Assignment-4 Analysing the Themes of 'Importance of Being Earnest'

Topic of the Blog:

This blog is part of an assignment for the paper 104 - Literature of the Victorians, Sem - 1, 2023

Personal Information: 

Name: Yashrajsinh Sodha

Batch: M.A. sem-1 (2023-25)

Enrollment Number: 5108230043

Email: yashrajsinhsodha0000@gmail.com

Roll Number: 34  

Assignment Details: 

Topic:- Analysing the Themes of 'Importance of Being Earnest' 

Paper & subject code:- 104- Literature of the Victorians & 22395

Submitted to:- Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar 

Date of Submission:- 27th November, 2023

Oscar Wilde:

Oscar Wilde (born October 16, 1854, Dublin, Ireland—died November 30, 1900, Paris, France) Irish wit, poet, and dramatist whose reputation rests on his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). He was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art’s sake, and he was the object of celebrated civil and criminal suits involving homosexuality and ending in his imprisonment (1895–97).

Wilde was born of professional and literary parents. His father, Sir William Wilde, was Ireland’s leading ear and eye surgeon, who also published books on archaeology, folklore, and the satirist Jonathan Swift. His mother, who wrote under the name Speranza, was a revolutionary poet and an authority on Celtic myth and folklore. (Beckson)

The Importance of Being Earnest (play): 

The Importance of Being Earnest, play in three acts by Oscar Wilde, performed in 1895 and published in 1899. A satire of Victorian social hypocrisy, the witty play is considered Wilde’s greatest dramatic achievement.

Jack Worthing is a fashionable young man who lives in the country with his ward, Cecily Cardew. He has invented a rakish brother named Ernest whose supposed exploits give Jack an excuse to travel to London periodically to rescue him. Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of his friend Algernon Moncrieff. Gwendolen, who thinks Jack’s name is Ernest, returns his love, but her mother, Lady Bracknell, objects to their marriage because Jack is an orphan who was found in a handbag at Victoria Station. Jack discovers that Algernon has been impersonating Ernest in order to woo Cecily, who has always been in love with the imaginary rogue Ernest. Ultimately it is revealed that Jack is really Lady Bracknell’s nephew, that his real name is Ernest, and that Algernon is actually his brother. The play ends with both couples happily united. (Britannica)

Themes:

The Art of Deception: Fact v. Fiction:

As a leader of the Aesthetic movement, Wilde was especially interested in the relationship between life and art, pondering the eternal question, “Does art imitate life, or life imitate art?” Wilde explores this relationship in The Importance of Being Earnest through the conflict that arises when fact collides with fiction. The conflict between fact and fiction is driven by Algernon and Jack’s lies about their respective identities, specifically the fictional personas they create in order to mask their doings, shirk their duties, and deceive their loved ones.

Jack invents his brother “Ernest” so that he can excuse himself from the country, where he serves as Cecily’s guardian. Under such pretense he can escape to town, where he can court Gwendolen and entertain himself with extravagant dinners. Similarly, Algernon invents his invalid friend “Bunbury,” so that he has an excuse to escape from the city when he does not care to dine with his relations. Fact and fiction collide when Algernon arrives at Jack’s country estate, pretending to the elusive “Ernest”. His arrival upsets Jack’s plan to kill off his fictional brother and nearly derails Jack’s real engagement to Gwendolen. That Algernon coins the terms “Bunburying” and “Bunburyist” after his imaginary invalid to describe such impersonations highlights the deceptive, as well as the fictive quality of Jack and Algernon’s actions.

The Pursuit of Marriage:

The pursuit of marriage is a driving force behind much of the play’s action. Similar to many Victorian novels of the period, the play reads as a marriage plot, documenting the errors in social etiquette and romantic upheavals that come about as Jack and Algernon stumble towards the altar. Jack pursues Gwendolen’s hand, while Algernon pursues Cecily. Because Jack and Algernon are willing to go to such outlandish lengths to appease Gwendolen and Cecily’s fickle desires, engagement—which will ultimately lead to marriage—becomes the primary goal of the main players.

Each couples’ engagement is fraught with roadblocks, albeit trivial ones. Gwendolen shows hesitance at marrying a man not named “Ernest.” Cecily shows that same hesitation when Algernon suggests that his name may not actually be “Ernest.” Lady Bracknell objects to Gwendolen and Jack’s engagement on the basis of Jack’s lack of legitimate relations. Meanwhile Jack objects to Cecily and Algernon’s engagement to spite Algernon for “Bunburying” and Lady Bracknell for disapproving of his marriage to Gwendolen. The elderly Dr. Chausible puts off marriage, citing the “Primitive Church’s” emphasis on celibacy, while Miss Prism embraces her spinsterhood as a governess. Despite these trivial obstacles, all couples are finally engaged—Jack to Gwendolen, Cecily to Algernon, Miss Prism to Dr. Chausible.

Cash, Class, and Character:

The Victorian society in which Wilde lived was concerned with wealth, family status, and moral character, especially when it came to marriage. Lady Bracknell’s interrogation of Jack’s proposal to marry Gwendolen demonstrates the three “Cs”—cash, class, and character. First she asks him about his finances and then his family relations, a measure of his class. That Jack has none—no family relations, or family name, reflects poorly on his character. Upon finding that Jack has no “relations” she exclaims, “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune…to lose both seems like carelessness,” (as if were Jack’s fault for being an orphan.)

