'Importance of Being Earnest'
By Oscar Wilde
Key Facts about the play:
Full Title: The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
Author :Oscar Wilde
Type Of Work: Play
Genre: Social comedy; comedy of manners; satire; intellectual farce
Language: English
Time And Place Written: Summer 1894 in Worthing, England
Date Of First Production: February 14, 1895. In part because of Wilde’s disgrace, the play was not published until 1899.
Publisher: L. Smithers
Tone :Light, scintillating, effervescent, deceptively flippant
Setting (Time): 1890s
Setting (Place): London (Act I) and Hertfordshire, a rural county not far from London (Acts II and III)
Protagonist :John Worthing, known as “Ernest” by his friends in town (i.e., London) and as “Jack” by his friends and relations in the country
There are four female characters in this paly: Gwendolen, Cecily, Miss Prism, and above all Lady Bracknell. Each of this women has clearly been differentiated from each other.
- Gwendolen Fairfax:
Cecily Cardew
Jack’s ward, the granddaughter of Thomas Cardew who found and adopted Jack when Jack was a baby. Cecily is probably the most realistically drawn character in the play. Like Gwendolen, she is obsessed with the name Ernest.She fall in love with Jack’s brother Ernest in her imagination and to invent an elaborate romance and courtship between them.
Miss Prism
Cecily’s governess. Miss Prism is an endless source of pedantic bromides and clichés. She speaks of having once written a novel whose manuscript was “lost” or “abandoned.” Also, she entertains romantic feelings for Dr. Chasuble.
At the same time she is a most convincing person even though most of the situations in this play are improbable and the plot is on the whole absurd and incredible. Lady Bracknell dominates the company wherever she is present. We meet her in Acts I and III of the play, and on both occasions she impresses us as a formidable personality. And yes she does not figure in Act II at all, and yet she remains in our thoughts throughout the play. She has strongly been individualized, and is clearly distinguishable from all the other characters in the play.She is a very unique person.
Her Liking For Cucumber Sandwiches:
The first thing that we learn about Lady Bracknell is her partiality for cucumber sandwiches. Algernon has especially asked his servant Lane to prepare cucumber sandwiches because Lady Bracknell is coming to tea at his flat. It is another matter that he himself consumes all the cucumber sandwiches before Lady Bracknell arrives, with the result that, when she asks for cucumber sandwiches, Algernon has to make an excuse that cucumbers were not available in the market even for ready cash.
Domineering and Suspicious
Lady Bracknell is a true representative of the upper classes in England of the time when this play was written. She is snobbish and class-conscious, and she is at the same time a person who judges people by the amount of wealth they have. She cross-examines Jack Worthing very closely in order to determine his suitability as her son-in-law. The very manner in which she interrogates Jack shows not only her domineering temperament but also her suspicious nature. Her comments on the replies which Jack gives to her questions are amusing because of their mixture of approval and disapproval. When, for instance, in reply to a question he says that be is twentynine years old, her comment is that it is a very good age to be married at. But when, in reply to another question, he says that he owns a house in the country, she doubtfully asks how many bedrooms that house has adding that this point can be cleared up afterwards. questions, she feels very disappointed to learn that as an infant he was found in a hand-bag in a railway cloak-room and that his parentage is unknown. She forbids the marriage of her daughter Gwendolen to him for this reason.
Her Mercenary Outlook:
Lady Bracknell is acutely class-conscious and advises Algernon never to speak disrespectfully of high society because only those who cannot move in high social circles speak disparagingly of high society. The questions that she asks about Cecily in order to determine Cecily’s suitability as a wife for her nephew Algernon again shows her class-consciousness, and these questions again show her suspicious nature and her desire to get to the bottom of a situation and not to judge by appearances only. When Jack names Cecily’s family solicitors, Lady Bracknell says, in a condescending manner, that one partner in that particular firm of solicitors is occasionally seen at upper-class dinner-parties and that for this reason she feels quite satisfied with this aspect of Cecily’s credentials. She is very particular to know whether Cecily will bring a rich dowry or not ; and, on being informed that Cecily has a large amount of money in her name, Lady Bracknell comes to the conclusion that Cecily is a suitable girl to marry her nephew. In fact, Cecily’s having so much money in her name is in Lady Bracknell’s eyes Cecily’s most important qualification.
