Importance of Being Earnest

 Question:-1 Critical Essays Themes in The Importance of Being Earnest

Overview of The play

The Importance of Being Earnest, a comedy, is Oscar Wilde’s final play. It premiered at St. James’ Theatre in London on February 14, 1895 and skewered the contemporary habits and attitudes of the British aristocracy. The opening was hugely successful, but Wilde’s ongoing conflict with the Marquess of Queensberry, his lover’s powerful father, led the play to close prematurely after Wilde was charged with “gross indecency” for having sex with men. Despite this setback, The Importance of Being Earnest was almost immediately revived and has become Wilde’s most celebrated play. Three major screen adaptations have been produced: in 1952 by Anthony Asquith; in 1992 by Kurt Baker with an all-Black cast; and again in 2002 with Colin Firth, Judi Dench, and Reese Witherspoon in starring roles. The citations in this guide refer to the Samuel French edition used by most theater groups.

Duty and Respectability

         The aristocratic Victorians valued duty and respectability above all else. Earnestness — a determined and serious desire to do the correct thing — was at the top of the code of conduct. Appearance was everything, and style was much more important than substance. So, while a person could lead a secret life, carry on affairs within marriage or have children outside of wedlock, society would look the other way as long as the appearance of propriety was maintained. For this reason, Wilde questions whether the more important or serious issues of the day are overlooked in favor of trivial concerns about appearance. Gwendolen is the paragon of this value. Her marriage proposal must be performed correctly, and her brother even practices correct proposals. Gwendolen's aristocratic attitude is "In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing." The trivial is important; the serious is overlooked.

         The tea ceremony in Act II is a hilarious example of Wilde's contention that manners and appearance are everything. The guise of correctness is the framework for war. Both women, thinking they are engaged to the same person, wage a civilized "war" over the tea service while the servants silently watch. When Gwendolen requests no sugar, Cecily adds four lumps to her cup. Although she asks for bread and butter, Gwendolen is given a large slice of cake. Her true feelings come out only in an aside that Cecily supposedly cannot hear: "Detestable girl!" Gwendolen is also appalled to find that Cecily is living in Jack's country home, and she inquires about a chaperone. Wilde gives examples again and again of the aristocrat's concern for propriety, that everything is done properly no matter what those good manners might be camouflaging.

The Absence of Compassion

           Two areas in which the Victorians showed little sympathy or compassion were illness and death. When Lady Bracknell hears that Bunbury died after his doctors told him he could not live, she feels he has — in dying — acted appropriately because he had the correct medical advice. "Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. Health is the primary duty of life." Lady Bracknell, like other aristocrats, is too busy worrying about her own life, the advantages of her daughter's marriage, and her nephew's errors in judgment to feel any compassion for others. Gwendolen, learning from her mother, is totally self-absorbed and definite about what she wants. She tells Cecily, "I never travel without my diary. One should have something sensational to read in the train." Wilde seems to be taking to task a social class that thinks only of itself, showing little compassion or sympathy for the trials of those less fortunate.

Religion

          Another serious subject — religion — is also a topic of satire. While concerns of the next world would be an appropriate topic for people of this world, it seems to be shoved aside in the Victorian era. Canon Chasuble is the symbol of religious thought, and Wilde uses him to show how little the Victorians concerned themselves with attitudes reflecting religious faith. Chasuble can rechristen, marry, bury, and encourage at a moment's notice with interchangeable sermons filled with meaningless platitudes. Even Lady Bracknell mentions that christenings are a waste of time and, especially, money. Chasuble's pious exterior betrays a racing pulse for Miss Prism: "Were I fortunate enough to be Miss Prism's pupil, I would hang upon her lips." Quickly correcting his error, the minister hides his hardly holy desires in the language of metaphor. Wilde's satire here is gentle and humorous, chiding a society for its self-importance.

Popular Culture

         The popular attitudes of the day about the French, literary criticism, and books are also subjects of Wilde's humor. Wilde wittily asserts that Victorians believe that nothing good comes from France, except for (in Wilde's mind) the occasional lesbian maid. Otherwise, France is a good place to kill off and request the burial of Ernest. As the good reverend says, "I fear that hardly points to any very serious state of mind at the last." Literary criticism is for "people who haven't been at a University. They do it so well in the daily papers." Modern books are filled with truths that are never pure or simple, and scandalous books should be read but definitely in secret. Again Wilde criticizes the Victorians for believing that appearance is much more important than truth. He takes the opportunity to insert many examples of popular thought, revealing bias, social bigotry, thoughtlessness and blind assumptions.

