Importance Of Being Earnest

 Importance Of Being Earnest

A trivial comedy for serious people

Hello everyone, this blog is based on a thinking activity task assigned by megha ma’am. Which is related to Victorian Comedy The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is a funny play that pokes fun at the social customs of Victorian England, especially the rich and their obsession with appearances.

 This play is a "comedy of manners," which means it uses humor to show how silly the upper class can be about following social rules. Wilde’s play also has elements of melodrama over the top plot twists and characters who act ridiculously which makes it even funnier.

#About Author: Oscar Wilde 

• Oscar Wilde was an Irish writer, poet, and playwright, celebrated for his sharp wit and brilliant humor.

• Born: 16 oct, 1854 in Dublin 

• Wilde’s writing is a significant part of The Aesthetic Movement because he believed in ‘Art for Art’s Sake’.

• Valuing beauty and creativity over traditional moral values. 

• Wilde’s works, particularly his plays, remain popular for their satirical critiques of Victorian society and witty dialogues.

• His Notable Works:- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) , Lady Windermere's Fan, An Ideal Husband, A Woman of No Importance, and his most famous, The Importance of Being Earnest. 

#1) Wilde originally subtitled The Importance of Being Earnest “A Serious Comedy for Trivial People” but changed that to “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People.” What is the difference between the two subtitles?

1. “A Serious Comedy for Trivial People”:

This subtitle suggests that the play is a “serious” and meaningful comedy meant for “Trivial” people, or those who are shallow and focused on things like appearance and status. It implies Wilde is directly mocking these people, showing how silly it is to care so much about things that don’t really matter.

2. "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People": 

Wilde's last pick, the subtitle, upturns the notion of the play, deeming it a "trivial" or comedic piece and says that it's "for serious" people—that is to say, those seeking greater, more meaningful plays. This is an irony of sorts and encourages every reader to laugh at how puerile, even respectable facets of society, like rules of society and respectability, can be when those masks are stripped off.

#2) Which of the female characters is the most attractive to you among Lady Augusta Bracknell, Gwendolen Fairfax, Cecily Cardew, and Miss Prism? Give your reasons for her being the most attractive among all.

Cecily Cardew is often the most attractive in terms of personality and charm. Cecily, Jack’s ward, is playful, imaginative, and has a youthful innocence that sets her apart from the other characters.

Cecily’s playfulness, imagination, and authentic approach to life make her particularly attractive. She doesn’t take herself or societal rules too seriously, embodying the lighthearted nature of the play itself.

*Imagination and Fantasies: 

Imaginative, Cecily gives a dimension to herself. She conjures up a love story with Algernon before she is introduced to him, and writes herself love letters from Algernon so that the fantasy does not become unreal. The careless imagination that she exercises makes her a more interesting and likable character in the eyes of the audience compared to the sophistication and high class nature of Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell.

*Refreshing Simplicity and Rebellious streak: 

Unlike the other character, Cecily is not even interested in ways and relations. She has a streak of rebellion, refusing lessons and thwarting Miss Prism's efforts to keep her proper. Her free-spiritedness feels so refreshing in a play that often characters go mad on the ways and status.

*Innocent Yet Clever: 

In the case of Cecily, innocence is perfectly mingled with cleverness. She is naive but full of wit, catching and parrying Algernon at his attempts to cajole her while engaging playfully with him as a warm and curious nature, which makes her believable and lovable.

3)The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage, and the pursuit of love in particular. Through which situations and characters is this happening in the play?

Oscar Wilde uses characters and situations to mock Victorian traditions especially concerning marriage and the pursuit of love.  Through exaggerated and humorous scenes, he reveals how shallow and ridiculous many of these societal customs were.

*Obsession with the Name "Ernest" (Gwendolen and Cecily): 

Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew are obsessed with the notion of marrying someone named "Ernest."

Gwendolen says she could never love any one but a man named Ernest, for the name must come to mean something by this time. Cecily is also attracted to Algernon (dressed as "Ernest"). 

Wilde uses this to mock the Victorian ideal of "earnestness" Gwendolen and Cecily are more concerned with the name than the actual character of the man they plan to marry, thus proving their shallow desires.

*Interview between Lady Bracknell and Jack: 

Lady Bracknell is Gwendolen's mother, an embodiment of Victorian social norms. When Jack proposes to Gwendolen, Lady Bracknell wants to interview him to find out whether he is good enough. She doesn't care for love; she is rather more interested in Jack's social status, wealth, and family background.

 As soon as she learns about the fact that Jack was adopted after he was discovered inside a handbag on the platform of a train station, she is frightened to death and will not consider the union. Using the character of Lady Bracknell, Wilde satirically criticizes how, during that period, marriages were viewed more as an act of commerce than something truly personal.