Her Patronizing Manner of Speaking to Cecily:
The information about Cecily’s having a lot of money in her name makes Lady Bracknell see certain qualities in Cecily which she had not detected in her before. But even then she speaks to Cecily in a patronizing tone, adopting a superior attitude towards her. She points out that Cecily’s dress is “sadly simple” and that her hair seems almost as Nature had left it. She then wants to see:
Cecily’s profile and, after looking at it closely, remarks, again in a patronizing tone, that there are distinct social possibilities in her profile. Although she approves of Cecily as a wife for Algernon chiefly on the basis of Cecily’s wealth, she yet declares that she does not approve of mercenary marriages. Citing her own case, she says that she had no fortune at all when she married Lord Bracknell but that she never allowed her lack of a dowry to stand in the way of her marriage to him. This is, indeed, one of her most amusing remarks, the humour here arising from the twist which she gives to the argument. If she had no fortune of any kind when she married Lord Bracknell, it went to the credit of Lord Bracknell that he married a woman without a dowry. But Lady Bracknell claims thee credit for herself.
Her Authoritarian Attitude Towards Her Daughter:
Lady Bracknell is an extremely self-assertive woman who makes her presence felt by everybody. She not only tries to overawe Jack and afterwards Cecily but adopts an authoritative and stern attitude towards her daughter, Gwendolen. When Gwendolen tells her that she has got engaged to Mr. Worthing, Lady Bracknell declares that she is not engaged to any one and that, when she does become engaged, she will be informed of the fact by her mother or by her father in case his health permits him. Afterwards, when Gwendolen again tells her mother that she has get engaged to be married to Mr. Worthing, Lady Bracknell again speaks to her in a tone of authority, declaring that she does not recognize this engagement. Nor do we doubt that Lady Bracknell rules her husband. Whenever she refers to her husband, she does so in the manner of a woman who thinks herself to be the boss in her home. This is clear from her remark that she has never “undeceived” her husband on any question, implying that she never allows her husband to know what is going on in the house.
Her Wit:
Lady Bracknell possesses an inexhaustible capacity to make witty remarks and statements. Indeed, her wit adds greatly to her stature as a character in the play. Even without her wit, she would be a person to reckon with. But her ready wit and her capacity for sarcasm make her even more formidable. Almost every remark that she makes is amusing. For instance, she says that it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether to live or to die. She considers the modern sympathy with invalids to be undesirable as it shows morbidity in the sympathizer. Afterwards, when she is told that Mr. Bunbury is dead, she makes the comment that Mr. Bunbury showed much sense in deciding to die. When jack, in the course of her interrogation of him, tells her that he had lost both his parents, she makes the comment that his having lost both his parents shows carelessness on his part. Perhaps her most memorable remark is made when she tells Jack that she and her husband would never dream of allowing their only daughter to “marry into a cloak-room and form an alliance with a parcel.”
Her Paradoxical Remarks:
Some of Lady Bracknell’s remarks are paradoxical and at the same time witty. When, for instance, she says that a girl having a simple, unspoiled nature like Gwendolen can hardly be expected to reside in the country, she provides an example of a witty paradox because actually a simple and unspoiled girl would prefer to live in the country and because it is only the sophisticated and spoiled girls who have a preference for town life and a distaste for the countryside. Again, Lady Bracknell expresses her opposition to long engagements on the ground that they give the two partners an opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage and that this is not at all desirable. This statement too is a paradox because actually it is thought better that a man and a woman should understand each other’s character before marriage. Lady Bracknell expresses her opinion of Algernon in the following paradoxical manner :
“He has nothing but he looks everything. What more can one desire ?”
Another paradoxical remark that she makes about Algernon is :
“He has nothing but his debts to depend on.”
She makes a satirical and paradoxical remark about society ladies who do not tell their real age. London society, says Lady Bracknell, is full of women who have remained thirtyfive for years.
A Convincing Character:
Lady Bracknell is certainly a convincing character. There is nothing fantastic or incredible about her. She has vividly been presented and her portrayal is perfectly realistic. Such women are not common, but such women do exist. After all, a combination of snobbery, class-consciousness,, love of money and wealth, a tendency to dominate, and a capacity to make satirical and hard-hitting remarks is nothing impossible. If at all “there is any exaggeration in her portrayal, it is in the wit that she displays. Apart from her wit which is certainly unusually fertile, Lady Bracknell is a person in whose existence we can thoroughly believe.
Lady Bracknell Quotes:
“I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.”
"Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.”
“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
Words:2005
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