Secret Lives

         Because Victorian norms were so repressive and suffocating, Wilde creates episodes in which his characters live secret lives or create false impressions to express who they really are. Jack and Algernon both create personas to be free. These other lives allow them to neglect their duties — in Algernon's case — or to leave their duties and pursue pleasure — in Jack's case. Very early in Act I, Wilde sets up these secret lives, and they follow through until the final act. When Jack and Algernon realize their marriages will end their pursuit of pleasure, they both admit rather earnestly, "You won't be able to run down to the country quite so often as you used to do, dear Algy," and "You won't be able to disappear to London quite so frequently as your wicked custom was." Marriage means the end of freedom, pleasure, wickedness, and the beginning of duty and doing what is expected. Of course, Jack and Algernon could continue to don their masks after they marry Gwendolen and Cecily, but they will have to be cautious and make sure society is looking the other way.

Passion and Morality

          Wilde's contention that a whole world exists separate from Victorian manners and appearances is demonstrated in the girlish musings of Cecily. When she hears that Jack's "wicked" brother Ernest is around, she is intensely desirous of meeting him. She says to Algernon, "I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time." The thought of meeting someone who lives outside the bounds of prudery and rules is exciting to naïve Cecily. Even using the name Ernest for his secret life is ironic because Algernon is not being dutiful — earnest — in living a secret life.

          Various characters in the play allude to passion, sex and moral looseness. Chasuble and Prism's flirting and coded conversations about things sexual, Algernon stuffing his face to satisfy his hungers, the diaries (which are the acceptable venues for passion), and Miss Prism's three-volume novel are all examples of an inner life covered up by suffocating rules. Even Algernon's aesthetic life of posing as the dandy, dressing with studied care, neglecting his bills, being unemployed, and pursuing pleasure instead of duty is an example of Victorians valuing trivialities. Once Algernon marries he will have suffocating rules and appearances to keep up. Wilde's characters allude to another life beneath the surface of Victorian correctness. Much of the humor in this play draws a fine line between the outer life of appearances and the inner life of rebellion against the social code that says life must be lived earnestly.

Courtship and Marriage

          Oscar Wilde felt these Victorian values were perpetuated through courtship and marriage, both of which had their own rules and rituals. Marriage was a careful selection process. When Algernon explains that he plans to become engaged to Jack's ward, Cecily, Lady Bracknell decides, "I think some preliminary enquiry on my part would not be out of place." When Lady Bracknell pummels Jack with questions about parents, politics, fortune, addresses, expectations, family solicitors, and legal encumbrances, his answers must be proper and appropriate for a legal union between the two families to be approved. Fortune is especially important, and when Jack and Cecily's fortunes are both appropriate, the next problem is family background. Because Jack does not know his parents, Lady Bracknell suggests he find a parent — any with the right lineage will do — and find one quickly. Appearance, once again, is everything. Duty (not joy, love or passion) is important, further substantiating Algy's contention that marriage is a loveless duty: "A man who marries without knowing Bunbury [an excuse for pleasure] has a very tedious time of it." Marriage is presented as a legal contract between consenting families of similar fortunes; background, love, and happiness have little to do with it.

Perpetuating the Upper Class

            The strict Victorian class system, in which members of the same class marry each other, perpetuates the gulf between the upper, middle and lower classes. Snobbish, aristocratic attitudes further preserve the distance between these groups. Jack explains to Lady Bracknell that he has no politics. He considers himself a Liberal Unionist. Lady Bracknell finds his answer satisfactory because it means that he is a Tory, or a conservative. Jack's home in London is on the "unfashionable side" of Belgrave Square, so "that could easily be altered." When Jack inquires whether she means the "unfashionable" or the side of the street, Lady Bracknell explains, "Both, if necessary." The French Revolution is held up as an example of what happens when the lower class is taught to question its betters. Education is not for learning to think; it is for mindlessly following convention. Lady Bracknell approves of ignorance. In fact, she explains, "The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square." Thinking causes discontent, and discontent leads to social revolution. That simply will not do.

Class Conflict

             One might think aristocrats would see the error of their ways and try to be more virtuous in a moral sense. However, they see their attitudes as the virtuous high ground and believe that other classes should conform to aristocratic attitudes and see the error of their own ways. When Miss Prism seems to chide the lower classes for producing so many children for Chasuble to christen, she appears to see it as a question of thrift. "I have often spoken to the poorer classes on the subject [of christenings]. But they don't seem to know what thrift is." Chasuble speaks humorously of the penchant of the aristocracy to dabble in good causes that do not disrupt their own lives too much. He mentions a sermon he gave for the Society for the Prevention of Discontent Among the Upper Orders. To the Victorians, reform means keeping the current social and economic system in place by perpetuating upper-class virtues and economy.

Conclusion 

         Every page, every line of dialogue, every character, each symbol, and every stage direction in The Importance of Being Earnest is bent on supporting Wilde's contention that social change happens as a matter of thoughtfulness. Art can bring about such thoughtfulness. If the eccentric or unusual is to be replaced with correct behavior and thought, human sympathy and compassion suffer. If strict moral values leave no room for question, a society loses much of what is known as humanity.

Life of Pi

 Question :- movie review of the film Life of Pi.

