Oscar Wilde has been a favorite of mine for quite some time. As a person who lived his life on the outskirts of propriety, he had the ability to portray the values of Victorian culture as an outsider looking in on something ridiculous. From the start of the play, he tackles facets of society that wouldn't seem outwardly obvious or even thought of by anyone. For example, the societal structure of marriage takes a beating throughout the play. Jack says, "But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty" (1735). The only joy we get out of life is the pursuit of something, but once we get it, the excitement dies and we've simply joined an institution that is deemed not only a natural course of action, but necessary.
There is an emphasis on the idea that our judgment of others is based on shallow things. Lady Bracknell places huge significance on Gwendolen marrying the right kind of person, which means having the perfect place in society. However, the reader must question what her priorities are in husband material. For example, she asks Jack if he smokes or not because "a man should always have an occupation of some kind" (1743). Whether Gwendolen wants to or not doesn't really matter, all that matters is that she accepts the person her mother deems worthy. Gwendolen on the other hand doesn't have the best priorities in mind because she claims that she knew she was going to love Jack because his name is Ernest, which is ironic when his behavior is anything but "earnest."
The play expands on this notion of hiding thoughts and actions to fit into ones environment. Both Algernon and Jack don masks and pretend to be people they're not to get enjoyment and pleasure out of knowing that they can change who they are. We can be one person in one place and someone completely different in another. People can act and have two faces easily in order to assimilate. Even names are expendable things and we can change them as we see fit.
Also, Wilde's wit never ceases to amaze me. He writes perfect one liners and truths into his character's dialogue. On page 1736, Algy says "More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read." This reminded me of the fact that the Victorian era began the rise of sensational media and the idea that people were consuming scandalous stories that were held as pinnacles of what not to do in polite society. Wilde points to the idea that behavior is formed from reading about the downfall of others and building a society around it. Later on, Algy says "The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility?" (1738). So, basically, we thrive on complication. The minute details and idiosyncrasies of human behavior is the what prevents tedium from happening.
All I can say in the end is that I love this play and I might have brought great embarrassment upon myself from laughing hysterically while reading it at the library.
Things would be a lot easier if we didn't complicate them obviously right? But then like you said, life would be extremely dull and tedious. This question came to mind a lot actually when I was reading the play, and by the end I guess I just came to the conclusion that, "Well, it just IS; whatever floats your boat." I think the fact that Algernon and Jack both enjoyed complicating things for their own enjoyment came immediately from when they decided to act under the "Ernest" alias just to pursue their own forms of happiness (For Jack, a scandalous more fun filled lifesyle, and for Algernon, just for the girl). However, I kind of noticed this trait in Gwendolen too, who (as I mentioned in my blog post), initiates this silly conversation about the most trivial things such as the difference between cake and bread and butter and tea with sugar vs no sugar...it's quite silly but a lot of the characters seem to like the thrill of complicating things, simply because it gives them something to do, even when it comes to marriage. That's when I saw the irony of the name of the play really come in, because by the end, the most exciting parts for the characters were when they were basically all lying to each other....interesting.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I loved this play. I do find it interesting that you worded it as the two men use lies to fit into society. I also think we can look at the love Gwendolyn has for John as an example of this. She was willing to leave the life she knew in the city, where she wouldn't have been able to hide her feelings for him, to go into the country in order to better be able to love him fully. This ruse would have worked though if her mother hadn't have shown up to complicate things even more, but then the play might have ended sooner and we wouldn't have this great work to discuss!
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