In the Victorian world one’s name was the measure of one’s social capital, so the fact that Jack doesn’t have any family is an insurmountable obstacle to his marrying Gwendolen, a daughter of the titled gentry. According to Lady Bracknell’s marriage standards, Jack has the cash, but he doesn’t have the class, so his character comes into question. (Although of all three “Cs,” character is probably the least important of Lady Bracknell’s criteria, since income and family take precedence in her line of questioning over Jack’s actual intentions for her daughter, which might more accurately reflect the content of his character).

Name and Identity:

Through Jack’s search for his origins and family name, Wilde satirizes the Victorian Era’s intense scrutiny of cash, class, and character. Wilde subversively prods this question through the name of “Ernest,” a Christian name, or given name, as opposed to a family name. The name of “Ernest” comes to symbolize different things for different people. For Gwendolen and Cecily it “inspires absolute confidence” but also symbolizes the ideal husband/ lover. For Jack, “Ernest” is an alter ego, an identity through which he can court Gwendolen and cavort in the pleasures of city life. The name holds similar meaning to Algernon, who masquerades as “Ernest” to escape to the country to meet Cecily under false pretenses.

While the name of “Ernest” holds different values for each character, Wilde shows that a name, in of itself, is quite meaningless in comparison to the person who holds that name. Contrary to the play’s title, in this dramatic world, being “earnest” is not nearly as important as being named “Ernest.” Gwendolen does not accept Jack’s proposal because he is earnestly in love with her, but she believes him to be named “Ernest,” a name she find melodious, aesthetically pleasing, and irresistibly fascinating. Cecily in a similar manner commits to Algernon not because he is earnest, but because she believes him to be “Ernest,” a man whom she has fantasized about in her diary and “girlish dream[s].” Because Gwendolen and Cecily are so enamored of the name “Ernest,” they confuse the shared name of their lovers with their respective identities. 

Hypocrisy, Folly, and Victorian Morality:

A witty wordsmith, Wilde exposes the hypocrisy of the Victorians’ strict social mores through puns, paradoxes, epigrams, and inversions in the characters’ actions and dialogue. For instance the characters often say and do the opposite of what they mean, or intend. Gwendolen flips “style” and “sincerity” when she says, “In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.” One would expect that “sincerity” should take precedence over “style” in “matters of grave importance” so Gwendolen’s inversion of these words appears not only funny, but also a tad foolish. Another notable inversion is Lady Bracknell’s quicksilver reversal of her approval of Algernon and Cecily’s engagement. Lady Bracknell does not think much of Cecily until she finds out that she is the heiress to a great fortune, which immediately encourages Lady Bracknell to advocate for the match. Ironically, while money alone is sufficient for Lady Bracknell to approve of Algernon’s engagement to Cecily, it is not enough for her to approve of Jack’s proposal to her own daughter Gwendolen.

Lady Bracknell exposes her hypocritical nature further when she says she disapproves of “mercenary marriages.” Yet her marriage to Lord Bracknell was motivated primarily by money—“When I married Lord Bracknell I had not fortune of any kind. But I never dreamed of allowing that to stand in my way.” Lady Bracknell’s hypocritical attitude towards marriage is not just humorous and ironic; it is also a sharp stab at the paradoxical nature of Victorian social mores. Like Lady Bracknell, Dr. Chausible’s opinion on marriage reverses quickly. In his proposal to Miss Prism he staunchly holds that the “Primitive Church did not condone marriage” yet by the plays end he seems well on his way to marrying Miss Prism anyways. Through such reversals Wilde points out the hypocrisy and foolishness of Victorian social standards.

Men and Women in Love:

In the game of love that Wilde plays throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, Jack and Algernon, who strive for love, are pitted against the fickleness of the women they desire. Even though Wilde assigns stereotypical gender roles to each sex—Jack and Algernon are suave dandies, while Cecily and Gwendolen are vapid beauties—when it comes to marriage and love, he places women in a position of power because they are able to actively choose their mates and influence their partners’ behaviors. In the Victorian world women were rarely afforded this influence, as their male elders—fathers, brothers, uncles, etc.—had tight control over the men with whom they interacted, even dated. Yet Gwendolen and Cecily wield a great deal of power over their suitors. For instance, Jack and Algernon strive to christen themselves “Ernest” precisely because Gwendolen and Cecily threaten to withhold their affections from any man who does not hold this name. In doing so, they effectively compel Jack and Algernon to change their names.

Conclusion: 

In conclusion we can say that 'The Importance of Being Earnest' masterfully weaves together themes of deception, societal expectations, and the absurdities of identity. Oscar Wilde's witty exploration of dual identities, satirical take on societal conventions, and humorous critique of the pursuit of earnestness collectively create a comedic masterpiece. The play serves as both a mirror reflecting the societal norms of the Victorian era and a timeless satire that continues to captivate audiences with its clever wordplay and thought-provoking commentary on human nature. Through its farcical plot and memorable characters, 'The Importance of Being Earnest' remains a classic that transcends its period, offering enduring insights into the human condition.

References:

Beckson, Karl. "Oscar Wilde". Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Wilde. Accessed 26 November 2023.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "The Importance of Being Earnest". Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 Nov. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest. Accessed 26 November 2023.

Words: 1926

Photos: 2