 

Introduction about film-maker 

        

        The Taiwan-born Ang Lee rapidly established himself in the 1990s as one of the world's most versatile film-makers, moving on from the trilogy of movies about Chinese families that made his name to Jane Austen's England (Sense and Sensibility) and Richard Nixon's America (The Ice Storm). If he revisits a place or genre it's to tell a very different story – a martial arts movie in medieval China (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is followed by a spy thriller in wartime Shanghai (Lust, Caution), and a western with a US civil war background (Ride With the Devil) is succeeded by a western about a gay relationship in present-day Wyoming (Brokeback Mountain).

His style 

      

         He adopts different styles to fit his new subjects, and while there are certain recurrent themes, among them the disruption of families and young people facing moral and physical challenges, there are no obsessive concerns of the sort once considered a necessity for auteurs. He has a fastidious eye for a great image but he also has a concern for language.

Review of film

             His magnificent new film is a version of Yann Martel's Booker prize-winning novel, Life of Pi, adapted by an American writer, David Magee, whose previous credits were films set in England during the first half of the 20th century, Finding Neverland and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. From its opening scene of animals and birds strutting and preening themselves in a sunlit zoo to the final credits of fish and nautical objects shimmering beneath the sea, the movie has a sense of the mysterious, the magical. This effect is compounded by the hallucinatory 3D, and in tone the film suggests Robinson Crusoe rewritten by Laurence Sterne.

            The form is a story within a story within a story. An unnamed Canadian author whom we assume to be Yann Martel himself (Rafe Spall) is told by an Indian he meets that there is a man in Montreal called Pi who has a story that will make you believe in God. He's Piscine Molitor Patel (Irrfan Khan), a philosophy teacher, and he tells the curious story of his own extraordinary life, beginning as the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, the French enclave in India that wasn't ceded until 1954.

             The movie's two central characters both obtained their names by comic accident. The deeply serious Piscine (played by Gautam Belur at five, Ayush Tandon at 12 and Suraj Sharma at 16)was named after an uncle's favourite swimming pool, the Piscine Molitor in Paris, but changed his name to the Greek letter and numinous number Pi after fellow schoolboys made jokes about pissing. He later became fascinated by a Bengal tiger in the zoo caught by the English hunter Richard Parker who called him Thirsty. On delivery to the zoo their names were accidently reversed and the tiger became Richard Parker. Was this fate or chance?

              Growing up, the ever curious Pi becomes attracted to religion and the meaning of life, a spiritual journey that the film treats with a respectful wit as the boy rejects his father's rationalism and creates a personal amalgam of Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. His faith is tested as an adolescent when his father is forced to give up the family zoo, where Pi realises he's been as much a captive as the animals themselves. A Japanese freighter becomes a temporary ark on which the Patel family take the animals to be sold in Canada. But it's struck by a storm as dramatic as anything ever put on the screen, and Pi becomes a combination of Noah, Crusoe, Prospero and Job. Alone above the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Pacific, he's an orphan captaining a lifeboat with only a zebra, a hyena, a female orang-utan and the gigantic Bengal tiger Richard Parker for company.

            

           Provides a dangerously seductive haven. The 227 days at sea are a test of physique, mental adaptation and faith, and Suraj Sharma makes Pi's spiritual journey as convincing as his nautical one.

             He confronts thirst and starvation, finds a modus vivendi with the fierce tiger, endures and wonders at a mighty storm, a squadron of flying fish, a humpbacked whale, a school of dolphins, a night illuminated by luminous jellyfish. This brave new world is observed by a young Chilean director of photography, appropriately named Claudio Miranda. The movie does for water and the sea what Lawrence of Arabia did for sand and desert, and one thinks of what Alfred Hitchock, who used 3D so imaginatively in his 1954 film of Dial M For Murder, might have done on his wartime Lifeboat had he been given such technical facilities.

Conclusion 

       This poetic Life of Pi concludes with a fascinating, deliberately prosaic coda that raises questions about the reality of what we've seen and confronts the teleological issues involved. One thinks of the reporter's remark at the end of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." At another level, Sam Goldwyn's advice to the screenwriter comes to mind: "Give me the story and send the message by Western Union."

Assignment

Paper 205(A):Cultural StudiesAssignment link 

Semester 1

• Paper 101:-Literature of the Elizabeth and Restoration period
• Paper 102:-Literature of the Neo-classical Period 
• Paper 103:-Literature of the Romantics 
• Paper 104:- Literature of the Victorians 
• Paper 105(A):- History of English literature from 1350 to 1900

Semester 2

• Paper 106:-The Twentieth Century Literature 1900 to World War 2
• Paper 107:-The Twentieth Century Literature: From World War 2 to The End of the Century
• Paper 108:-The American Literature
• Paper 109:- Literary Theory and Criticism and Indian Aesthetics
• Paper 110:History of English Literature From 1900 to 2000

Semester 3

• Paper 201:-Indian English Literature -Pre -Independence
• Paper 202:-Indian English Literature -Post Independence
• Paper 203:-The Postcolonial Studies
• Paper 204:-Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies
• Paper 205(A):Cultural Studies

Pamela characters

      Hello

This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 102 Literature of the Neo-classical Period  In this assignment I am discussing  some characters of "Pamela".

Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-14

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -1 ( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-102

Paper Code:-22393

Paper Name:- Literature of the Neo-classical Period 

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:- Character study of "Pamela"

Question:-Some characters of "Pamela"

  

Introduction 

   

  In the epistolary novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, Samuel Richardson, the well-known English writer of the 18th century, discusses a lot of significant issues, such as the nature of virtue and interpersonal relations, sexual politics and class discrimination, and some other issues. 

Main Character 

Pamela 

Lady B 

Lady Devers 

Mr.B 

Mrs.Jewkes 

Mrs.Jervis 

Mr.Williams 

Minor  Character

John Andrews

Elizabeth Andrews 

Monsieur Colbrand 

Sally Godfrey 

Mr. Jewkes 

Miss Goodwin 

Some neighbours 

Pamela

    

        The main character of the novel is Pamela Andrews, a pretty young girl of 15 years old, who serves as a maid servant in one of the rich houses. Pamela becomes a victim of sexual harassment of Mr. B., her new employer. It is known that the author uses a special style of writing ԓ epistolary form, which helps the readers to better evaluate the situation and to analyze the character of Pamela in a proper way. In Richardson’s epistolary novel the plot is developed through the use of different letters and journal entries written by the main character. 

           These letters help to gain insight into the character’s nature, and to analyze her thoughts and feelings. The letters help to reveal that in Bedfordshire, the main character Pamela Andrews is psychologically aware of suppressed emotions and tensions which are social and sexual, while on Lincolnshire, it is clear that her psyche reveals tensions which are more moral and spiritual. Samuel Richardson portrays his main character as the model woman who tries to maintain her morality despite her protests against sexual temptations and advances from her master. A young girl’s behavior and morality help her to solve many problems and to succeed in her life.

           Pamela’s character attracts attention of the readers due to such traits as self-confidence, persistence, courage, love and respect for the dearest people. Pamela is represented as a devoted and most dutiful daughter to her poor parents, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, to whom the girl regularly writes letters . Pamela’s parents had enormous impact on the girl’s moral formation due to which she protects her purity as she can.

           For example, in the Letter 1, Pamela tells her parents about the changes that took place in the house of her masters and about her grief. She writes, I have great Trouble, and some Comfort, to acquaint you with. The Trouble is that my good Lady died of the Illness I mention’d to you, and left us all much griev’d for her Loss . It is clear that Pamela is an educated young girl who takes care of her parents, as she writes them regularly. Moreover, she had respect and love for her good Lady.

           Besides, her letters give an opportunity to understand that she is a religious person who loves God and follows the key Commandments of God. For example, she often uses such phrase in her letters as God bless Him/Her! .

           It is known that Pamela resists her powerful young master Mr. B. through the long period of time. She witnesses his aggression toward her, tries not to capitulate to his assaults and his later tenderness. Samuel Richardson describes Pamela’s behaviour, her feelings and her thoughts. It is clear that Pamela needs some time to realize that she loves Mr. B. Soon, they marry and Pamela becomes a Lady. Die to her virtue and honesty, the young girl managed to avoid seduction and soon she was rewarded by marriage. 

          Although some critics consider that Pamela’ story is a story of a servant girl who decided to climb the ladder of social class, it is a wrong opinion . It is known that the major goal of Samuel Richardson was to give practical examples, worthy to be followed in the most critical and affecting cases, by the virgin, the bride, and the wife. 

           Pamela is portrayed not only as a good daughter too her parents, but also as a true and reliable servant, and later as a loving wife. In the second part of the novel, the author praises Pamela’s positive qualities, such as benevolence and generosity. Her husband, Mr. B. highly values all these qualities, as he proposed Pamela to marry him. When he found her entries in the journal and read them, he discovered her tenderness and true feelings toward him. Pamela is an honest and kind person who deserves love and respect .

Mr.B

             A country squire, 25 or 26 years of age, with properties in Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, Kent, and London. He is Pamela’s employer, pursuer, and eventual husband. Richardson has censored Mr. B.’s name in order to protect the pretense of non-fiction, but scholars have conjectured based on manuscripts that the novelist had “Brandon” in mind. Mr. B. has rakish tendencies, and he attempts to compel Pamela’s reciprocation of his sexual attentions, even to the point of imprisoning her in his Lincolnshire estate. His fundamental decency prevents him from consummating any of his assaults on her, however, and under her influence he reforms in the middle of the novel.

Lady Davers

             The married elder sister of Mr. B. to whom the Squire’s Bedfordshire servants apply when trying to enlist some aid for Pamela. She objects strenuously to the union of her brother with their mother’s waiting-maid, subjecting Pamela to a harrowing afternoon of insults and bullying, but eventually comes to accept and value her new sister-in-law. She once cleaned up after her brother’s affair with Sally Godfrey. Lady Davers is subject to drastic changes in mood, given to alternate between imperious and abject humors, but she is, like her brother, basically decent.

