Oscar Wilde wrote this play as a farce in part to poke fun at some of the Victorian attitudes during that era. He also was a gay man in an era when that wasn't totally acceptable, so the play takes on another level of interest because he was punished for his sexual behavior and had to move to Paris to find safe haven. Still, the play stands up well to any criticism because it is wildly absurd, the switching of character identities adds to the absurdity, and in the end everyone discovers who they really are.
¶ … Being Earnest
This play is a 19th century satire poking fun at Victorian values and attitudes, and it is meant to be humorous, which it certainly is. That having been said, as background into the era, the fact that Oscar Wilde was gay is an interesting part of the story of Wilde and his play, "The Importance of Being Earnest" (hereafter called "Earnest" in this paper). On opening night in London (at the St. James's Theatre), the Marquess of Queensberry, the father of Lord Alfred Douglas (Douglass was an "intimate" friend of Wilde's) had planned to arrive with a "bouquet of rotten vegetables and disrupt the show" (Wikipedia). However, Wilde found out about the stunt and Queensberry was not allowed into the theater. Soon afterwards though the fact that Wilde was gay was made public and he was sentenced to imprisonment for alleged "gross indecency"); when he was released he moved to Paris and published "Earnest" and that was the end of his career as a playwright.
The Importance of Being Earnest
In the first Act a character named "Earnest" arrives in London to visit his friend Algernon Moncrieff. The real purpose for the visit by "Earnest" (whose name is actually John Worthing) is to propose marriage to Algernon's cousin named Gwendolen Fairfax. This play uses the strategy of switching and concealing true identities, not an unusual trick for playwrights (Shakespeare often used the tactic of hidden and switched identities). In fact Earnest has been leading a double life, as Wilde was actually doing in real life as well, so perhaps the playwright was using his own life experiences and putting them into his play's characters.
Earnest, it turns out, is also "Jack" and "John" -- depending on where he is and who he is relating to -- and Jack proposes to Gwendolen; she accepts but apparently she is smitten by the name Earnest so Jack becomes Earnest for Gwendolen. But wait, Gwendolen's mother Lady Bracknell, after interviewing Jack (checking him out to see if he is worthy of marrying her daughter) finds out he was an adopted child and had been discovered as an abandoned baby in Victoria Station. To Lady Bracknell, that is an unacceptable man for her daughter but the daughter (Gwendolen) professes in private to Jack that she loves him. It gets very confusing from there on, as Algernon overhears Jack giving Gwendolen his country address and Algernon goes to that country address to meet Jack's other love interest, Cecily.
Algernon meets Cecily there and pretends to be "Earnest" (of course Cecily knew Earnest as "Jack"); Cecily had been led to believe that Earnest was Jack's supposed brother so Cecily falls for Algernon thinking Algernon is the brother Jack has been talking about. Confusing? Yes, but very funny when seen on stage.
When Jack arrives at his country home -- and Algernon has already charmed Cecily under the guise of being Earnest -- he (Jack) claims to be in mourning as he tells everyone his brother Earnest has died in Paris of a chill. But wait, Earnest (in the mind of Cecily) is alive and well. The confusion reaches a zenith when Gwendolen arrives (she ran away from home, angry at her mother and in love with Jack) and Cecily and Gwendolen compare notes. When Jack and Algernon show up, their scams are revealed and the women are not happy about the deception.
In time, the fact that Cecily is worth large amounts of money is revealed, further complicating the situation. And to further muddle the situation, Cecily's governess, Miss Prism, is brought into the picture and she confesses that 28 years ago she put her baby in a handbag in the cloakroom of a railway station; that is where Jack had earlier said he was found as an orphan. "Mother!" Jack cries, but eventually it is determined that Jack is not the illegitimate baby from Miss Prism but rather he is the legitimate child of the sister of Lady Bracknell, the mother of Gwendolen. Hence, it turns out that Jack is actually Algernon's older brother. Whew. A twisted series of plot changes end up with the audience knowing that Jack (who all these years has been using "Earnest" as an auxiliary name) has been truthful about his real name albeit he didn't know it. Jack proceeds to let the audience know "…the vital importance of Being Earnest."
Distortion, Moral Conduct, and Restoration Comedy
Of course, deception and frivolity are part of a farce, and the way that Wilde has written the play characters switch identities as a way for the theme to be deliberately distorted. So this bothers critic Mary McCarthy, who complained that the play has the character of a "…ferocious idyll" and insists that the only moral alternatives offered by Wilde are "selfishness and servility" (Parker, 1974). By "deliberately distorting actuality" Wilde is actually expressing what most people can see is a "comic version of the human condition," Parker writes in the Modern Literature Quarterly. Parker explains that though McCarthy is using standards that don't really fit with a farcical play (particularly in that era), she may be onto something with her assertion that the play is about selfishness because indeed the heroes of "Restoration comedy" match up with the characters in Wilde's play.
Restoration comedy is that period between 1660 and 1710 in England. For 18 years prior to 1660 the Puritan powers that were in charge banned public stage performances, according to a scholarly article in the Princeton University Website. Once public play performances were no longer banned, the "restoration" of live plays featured "a renaissance of English drama"; and that renaissance featured "…sexual explicitness" which appealed to socially diverse audiences, "their servants and hangers-on, and a substantial middle class" group as well.
So, while Parker is not saying that Wilde's play exactly duplicates restoration comedy, the play clearly does "…owe something to the Restoration comic tradition" (p. 1). In that genre of comedy the selfish man is considered to be the "generous one," Parker continues, because he is "not repressed," he has a "good nature," and moreover the character Algernon in "Earnest" makes bold statements that sound like they are right out of a Restoration play:
"My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree" (Parker, p. 1). The male characters in Restoration comedy match up well to Wilde's characters and Parker uses this example as a way to counteract McCarthy's assertions and to help explain Wilde's play as well. The bottom line for Parker in this regard is not that Algernon and Jack (or "John" or "Earnest" if you will) are to be admired for their "roguishness" and sexual exploits. Rather, Algernon and Jack are given their characterizations by Wilde because their behaviors have symbolic value too.
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