Emma Harford Mrs. IF 6th Hour 10/2/13 The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde, is a play set in Victorian-day England, where appearance and class overrides truth and morality. Wilde addresses this inside his play by using secrecy to show how Victorian society reveres people for their style and prestige, but not for their substance as a character. One of the main secrets in this play is held by Algernon Moncrieff, a narcissistic and sarcastic man who has created an imaginary friend, Bunbury, who he uses to escape his boring family and social engagements and responsibilities (not to mention, it provides excitement in the dull life that is Victorian England). In the beginning he does reveal this secret to Jack, but keeps it hidden from his family and other characters.
Pausanias, who delivers Symposium’s second speech, explains some of the societal norms governing male homoerotic affairs. The rules by which an older man and his boyfriend ( usually a young man who has probably not yet grown his beard) may behave are rigid and strongly enforced by society’s moral code. Pausanias reveals that the nature of this relationship is pursuer/pursued: “And as for attempts at conquest, our custom is to praise lovers for totally extraordinary acts” (182e Symposium). Pausanias emphasizes the morality further when he discusses the circumstances under which it is acceptable to gratify a lover. It is acceptable when “...and when the lover is able to help the young man become wiser and better, and the young man is eager to be taught and improved by his lover-then, and only
Looking back we can see that this was due to a lot of different pressures. Some were long-term, such as political advantage and urbanisation which did not immediately cause political change but eventually led to many changes. Some were some short-term, such as pressure groups, foreign influences and the support of new ideas, but they each led to an increase to the franchise. The social and economic changes that took place helped increase the franchise a lot. Britain's population was growing throughout the 19th century.
One famous play Wilde wrote was The Importance of Being Earnest which is a widely known play for its sarcastic plot of Victorian life. The play is about two seemingly good willed friends who have an addiction to what they describe as “bunbury”, which is treated almost similarly to a sport. The two men, Algernon and Jack, go through a series of lies, or bunburying, by fabricating fake lives to their family and friends to live a double life. Incidentally, they both meet women who wishes to marry each of the two men, but their bunburying has cause complications in their chances for a successful marriage. The rest of the play is humorous in all and highly advised for readers to also explore to fully visualize Wilde’s interpretation of the Victorian era.
The attempts by composers of subsequent texts to appropriate earlier texts are an appraisal of these works. An appropriation of Oscar Wilde’s works demonstrates the texts’ worthiness and enduring nature. His play did not receive such an accolade as it does now because of his personal life which left him a “broken man”. In that sense, Oliver Parker’s modern film interpretation (2002) of Oscar Wilde’s, penetratingly humorous and insightful social comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest endeavours to re-evaluate social graces and the idiosyncrasies of Victorian England whilst engaging the contemporary onlookers. The Victorian melodrama which reconnoitres a society heavily segregated as a result of social classes and aestheticism is a story told through the eyes of a man whose detest of the social order was driven by the snobbery of the high class.
Jack and Algernon had made their brothers up to give themselves an escape route to be someone completely different. Jack took the name Earnest in the city to become a different person and win the girl of his dreams. Algernon took a different name in the country to be an even more bachelor than in the city. After hearing Jack’s secret of having a ward in the country, Algernon goes to meet her and become her husband. These secrets are necessary to the novel because they start the setting and mood of the characters.
Although his actions are very insane, they can be seen as rational to reader considering hedonism. Devotion to pleasure, hedonism, makes Dorian be deceitful about his true self by deflecting the attention of the public from the mad man to the beautiful and intelligent gentlemen. Dorian is, young, sensitive, and emotional, meaning that he is susceptible to manipulation. Lord Henry takes advantage of that opportunity and gives Dorian the yellow book; this book opens up the world of hedonism and aestheticism which eventually turns his young life into an eternal oblivion of misery. Dorian develops a fear of aging so he tries to live his life as if it was his last day on earth.
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest mocks Victorian love and marriage through different characters in 19th century England, which is wittingly displayed using satire. Aristocrats such as Gwendolen and her mother Lady Bracknell both hold contrasting views, which includes what they feel is required in a life partner. Lady Bracknell strongly believes marriage is just a financial agreement and will not let her daughter marry a man who has no status in society. On the other hand, Gwendolen believes love triumphs over wealth, but Wilde seems to change her meaning of love. So is marriage really a result of love or can it be possible that it is simply just a business contract?
Cecily tells Lady Bracknell how she is engaged to Algernon and after much questioning gives her consent to the marriage. There is a common theme of love in this section with both Algernon and Jack revealing their true love for Gwendolen and Cecily. One aspect of comedy that Wilde has perfectly placed in this section is Algernon’s contradiction of views on marriage. This links with earlier in the play, when he expresses how there is nothing romantic in a proposal of marriage; whereas now he has found love, his view has completely changed. Wilde constantly contradicts the direct speech from the characters.
Love is perhaps the most actively sought moral objective of one's life. And though marriage is often thought to be the logical consequence of love, it is Oscar Wilde's contention in his satire, The Importance of Being Earnest, that love begets bliss and marriage thwarts this course of bliss. Algernon Moncrieff spends very little time falling in love and the rest of the time striving toward engagement. Wilde demonstrates through him that once one becomes intent upon achieving a goal, the individual's motivation becomes a matter of action rather than truth. Algernon is no longer driven by a moral objective; instead, he becomes intent upon achieving a societal standard.