Victorian Comedy
The Victorian Era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from June 20th, 1837 until her death on January 22nd, 1901. The Importance of Being Earnest, a trivial comedy for serious people, is a play by Oscar Wilde set in the Victorian Era. First performed on February 14th 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London. It is a comedy in which the protagonists maintains a fictitious persons to escape burdensome social obligations. The Importance of Being Earnest. Jack, a carefree young man, is the inventor of a fictitious brother, Ernest, whose wicked ways afford Jack an excuse to leave his country home from time to time and journey to London, where he stays with his close friend and confidant, Algernon. Oscar Wilde touches
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How utterly unromantic you are! (1.3)
Algernon thinks that proposal and marriage are items of business and not pleasure. He thinks of marriage as a social obligation he must fulfill in order to maintain a respectable name. Jack, on the other hand, has a much more positive view of marriage; he seems to regard marriage as romantic. Hints the reason marriage is a difficult subject. In the Victorian Era, class and society was everything. There was an upper class and a lower class. The upper class is exactly what the label implies. They are upper, over everyone, the people with all the money. The lower class is everyone that are not upper class. The main difference between the two classes is education. The majority of lower class can not afford proper education and that is the one thing preventing them from as ending to upper
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[Calling] Cecily, Cecily! Surely such a utilitarian occupation as the watering of flowers is rather Moulton's duty than yours? Especially at a moment when intellectual pleasures await you. Your German grammar is on the table. (2. 21)
Education differentiates the higher classes from lower ones. Miss Prism insists that Cecily leave menial work to servants while concentrating on her lessons. The idea is that the more educated Cecily is, the more she will impress important men in the future and possibly improve her prospects in marriage. She could potentially marry into an aristocratic family and better her current position. Education and class are hand in hand in the Victorian Era. The Victorian Era was a time of dominance. Men and women were not treated with the same respect. Men possessed a greater respect than women. If a woman contradicted a man, her argument would be trumped by his. Men also flirt with the women. Complimenting their looks, smarts, and or social class, therefore causing something to brighten in the woman they were flourishing:
Algernon. Might I have a buttonhole first? I never have any appetite unless I have a buttonhole first.
Cecily. A Maréchal Niel? [Picks up scissors.]
Algernon. No, I'd sooner have a pink
Upper Class are white collar job, jobs in the field of CEO, Politician and doctors, people who work in specialized fields.
Algernon, disagrees with the marriage after Jack fails her test of
Affluence versus poor, an age-old battle, especially during the “two worlds” time period of Victorian England. In Henry James’s The Pupil, this battle is brought to life as a poor young man, Pemberton, attempts to negotiate a salary as an in-house tutor for a very wealthy family, the Moreens. Through the use of diction and detail, James creates a specific tone that surrounds each character. Taken together, these various tones create a central tone of mockery and ridicule of the relationships amongst the characters. Additionally, James tells this story through the perspective of an omniscient narrator, that focuses mostly on the perspective of Pemberton, with a few shifts to a more neutral position. This perspective facilitates
The irony continues to explain how Jack and Algernon were biological brothers. They were pretending to be earlier to play out their game of Bunburyism. Jack had told everybody he had a brother in which was he used as his justification to leave his home in the country and visit his "brother" in the city. Algernon pretends to be Jack brother "Earnest" in order to win over Jack beautiful "niece" Cecily.
The pun on the word "Earnest" suggests two things; it stands for the name but also refers to honesty and integrity. It is also known as a `one joke' or a play on words. Though the name is spelt as "Ernest" the reader still recognizes the double meaning of the title. Two of the main characters, Jack and Algernon, strive to be "Ernest" and "Earnest" in the play, yet they both deceive others to escape lives which they grow tired of. They both hope to marry the girls that they love, yet they are starting the relationships base on false pretence and lies. It is ironic that they both call themselves "Ernest," a name that suggests honesty and sincerity, yet they both create stories to escape something or the other. Jack creates a brother called "Ernest" in the city that he uses as a `scape goat' to leave his prim and proper, respectable country life, whereas Algernon creates a friend by the name of "Bunbury" to escape his aunt's high class society parties. He shows his lack of interest in such social events when he tells Jack,
By doing that he caused the audience to feel that the actors had authentic regret about their characters actions (Foster 19). Two adolescent women who incorrectly consider the men’s names to be Ernest, and who are passionate about the men for this very reason, think highly of both Jack and Algernon. In relating the story of mix-ups and mistaken identities, the ideals and manners of the Victorian society are satirized in a comedy where the characters "treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality"(Wilde, Oscar). Oscar Wilde’s amusing scenes often take their source in societal satire and unconventional (Baselga 15). All the way through his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes education, women, and morality.