*Cecily's Fantasy Marriage with Algernon:

Even before she meets Algernon, Cecily imagines herself in love with "Ernest" to the point of making a timeline of their "engagement" and writing letters from him to herself. Such absurdity mocks the Victorian ideal of romance as artificial, based more on fantasy than reality. Wilde demonstrates how one can fall in love with an idea of love, not a realistic person through the use of Cecily's fanciful, fictitious relationship.

Both characters create personas Jack is "Ernest" when he is in the city, and Algernon has the persona of "Bunbury," his envisioned ailing friend to abstain from social obligations. Using these personas, they make time to flirt and win the hearts of their loves with a clear conscience. Wilde here ridicules the rigid moral codes of Victorian society, suggesting these were so rigid people needed to lie or even lead double lives to find personal freedom and happiness.

*Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble's "Romance": 

Miss Prism is a governess to Cecily and Dr. Chasuble is the vicar in the village; a very formal, stifling love. They talk about emotions through euphemism: never saying anything explicitly: rather, they poke fun at how repressed, or cautious Victorian relationships used to be. Shyness, over-formal flirty behavior, lampooning the Victorian attitude which eschewed explicit talking of emotions even while concerning romantic matters.

4)Queer scholars have argued that the play's themes of duplicity and ambivalence are inextricably bound up with Wilde's homosexuality and that the play exhibits a "flickering presence-absence of… homosexual desire" Do you agree with this observation? Give your arguments to justify your stance.

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest reflects themes of duplicity and ambivalence which relate to his homosexuality. Wilde was writing in an age when homosexuality was illegal, widely stigmatized, and he had to work out his own identity by coded language, hidden relationships, and a double life. 

In fact, the play's themes of secret identities, hidden desires, and social masks can be said to be an interpretation of this very experience. Here are a few reasons why:

1. The Concept of Double Lives:-  Both Jack and Algernon lead "double lives" by adopting alternate identities Jack as "Ernest" in the city and Algernon as the friend "Bunbury" who gives him an excuse to escape. This theme of dual identity speaks to the experiences of many queer individuals in the Victorian era who had to hide their true selves or live covert lives to avoid social consequences. Wilde himself maintained a public persona of a respected writer and wit while privately engaging in relationships that society condemned. It represents a hidden identity rope where the gay males such as Wilde need it, just to be out there to be hidden

2. Ambigious words and "Earnestness":-  The use of double meaning in play titles about Earnest is ironic for one thing because they take to mean earnest not that their names are the "Ernest" but really speaking; it means insincere or false as an "Earnest"; on other words, sincerity and falsity. But "be earnest" could also carry an implication of a kind of hidden "coded" life where a character has to put on an image for society of being one of conformity but has to hide it in his heart. The duplicity of this title reflects perhaps Wilde's consciousness about the need to be virtuous outwardly while yearning for a personal freedom which Victorian society did not allow for.

3. Fluidity in Relationship and Identities:- The characters of Wilde, although being ambiguous about their romantic love, where Gwendolen and Cecily fall in love with the name "Ernest" rather than Ernest himself, speak towards superficiality in attraction or at least the way attractions work. This could also work to reflect Wilde's general commentary on the nature of social versus personal attraction in the world. This superficiality can be interpreted as a critique of Victorian romance conventions, which often ignored real emotions in favor of social symbols, a dynamic not unlike the hidden relationships and coded behaviors required of gay men in Wilde's time.

4. Social Satire of Marriage:- Marriage as a social contract rather than an emotional or passionate bond, Wilde's use of marriage as an institution, not as an emotionally binding union, satirically speaks against the ideal Victorian notion of marriage. Wilde could have been criticizing the strict definitions of roles and relationships in society by making light of the institution. While he was not free to express love for a man in a society where the idea of marriage between men was strictly forbidden, he finds it an artificial practice that has more value attached to its appearance rather than to its actual existence.

5. The Innuendo and Subtext Infusion:- There are always witty dialogues and innuendos that make the characters speak layers of meaning beneath what they are saying. Perhaps, Wilde's experience with having to speak indirectly is reflected in this "flickering presence-absence." Subtext infuses a great deal of the scenes between Jack and Algernon; it is nothing less than a suggestion that something beyond friendship is on, though it is left unsaid.

Wilde's use of duplicity, hidden identities, and satire on marriage can indeed be seen as a subtle reflection of his own experiences with secrecy and societal restriction. *The Importance of Being Earnest* becomes not only a comedy about social norms but also a clever critique of the need to "perform" one's identity to fit into an unforgiving society. While the play is, above all, a comedy, there is such subtlety and depth in its characters' secret lives as might have been lived by Wilde himself, and therefore these themes are perhaps all the more personal for it.

References:-

“The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde.” Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/844/844-h/844-h.htm . Accessed 31 October 2024.

Wilde, Oscar. “The Importance of Being Earnest: Study Guide.” SparkNotes, https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/ . Accessed 31 October 2024.