WhenThe Importance of Being Earnestwas first performed on 14th of February 1895 in St. James’s theatre, it was a huge success and one of the actors said: “In my fiftythree years of acting, I never remember a greater triumph than the first night ofThe Importance of Being Earnest.The audience rose in their seats and cheered and cheered again.” (Quoted in Bird 1977, 164) Of course, the first one who extoled the play was Oscar Wilde himself: “the first act is ingenious, the second beautiful, the third abominably clever.” (Quoted in Kohl 1980, 412) Indeed, it is his masterpiece orposthumously - most sucessful play and has enjoyed most revivals up to the present day.
However, the play is not only “good fun” (Reinert 1956, 153), Wilde put also a philosophy in it, as he explained: “That we should treat all the trivial things of life very seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.” (Quoted in Eltis 1996, 171) Furthermore, in the play’s subtitle “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People” he directly addressed the mainly upper-class audience of his time and there is maybe no better or more appropriate expression than “serious” or “earnest” to describe Victorianism or the Victorian society. (cf. Kohl 1980, 421) Hence, the play may help us to understand the society at Oscar Wilde’s time.
Although the play’s performance is realistic or naturalistic, i.e. the characters are dressed in contemporary dresses and look exactly like the audience at that time, there must be a reason why a hundred years later we can still laugh about this great farce and wonderful social satire. Maybe the wide range of themes (marriage, love, money, religion, birth and so on)1or the character’s peculiarities and follies helped the play to remain up-to-date.
But with what kind of characters did Oscar Wilde on the one hand amuse and entertain his audience, on the other hand criticize and satirize spectators and society he lived in? How do the character’s follies shed light on the Victorian society at the end of the 19th century?
Table of Contents
1. The serious people in Oscar Wilde’s trivial comedy
2. Oscar Wilde and his work
3. Characters
3.1. Lane and Merriman
3.2. Algernon Moncrieff
3.3. John Worthing
3.4. Lady Bracknell
3.5. Gwendolen Fairfax
3.6. Cecily Cardew
3.7. Miss Prism
3.8. Reverend Canon Chasuble
4. Oscar Wilde’s good society
Objectives and Key Themes
This academic paper examines the construction of characters in Oscar Wilde's comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest." It explores how Wilde uses individual character follies and double identities to satirize Victorian social structures, gender expectations, and the hypocrisy of the upper class.
- The role of "dandyism" and aestheticism in character development.
- The subversion of traditional Victorian gender roles and the "separate spheres" debate.
- The usage of double identities (Bunburying) as a social critique.
- The contrast between superficial appearances and moral substance within the aristocracy.
Excerpt from the Book
3.4. Lady Bracknell
Lady Bracknell is Gwendolen’s mother and belongs to the aristocracy because she has married well, however, her own background is of a relative social obscurity (“When I married Lord Bracknell, I had no fortune of any kind. But I never dreamed for a moment of allowing that to stand in my way.” Wilde 1990, 325) Her husband never appears on stage although the audience will see in him a henpecked husband who has to eat alone upstairs and maybe “strategically retreated into illness rather than have to face his wife” (Robbins 1999, 19). In Victorian age the traditional view of gender relations was that the men are “active, manly, assertive and economically independent” whereas the women “are passive, feminine, pliant and dependent”. Here the roles are turned upside down and the power relations between the sexes and their reversal are main themes of the play.
But Lady Bracknell is also feared by Algernon and Jack. For Algy her arrival augurs badly, as he states when she rings the door bell: “Ah! that must be Aunt Augusta. Only relatives or creditors, ever ring in that Wagnerian manner.” (Wilde 1990, 321) Jack even says about her: Her mother is perfectly unbearable. Never met such a Gorgon.... I don’t really know what a Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case she is a monster, without being a myth, which is rather unfair.
Chapter Summaries
1. The serious people in Oscar Wilde’s trivial comedy: Discusses the play's historical context, its status as a social satire, and Wilde's philosophy of treating trivial matters seriously.
2. Oscar Wilde and his work: Provides a biographical overview of Oscar Wilde, highlighting the parallels between his personal life, his downfall, and his literary output.
3. Characters: Analyzes the individual figures in the play, focusing on how they function as dramatic constructs rather than realistic characters.
3.1. Lane and Merriman: Examines the role of the servants in establishing the play's tone and reflecting the aristocratic master-servant dynamic.
3.2. Algernon Moncrieff: Profiles Algernon as the archetypal dandy whose idleness and "Bunburying" represent the reversal of moral values.
3.3. John Worthing: Explores Jack’s double identity and how his role as an "innocent abroad" contrasts with his life in the city.
3.4. Lady Bracknell: Analyzes her as a dominant, authoritative figure who embodies the snobbery and conservative values of the Victorian upper class.
3.5. Gwendolen Fairfax: Discusses Gwendolen as a representative of the "New Woman" and the shifting gender dynamics in the late 19th century.
3.6. Cecily Cardew: Investigates Cecily's romantic illusions and her mimicry of city manners despite her rural upbringing.
3.7. Miss Prism: Focuses on the governess's moralistic nature and her critical role in the resolution of the play’s plot.
3.8. Reverend Canon Chasuble: Looks at the satire of the Church of England and the character’s ineffectual attempts at celibacy.
4. Oscar Wilde’s good society: Concludes that the play is a brilliant satire on the emptiness of "good society" and reiterates the philosophy of not being too serious in life.
Keywords
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Dandyism, Victorian Society, Social Satire, Bunburying, Gender Roles, New Woman, Aestheticism, Comedy of Manners, Identity, Hypocrisy, Aristocracy, Literature, Character Analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this work?
The paper focuses on the character construction and social satire in Oscar Wilde’s play "The Importance of Being Earnest," analyzing how individual personality traits reflect the societal values of the late 19th century.
Which thematic fields are central to the analysis?
The key themes include the contrast between appearance and reality, the subversion of Victorian gender roles, the critique of the aristocracy, and the literary tradition of the "comedy of manners."
What is the core objective of this study?
The goal is to demonstrate how Wilde uses specific character types to entertain his audience while simultaneously mocking the hypocrisy and rigid expectations of the Victorian social elite.
Which methodology is employed in the paper?
The paper utilizes a literary analysis approach, drawing upon biographical contexts of Oscar Wilde and scholarly critiques to interpret the motivations and functions of the play's characters.
What topics are covered in the main section?
The main section provides an in-depth, character-by-character analysis, starting with the servants, moving through the lead male and female characters, and concluding with the guardian figures.
Which keywords define this work?
Major keywords include Dandyism, Victorian Society, Social Satire, Bunburying, and Gender Roles.
How does Lady Bracknell contribute to the plot’s conflict?
Lady Bracknell acts as the primary antagonist; her rigid social standards and refusal to grant consent for marriages drive the plot’s complications and necessitate the characters' deceptions.
Why does the author argue that the characters are "fictional constructs"?
The author argues that they are not realistic depictions but rather "puppets" or "personalities" designed by Wilde to facilitate social satire, as evidenced by their interchangeable nature and reliance on surface-level attributes like names.
- Quote paper
- Oliver Zürn (Author), 2005, Characters in Oscar Wilde's 'The Importance of Being Earnest', Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/57244