Women were expected to set the example for their children, satisfy the needs of their husbands, and it was unheard of for women to express their sexual desires. During this time women were placed into two categories, they were either virgins or married, any woman who did not fit into either of these categories was considered a whore and this meant she was essentially useless. “If a woman went into a hansom alone with a man who was neither her father, nor her husband […] her reputation was irretrievably lost” (Swisher, 181). This shows that even though people did not know the whole story, they judged others by the appearance of things. Most of the Victorian culture was centered on these things that women were expected to do or not to be seen doing. Scientists believed that men were the active ones who were supposed to use all of their energy, while women were sedentary and were supposed to conserve energy. “According to Wollsto...
...ngagement, their re-engagement. Cecily is not the natural country girl. She possesses the self-assurance of the experienced woman. Without being cynical she makes her desires clear. And when Gwendolen and Cecily discover that their Earnests are impostors whose names are Jack and Algernon they decide that love can be restored only if Jack and Algy christen themselves Earnest.
The Mistreatment of Women During the Victorian Era “The day may be approaching when the whole world will recognize woman as the equal of man.” (Susan B. Anthony) The Victorian era was an extremely difficult time for women in Great Britain. They were subject to gross inequalities such as not being able to control their own earnings, education, and marriage. As well as having a lack of equality within marriage, women had poor working conditions, and an immense unemployment rate as well.
The Victorian Era started when Queen Victoria took the throne in 1837 and ended roughly the day she died in 1901. Victorian England “was a strictly patriarchal society” (Yildirim 2). It is common knowledge that during the Victorian era men and women had their own specific roles. It is also common knowledge to know that men had complete legal and economical control over the women (Mitchell 1, 142). Women were expected to stay at home to keep house and take care of the children.
One of the Oscar Wilde’s most loved, well known and successful play ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest’ was written during the summer of 1894 at Worthing, England. It was first performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James’s theatre, London. Jack Worthing, the play’s main character was found and adopted by a wealthy man, Thomas Cardew in a handbag at a railway line where he was accidentally abandoned as a baby. All the respect that has been given to him as acknowledged upper-class Victorian is only because of his adopted father’s wealth. As the protagonist of the play he is expected to be an earnest man to do justice to the title of the play, but it turned out to be that he is nowhere close to that. Wilde has used Jack’s character more to an instrument to represent a set of ideas or attitudes.
In the Victorian era, marriage was almost a chore. Most people get married out of need rather than want. In the Play, this is evident when Lady Bracknell objects to Gwendolen and Ernest’s engagement on the basis of his lack of legitimate background. On the other hand, Jack objects to the marriage of Cecily and Algernon’s just to spite Algernon. Both Algernon and Jack assume the identity of "Ernest" yet ironically, they both plan on starting their married life with a lie.
The Victorians think of the concept of love and marriage as a game, an idea that is silly and unimportant. Algernon is in the midst of ridiculing jack on his decision to marry Gwendolen, then proceeds to tell him the only way to behave with women, ¨… make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.¨ 137. having no interest in marriage whatsoever Algernon takes every opportunity to mock Jack's decision to his engagement. Not only does he contempt marriage, but he euphemistically states that the only relations anyone should have with women are that of sex. While in the middle of proposing Gwendolen interrupts, ¨… I am
The only difference between Jack and Algernon were the reasons why they created an imaginary individual. Jack’s reason was to avoid his responsibilities and to fulfill his own happiness by coming into town whenever he liked. One of his duties were being a guardian to Cecily. During a conversation with Algernon, Jack said that “when one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects” (Wilde). Cecily’s governess Miss Prism is more of a guardian to her than Jack.
Wilde’s didactic satire delves deep into the problems of society, highlighting to the audience all the flaws of human beings and their social obligations while keeping it light-hearted and enjoyable for audiences. The author’s mockery and satire of society, as seen in his play, is most likely stemmed from his lack of acceptance and frustration at the society he believes to be ‘proper’. Readers today laugh at the situations portrayed because they are satirical and humourous, but they also question the motives behind the character “Earnest” because they see that “earnest”, meaning seriousness or sincerity, is the one thing the characters most certainly do not portray. However, towards the end of the play, when all has come out, Jack states that “I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest” (Wilde 2000, p.358), which may in fact be the most blatantly satirical line of the play, and a great summation of the lies the play relied on. This explores Wilde’s use of double entendre as Jack lives a double life, alongside the use of an elaborate p...