Lady B.

              Pamela’s original employer, the mother of Mr. B. and Lady Davers. Lady B. was morally upright and kind to Pamela, educating her and contributing to the formation of her virtuous character. On her deathbed, she told her son to look after all the Bedfordshire servants, especially Pamela.

Mrs. Jewkes

            The housekeeper at Mr. B.’s Lincolnshire estate and Pamela’s primary warder during the period of her captivity. Pamela represents her as a brazen villain, physically hideous and sexually ambiguous, though the hyperbolic attributions of depravity may be Pamela’s way of deflecting blame from Mr. B., about whom her feelings are more conflicted. Mrs. Jewkes is devoted to her Master, to a fault: she is as ready to commit a wrong in his service, not excluding assisting in an attempted rape of Pamela, as she is to wait loyally on that same Pamela once Mr. B. has decided to elevate and marry her.

Mrs. Jervis

          The elderly housekeeper of Mr. B.’s Bedfordshire estate, one of the virtuous servants who applies to Lady Davers on behalf of Pamela. She has a genteel background and is an able manager, presumably the linchpin of the well-ordered Bedfordshire household. Despite her good nature and her motherly concern for Pamela, however, she is nearly useless in defending her young friend from their Master’s lecherous advances.

Mr. John Andrews

         Pamela’s father and her chief correspondent. He is virtuous and literate like his daughter, formerly the master of a school, though his fortunes have since declined and he is now an agricultural laborer. He had two sons, now dead, who pauperized him before dying. Pamela credits both her parents with forming her character by educating her in virtue and giving her an example of honest, cheerful poverty.

Mrs. Elizabeth Andrews

        Pamela’s mother, who has no independent presence in the novel.

Mr. Williams

           The curate (junior pastor) of Mr. B.’s parish in Lincolnshire. Pamela engages his assistance in her efforts to escape her captivity, and she finds him dutiful but ineffectual; he makes an unsuccessful bid to become Pamela’s husband, and his efforts on her behalf come decisively to naught when Mr. B. sends him to debtor’s prison. Overall, he is meritorious but scarcely appealing, and he suffers from his position as the suitor whom no one takes seriously. Mr. B.’s drawn-out preoccupation with his “rival” Williams only serves to keep the latter’s risibility in view.

Monsieur Colbrand

             The monstrous Swiss man whom Mr. B. sends to Lincolnshire to keep watch over Pamela. Like Mrs. Jewkes, he becomes Pamela’s ally after the Squire’s reformation.

Jackey

             Lady Davers’s nephew, who accompanies her to Mr. B.’s estate in Lincolnshire and aids her in browbeating Pamela. He exemplifies what Richardson sees as the aristocratic impulse toward sexual exploitation of social inferiors, though he is quicker than his aunt in perceiving Pamela’s innate respectability.

Beck Worden

           Lady Davers’s waiting-maid, who attends her at Mr. B.’s estate in Lincolnshire and aids in the persecution of the newly married Pamela.

John Arnold

             A footman at the Bedfordshire estate. In the early stages of the novel he delivers Pamela’s letters to and from her parents, and Pamela appreciates his cheerfulness is performing this service. After her abduction, however, he sends her a note confessing that he has allowed Mr. B. to read all of the correspondence between Pamela and her parents. He has been torn between his duty to Mr. B. and the promptings of his conscience, and the result is that he comes into conflict with both Pamela and Mr. B. The Squire dismisses him, but after the marriage, Pamela has him reinstated.

Mr. Longman

             The steward at the Bedfordshire estate, one of the virtuous servants who applies to Lady Davers on behalf of Pamela. He admires Pamela and supplies her with the abundant writing materials that allow her to continue her journal during her captivity in Lincolnshire.

Mr. Jonathan

           The butler at the Bedfordshire estate, one of the virtuous servants who applies to Lady Davers on behalf of Pamela.

Nan (or Ann)

             A servant-girl at the Lincolnshire estate. Mrs. Jewkes gets her drunk and Mr. B. impersonates her on the night of his last attempt on Pamela’s virtue.

Sally Godfrey

           Mr. B.’s mistress from his college days. She bore him a child, the future Miss Goodwin, and then fled to Jamaica, where she is now happily married.

Miss Goodwin

           Mr. B.’s illegitimate daughter by Sally Godfrey. She lives at a boarding school in Bedfordshire and does not know who her parents are; she addresses Mr. B. as her “uncle.”

Sir Simon Darnford

               A noble neighbour of Mr. B. in Lincolnshire. He refuses to help Pamela when Mr. Williams applies to him but comes to admire her after her elevation by Mr. B. He is given to dirty jokes.

Lady Darnford

The wife of Sir Simon Darnford.

Miss Darnford (the elder)

           The first daughter of Sir Simon and Lady Darnford. She once had hopes of marrying Mr. B., but she accepts Pamela’s triumph sportingly.

