Mnriner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
3. Ibid.
I
1
Exercises
I
1. What are the points of similarity between The Rime arid The BnNnn'?
2. What are the points of difference between The Rime and The Ballad'?
3. Mention some stylistic and structural features of The Ballad.
41.4 SUMMING UP - -
Wilde acbievcd his effect by appealing directly to the emotion to prove superiority of
art over nature - this was his proclaimed aim in literature. He strove to rcfine
sensations and ilnpressions aqd believed in perfection and sensibility.
The change frdm ~h'eRihe to The Ballad may be summeg up in terms of religion,
phjlosophy, human condtllons and technique. Co1eridge.i~a conformist in religious
nlatters and believed that redemption is possible even in this ugly wotld, t l ~ einain
cause of which is ignora~~ce. His technique is more svmbolic and suggestive.
Wilde on the contrary is more' sceptical and shows mare irrelevance towards all
institutiolls - human and divine. I-Ie is an aesthetic and therefore has faith only in
aesthetic values. The ultimate (spiritual) values of life lmve no place in his creative
world,.keeping in mind the coiltemporary socio-political-economic situation. His
solution to the ugliness of life is the acquisition of aesthetic/sexisory perfection.
Neveitheless he like Coleridge aims at greatcr huinan happiness and the eradicntion
ofthe ugliness of life.
41.5 SUGGESTEB READING
1) Rower, C .M. The Ro~nonticIma~innlion(Oxford, 1969)
Studies of major Romantic pocts uiiderliiii~lgthe socio-political impacts and the
~ early Ron~ailticAge.
play of lnllguagc i i tllc
2) Pollard, Arthur, [Link](Barric & Jcilltins 1970)
Essays on major Victoria11 writcrs and on thc nlqior socio-political issucs of thc
age.
3) Trevelyan, G.M. /Z~~gll,sh Soclal Fli'.storj)(Macmillan 1977)
History of English Literature against the backdrop of history of English society
from Chaucer to Victorians.
4) Willey, .Basil. Nineteentl? C'entz1j-y LS'f~rci'ir'ic.s
(Cambridge University press, 1980)
Essays on major Victorian writcrs.
5 ) EllmHu Richard. [Link] (Hamish I-Inmilton. 1985)
Life and Works of Oscar Wilde.