Activity 3. Wall Street trader

Introduction:In this task you’re going to look at the impact context has on different lines of the play.

Student guidance:

Imagine you are a Wall Street trader, and the lines in the play are stocks and shares which can be invested in.

Which lines would you recommend that your classmates invest in and have in their portfolios?

A good investment might be a line that resonates the highest number of times from 1895; or a line that resonates very powerfully in one particular year.

Research relevant historical events from 1895 to the present day. Then choose lines from the play that would make good investments. Give the lines a mark out of 10 for impact in different key years.

Are there certain years where the value of a line increases? Or crashes?

Plot graphs based on your findings. See Wall Street graph and Wall Street graph instructions

Finally, project your graphs onto the whiteboard and then (Using the table with your notes in) talk the class through your findings, explaining why they should invest in certain lines. Tell them when the best years to invest in the line are. Perhaps a line does not start to resonate until after 1895. Perhaps some lines resonate from the outset and so it is wise to invest immediately, in 1895 when the play is first performed. Perhaps a line stops resonating at a certain point, and should be sold when its value is low. And then invested in again before its value rises

Version 11© OCR 2016

Oscar Wilde: An Ideal Husband

Line / ‘And now what is there before me but public disgrace, ruin, terrible shame, the mockery of the world, a lonely dishonoured life, a lonely dishonoured death, it may be, some day?’ (Sir Robert; 2:1105)
Time line / Play opens 1895 / First trial April 3 1895 / Second trial April 26 1895 / Third and final trial May 22 1895 / Wilde dies penniless in Paris November 30 1900 / Jacob Epstein sculpture for Oscar Wilde’s tomb unveiled
1914 / 1997
Wilde, biographical film starring Stephen Fry as the poet and playwright / Centenery of Wilde’s death in 2000 / Wilde’s restored tomb with a glass barrier round it is unveiled November 30 2011
Score / 5/10 / 6/10 / 7/10 / 8/10 / 10/10 / 7/10 / 7/10 / 8/10 / 9/10
Argument for investing / The well connected audience would probably appreciate the connotations of the line; would give the line an ominous edge / Oscar Wilde’s name stripped from production. For all his predictions, perhaps he was pleased to distance himself from the line as he tried to sue the Marquess of Queensbury for libel. Nonetheless the line would retain a ghoulish power. / Wilde, himself now faces prosecution. The line is loaded with drama as society waits for the verdict / Wilde is found guilty of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labour – the line is beginning to look prophetic / With Wilde’s death the line takes on a tragic tone / Controversy caused by the sculpture would suggest the world hadn’t moved on, but that Wilde was not the outcast he was at the time of his death / The resonance of the line will be very much in the public consciousness again, thanks to this critically acclaimed and Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated film / ‘dishonoured death’ takes on irony, as Wilde is now celebrated. Irish president, Mary McAleese, talks of redeeming Wilde’s memory from ‘harsh oblivion’ / Such was the public outpouring of love for Wilde that his tomb has to be shielded from the public. The irony of the ‘dishonoured death’ has never been more potent.
The best year to invest / Invest from the start. The transformation in meaning the line undergoes makes it very valuable. If you don’t want to invest in the whole line, go for ‘dishonoured death’. Wilde prophesies his own dishonoured death in 1900; however, what he doesn’t anticipate is the about turn in public opinion over the next one hundred years and the outpouring of love he would receive from the public that would mean his grave would have to be placed behind a glass barrier. The irony of the line grows and grows.
Line
Time line
Score
Argument for investing
The best year to invest
Line
Time line
Score
Argument for investing
Best year to invest
Line
Time Line
Score
Argument for investing
Best year to invest

Version 11© OCR 2016

Oscar Wilde: An Ideal Husband