Miss Darnford (the younger)

          She is second daughter of Sir Simon and Lady Darnford. She joins her sister in demanding a ball to commemorate the nuptials of Pamela and Mr. B.

Mr. Peters

          The vicar of Mr. B.’s parish in Lincolnshire. He refuses to help Pamela when Mr. Williams applies to him but eventually gives Pamela away at her wedding.

Mrs. Peters

    The wife of Mr. Peters.

Lady Jones

A noble neighbour of Mr. B. in Lincolnshire.

Mr. Perry

A genteel neighbour of Mr. B. in Lincolnshire.

Mr. Martin

          A genteel but rakish neighbour of Mr. B. in Bedfordshire. Pamela dislikes him due to his penchant for saying cynical things about married life.

Mr. Arthur

A genteel neighbour of Mr. B. in Bedfordshire.

Mrs. Arthur

The wife of Mr. Arthur.

Mr. Towers

A genteel neighbour of Mr. B. in Bedfordshire.

Lady Towers

A renowned “wit,” the wife of Mr. Towers.

Mr. Brooks

A genteel neighbour of Mr. B. in Bedfordshire.

Mrs. Brooks

The wife of Mr. Brooks.

Mr. Chambers

A genteel neighbour of Mr. B. in Bedfordshire.

Mrs. Chambers

The wife of Mr. Chambers.

Mr. Carlton

          An acquaintance of Mr. B. in Lincolnshire who dies shortly after the wedding. His distress at the end motivates Mr. B. to make arrangements that will provide for Pamela in the event of his early death.

Farmer Nichols’s wife and daughters

Neighbours in Bedfordshire from whom Pamela buys material to make a gown and petticoats.

A gypsy fortune-teller

The agent who delivers to Pamela a note from Mr. Longman warning her of Mr. B.’s plans for a sham-marriage.

Rachel, Cicely, and Hannah

Maidservants at the Bedfordshire estate.

Harry, Isaac, and Benjamin

Manservants at the Bedfordshire estate.

Richard, Roger, and Thomas

Grooms at the Bedfordshire estate.

Robin

The coachman at the Lincolnshire estate.

Abraham

A footman at the Bedfordshire estate.

Miss Dobson

Miss Goodwin’s governess at the boarding school.

Miss Booth, Miss Burdoff, and Miss Nugent

Peers of Miss Goodwin at the boarding school.

Words:-2160

Image:-2

Importance of Being Earnest

Hello

            This Blog is an Assignment of paper no.: 104 Literature of Victorians. In this assignment I am discuss with The name identity of "The Importance of Being Earnest".

Personal Information 

Name:- Mansi B. Gujadiya

Roll Number:-14

Enrollment Number:-4069206420220013

Batch:-M.A SEM -1 ( 2022-23 )

Email ID:- mansigajjar10131@gmail.com

Paper Number:-104

Paper Code:-22395

Paper Name:- Literature of the Victorians 

Submitted to:- English department MKBU

Topic:- The name identity of "The Importance of Being Earnest".

Question:-Comic Dramatisation of Double Identities in Oscar Wilde’s "Importance of Being Earnest"

Introduction 

             Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, published in 1895. A farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictions personae to escape their tiresome lives and struggle as their own stories become tangled in a tale of deception and disguise. Set in 1890s England, the late Victorian era, strong religious drive for higher moral standards prevailed, along with strict social hierarchy, that was highly classist and oppressive.

             The double lives are led by Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing, that are known as Ernest either in London or Hertfordshire. The personae, created by these characters are just the means found by them to be liberated from the repressive norms of society, in order to attain the freedom to create and opportunity to show different facets of themselves. Algernon calls the act of not being earnest Bunburying, giving the plot a moral significance, making Bunburying the reason for all the mistaken identities.

         In the play, Algernon invents a chronic invalid friend named ‘Bunbury’ whom he “visits” in the country whenever he wants to skip out of social responsibilities. The definition of Bunbury is passing oneself off as a fictional character in order to engage in behavior that escapes the restrictive social norms and that could be detrimental to one’s reputation, bunburyism can be a way of life that offers options beyond the conventional. Algernon says to Jack; “Well, one must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life. I happen to be serious about Bunburying. What on earth are you serious about I haven’t got the remotest idea. About everything, I should fancy. You have absolutely trivial nature.” . Algernon is serious about Bunburying as the Bunburyist is serious about not being serious, the trifle that to be serious about everything is to be serious about nothing. 

 

        The Bunburyist lives in a world of irresponsibility in which there is always a danger of moral anarchy. Wilde thought that Victorians who wanted to retain the respect of the conventional society lead a double-life, being one respectable and one frivolous. 

              The characters seem to live in a world where order is constantly vanishing and they search for stability. As Algernon says; “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”  Jack and Algernon fulfill their wishes by means of lying, using the alter-egos to free themselves from the hypocrisy of convention, adopting identities that suit a particular occasion, e.g. they invent lovers they want to marry (Cecily) or adequate themselves to be the ideal lovers’ others want to marry (Jack and Algernon, make appointments with Rev.Chasuble to change their names to Ernest).

