I really enjoyed Oscar Wilde's satire, particularly in his play The Importance of Being Earnest. I want to explore a few of the main characters (Jack Worthing and Gwendolen) and try to relate how those characters symbolized the general Victorian image of men and women.
Jack is used to symbolize the men of the time because he has a front, a facade of sorts, and has a completely different personality that he is very conscious of. When Jack says to Algernon, "Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country" he is identifying an escape route, a separate self that he knows about, but uses as he needs to (851). Ernest is his scape goat, his reason for being able to leave his countryside on weekends and go to London. But more importantly, Ernest serves as an escape, something to balance out his dutiful and dependent side that others know as Jack. He escapes and he lies, even to the woman he hopes to marry, Gwendolen. It is Gwendolen, however, who forces him to own up to the fact that not only does he not know who he is, but also that he must choose only one person to be.
Gwendolen, on the other hand, is a reflection of women during the age and attends lectures and does things to improve herself but is also superficial. She only knows Jack as Ernest initially and loves him, mainly, it seems, because of his name. The importance of her emphasis on his name is important as it relates to how women (or their families) were likely to choose their husbands based on the stature of their name, who they descended from. So it is in this way that she is made up as the majority of Victorian women. In the end, she is able to forgive Ernest's behaviors and lies and of course the story ends happily ever after.
I think Wilde wanted to be sure that it wasn't until the very end, when Ernest learned to be true to himself that things naturally fell into place for him and the people around him. "I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest" (886). He discovers that the life he made up really wasn't fiction, but a reflection of his true self, his sincere self, his earnest self.
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Jalisa,
ReplyDeleteGood focus on these two characters in Wilde's play, and you do provide an discuss a few quotations (although only a few). Your comments on Ernest and Gwendolen do reveal some good insights, although I think your attempt to beat the deadline prevented you from delving into more depth in your discussion.
Jalisa,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dr. Glance that you could have delved more into the text, but I thought you approached the play from a unique angle. You really focused your discussion of the satire by concentrating on Jack and Gwendolen.
I liked your discussion of the moral of the story as well, the fact that Ernest had to choose one person to be and stop the Victorian duplicity.
Good job overall!
I like your discussion on Gwendolyn! Oscar Wilde is amazingly good at writing something that seems totally ridiculous (like having Gwendolyn fall in love with only a name) that really do somehow reflect actual people (like what you said: women and women's parents who fall in love with a name in a different way). In a way, people were all like Gwendolyn: knowing, in terms of a "stature" of a name as you put it, what they want out of a husband.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a fascinating play. I think we all have that second imaginery person inside of us all. We all have to first explore "self" to find that true "us". I liked the way you explored this point and added it into your discussion.
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