Hard Labor
Does anyone know what kind of hard labor Wilde was performing in prison. It looked like he was on an automated staircase.
shareThat would've been the treadmill, one of a number of tedious forms of work inmates had to do in a Victorian prison.
shareI was wondering the same thing. Did the treadmill actually serve any productive purpose (like making license plates or picking up litter), or was it just meant to be a tedious punishment for the prisoner?
The treadmill at Pentonville prision (where Wilde served the "hard labour" part of his sentence - at Reading, conditions were much less harsh) was used to mill flour for the prison bakery.
http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications2/lookeron-6.htm for a contemporary account. The reference to the mill being used to make flour is about two-thirds of the way into the article.
"...was it just meant to be a tedious punishment for the prisoner?"
That's pretty much it. As tevildo says above, they did use the power, but that was secondary. Tedious, pointless, mind-numbing, and heartbreaking punishment was the word of the day. There was no such thing as "rehabilitation". You were expected to "take your punishment like a man" (even if you were a woman) and refrain from committing it or any other again upon pain of returning to the treadmill, or worse. "Rehabilitation", Victorian style.
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Just as a wise man can say something foolish, a fool can say something wise.
I do not have my Wilde biography with me, but I thought I would add what I can remember to this board.
Wilde's hard labour mainly involved the sowing up of mail bags! He would also be sent outside to do various gardening and weeding duties.
Then, of course as has already been discussed, the tread mill. This was used mainly for the producing of flour and other such products.
Another thing that Wilde definately took part in on a daily basis was walking around the yard in a circle with the other inmates. This is depicted very clearly in the film, with a cap over the eyes to prevent indentification.
There is one recorded incident when Wilde tripped lightly one day in the yard and the inmate following him walked into him. Wilde most likely apologised, but whatever the exchange the inmate with whom he collided whispered;
"It's not fair your sort being in here, sir."
Or something along those lines. I'm sorry I do have the quote infront of me...
The tediousness and harshness of the work was the same in the workhouses. The point was to make the places so horrible that they'd put people off ever wanting to stay in them so they'd go out and get a job.
Btw you'll see a similar treadmill to the one in Wilde at the beginning of the 1960s musical Oliver! Also in the film Total Eclipse you'll see that Paul Verlaine got the same punishment as Oscar Wilde did for the same crime - 2 years hard labour for 'buggery'. In TE you see him doing the walking round the yard thing.
"The point was to make the places so horrible that they'd put people off ever wanting to stay in them so they'd go out and get a job."
THe unfortunate thing is those places with their lack of cleanliness is what mad Wilde catch something which caused him health problems and then led to his death.
THe unfortunate thing is those places with their lack of cleanliness is what mad Wilde catch something which caused him health problems and then led to his death.
That's one theory. His biogapher Richard Ellman thinks he caught something way before ever going to jail - specifically syphilis - although this is disputed. Either way, the cold and damp conditions as well as the deprivation almost certainly hastened his death. (As a matter of interest, both Constance and Queensberry died before him).
I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.