           The characters’ fantasies are brought to life at the end of the play, creating a space for the them to live out fantasies and alternate identities as Jack turns out to be Ernest and he does have a scandalous, black-sheep archetype of a brother. Causing the double lives to not be hypocrisy, and allowing them to mock the laws and the customs of the time. The characters challenge society’s values and free themselves from rigid norms so that at the end of the play they manage to regain balance and become earnest.

            However, the aspect of ‘Bunbury’ extends further on the play beyond the two main characters as Gwendolen and Cecily have secret lives. Gwendolen, the sophisticated city lady, leads a ‘double life’ in the sense that she pretends to go to a lecture but instead runs away to see Ernest in the country, she has two facets, one when her mother is around and the other when she is not. Cecily Cardew lives a ‘double life’ in her diary where she invents a romance and even engagements to Jack’s wicked brother, Ernest, and the diary becomes her fantasy world. 

            Even the seemingly impeccable Lane, Algernon’s manservant, turns out to have led a double life when he lets it slip that he has been married. Revealing that the upper class is not the only forced to lead a double life; the entire society seems to be constrained by the same device. Making the theme of dualism evident in the play.

           Victorian morality was based on colonial and imperialistic ideas. The assumption of the ruling class being privileged due to their superiority, was very prominent as it was thought for them to be implicitly good and the others are ruled over due to their inferiority and were considered accordingly bad, creating a very oppressive sense of morality. Hence, to escape the repression, all the characters are compelled to lead a double life or invent an alter-ego. The duplicity of the characters, their fluid identities, becomes a satire over Victorian behavior as well as a more truthful description of what a human being is (flawed).

           The Importance of Being Earnest is also constructed around many ironies as Jack Worthing is presented as standing for all the Victorian values of morality: duty, honor, and respectability; “When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects. It’s one’s duty to do so.”  However, he pretends to have an irresponsible brother, named Ernest, who lives a scandalous life and always gets in trouble, requiring Jack to rush off to his assistance: thereby, Jack can disappear for days and do so as he likes, and live the life that he pretends to disapprove of. He thus uses Ernest, his alter-ego, both an excuse and disguise to keep his honorable image intact. Algernon Moncrieff, on the other hand, has no moral convictions other than to live beautifully. To be able to escape dull social obligations, he employs Bunbury as an alibi and Ernest as a double character in order to improve his prospects, as a Bunburyist he is serious about not being serious, leading him to be serious about nothing.

            Lady Bracknell sets herself up as a guardian of the morality of the society, always implying that she is the only reliable source of taste and probity. Paradoxically, she is found to be a social climber and not an aristocrat at all: “When I married Lord Bracknell I had no fortune of any kind. But I never dreamed for a moment of allowing that to stand in my way”.

          Algernon Moncrieff is the charming, idle, selfish, witty dandy of the play and Wilde’s alter-ego. Being clearly a character who has been forced into a closeted existence, as evidenced by his imprudent lifestyle with addictive eating and drinking. As the main theme of the play being living a double life and duality, it would make sense for Algernon to be bisexual. He is drawn to Cecily as she is the embodiment of innocence, beauty and a way out of his own troubled life. The theory behind Algernon’s sexuality can be proved as, beneath the surface, Wilde’s play is permeated with allusions to the gay culture of the time. Those being:

Ernest vs. Earnest

            Significance: The plays’ title in which the “earnest” is spelled with an a, plays with the word’s double function as both a name and an adjective. To describe a person as “earnest” means they are genuine and sincere, so the title of Wilde’s play could be interpreted as “ the importance of being your authentic self”.

Cecily

              Significance: Cecily is the ingenue, earnest girl that is pursued by Algernon, the character thought to be Wilde’s stand-in. In Victorian England, however, ‘Cecily’ was slang for a young male prostitute.

Bunbury

         Significance: When Algernon gets to know about Jack’s double life he says: “ I may mention that I have always suspected you of being a confirmed Bunburyist; and I am quite sure of it now” . Bunburying also has strong connotations with a homoerotic undertone, being a double pun for sodomy. With its definition being passing oneself off as another in order to engage in behavior that could be detrimental to one’s reputation. Therefore, giving a different perspective on the trips made by the two characters as it’s evident that these trips were for pleasure/leisure.

Cucumber Sandwiches

         Significance: the eating of cucumber sandwiches becomes a visual joke running through much of the play’s first act. They are a traditional stable of fancy teas. A mainstream Victorian audience, would not pick up the reference. As cucumbers have a phallic shape and their association with “ready money” on the play, makes the double-meaning even more suggestive. Though cucumber sandwiches are prepared for the women in the play, Lady Bracknell specifically requested them, they are consumed exclusively by Algernon.

