food in the play

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Recommended: Dispute resolution and conflict management

In the importance of being earnest Wilde used food to show hidden messages throughout the play, some that may reflect the personal pass of some characters and others that follow the conflict between two personals. Every instance where food is mentioned – from Algernon’s opening discussion of wine with his servant, to the girls’ insults over tea– is fraught with conflict. The fight over something as basic as food shows that it might represent another carnal desire: the comical effects and society’s harsh impression of being judgmental. The food messages within the play that contrast silliness and mistaken identity almost always gets discussed over food, which creates the link of importance of it; which can either make or break the situation.

Cucumber sandwiches
In the opening scene of act 1, Algernon consumes every cucumber sandwich that were made for Lady Bracknell. He covers for his greediness by shouting: "Good heaven! Lane! Why are there no cucumber sandwiches? I ordered them specially", here Algy seems genially surprised, with short sentences and dramatic punctuation separating his astonishment. However this may be an act of exaggeration as we already know Algys eaten them all himself denying jack of any. This also reflects on the class difference between characters, ‘specially’ suggesting that Algy has gone out of his way to buy these for his Aunt Augusta, She is of higher class and cucumbers are seen to be a luxury. Whereas jack isn’t so high class and he was denied of the specially ordered sandwiches. Algernon’s obsession shining though so close to the beginning of the book foreshadows that his character will develop into one that can symbolize messages that Oscar Wilde wants to be shown. Lane, Algy’s servant, then goe...

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... is very funny, the audience cannot ignore the symbolism that the food exposes: two men who find themselves relatively unfit to be living in such a high-class world. Also during this scene, the men seem to have a contest to see who hates tea cakes more than the other. Just after Jack states that "I hate tea-cake" Algernon brings up an argument, asking "Why on earth then do you allow tea-cake to be served up for your guests?”. Both men showing a hate for practically everything was both abnormal and uncivilized during their time period. The symbolic note here is that tea cake is a much cleaner snack, where muffins are messy and, if one had to classify food in such a way, less civilized than tea cake. The fact that both characters greatly prefer muffins to tea cake is a dead giveaway that they have a hard time fitting into the "civilized" society they are currently in.

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