             As an oppressed minority, gay Victorians used a colloquialism to communicate privately with one another, using a “language” unheard by members of mainstream society. In the hands of Wilde, these colloquialisms and even allusions to gay culture were used to undermine traditional notions of the time and its important institutions such as marriage. “ Most scholars believe Wilde was writing for two audiences: and upper-middle-class heterosexual audience and members of an underground gay audience who were about their sexuality” (Director. Joseph W. Ritsch for The Baltimore Sun)

           In the play, we can spot subtle details that are linked to the gay community and lifestyle. As in early drafts of the play, Jack’s calling card read that he lives at E4, The Albany, which in reality, was the address of Wilde’s friend, George Ives, founder of the secret homosexual society, The Order of Chaeronea. The name Ernest as a result of the poet John Gambril Nicholson publishing a collection of poems in 1892 entitled “Love in Ernest”, referencing his male lover, therefore, the allusion to the same-sex love is present in Wilde’s play.

          The plot point of an inscribed cigarette case, in the play, Jack has one from Cecily that sets off the whole narrative when Algernon discovers that Jack’s name is not Ernest, as he has led others to believe. Wilde used to give inscribed cigarette cases to young men he was fond of and would later be questioned about this while on trial. The whole concept of Bunburying is of obvious relevance to homosexuals living in Victorian Britain since they could be trailed and jailed for “gross indecency”. Making, then the concept of Bunbury to not only meaning the pursuit of secret surreptitious pleasures but also suggests a form of behavior or way of life, undertaken with flagrant and self-conscious disregard for social rules and conventions.

          By the time that The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) was written, Oscar Wilde had become one of the most flamboyant as well as notorious figures in English literary, theatrical, and social life. A self-professed “dandy”, he made his daily practice to assert the ‘absolute modernity of beauty’. Wilde enjoyed provoking conservative Victorians with his appearance and generally outlandish, irreverent public behavior that was perceived as highly effeminate. Being eager to associate himself with high, fashionable society his practice of cultivating and privileging the beautiful, both in art and life, was a serious expression of his philosophy of aestheticism. 

          Wilde’s effort to gain the favor of the society that he also frequently mocked and criticized was a result of his ambivalent background. Being born in Ireland, where his Protestant father was disgraced by a sex scandal, Wilde came to England as an outsider. His uneasy relationship with his parents and his non-English status can be detected in Jack’s identity crisis, as towards the end of the play he asks “Would you kindly inform me who I am?” (p.130,Wilde) and the satiric taunts to British Imperialism leading him to be considered a ‘conformist rebel’.

          Wilde’s ostentatious posturing and outrageous part of his non-conformist behavior showed the world that he approached life itself as a show. The same can be spotted in the play, when Jack and Algernon go ‘Bunburying’ under the name of Ernest, treating life as a game of make-believe. By May 1985, Wilde had crashed from the peak of success he had achieved only a few months the earlier, when both of his plays, The Importance of Being Earnest and Ideal Husband, were running as box-office hits in London’s West End.

          He would then, collapse by being sentenced to two years of hard labor in prison, for his homosexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas and other young men in London. Those so considered “serious”, from ‘a trivial comedy for serious people’, were late Victorians whom Wilde had both ridiculed and entertained and now were turning against him, shattering his career while proving their own intolerance, giving Wilde a disgraced name.

          The Importance of Being Earnest shows the struggle of people who feel the need to live a double life by the fear of not being accepted in their own environment due to their sexuality. Using fictional characters in order to hide their true personalities, the men at the time were expected to act elegant, restful, and gallantly complacent to the conventional behavior in their homes, however, when Bunburying they wouldn’t have to oblige to those expectations. 

          The characters struggle through life, switching between their two identities due to the difficulty of someone behaving in an entirely proper manner, whilst feeling comfortable in displaying their personality and true essence. Camouflaging sexuality can cause a strong notion of hiding one’s true identity. 

         This can be brought back to Wilde’s own life, as in the Victorian Era there were legislative prohibitions against homosexuality, which made it impossible for non-hereto-conforming people to come forward about their sexual orientations. Therefore, homosexuals in this age would keep a double life. Being that, what Wilde tried to do, by using his marriage to Constance Mary Lloyd as a cover of his sexuality. Which is also is reflected in the play as Jack and Algernon engage in the dandyish dating of females as a cover-up for the pursuit of Bunburying. 

             The play portrays a person’s true struggle with their sexuality and the difficulties that may come with it, not only in a time more than a hundred years ago but still in the present. Both current and Victorian society with prejudices and conventions kept and still keep non-heterosexual-conforming people from being themselves openly. The play displays that the fear of coming out, being yourself, and telling the truth about your identity in these prejudicial societies .

        One of Wilde’s most memorable lines was “For he who lives more lives than one more deaths than one must die”, aptly applicable to himself, Jack and Algernon with their multiple private and public identities, as the mask they used is unveiled they lose their alter-ego but being the same exposed to one’s public life, as happened to Wilde.

          He didn’t only lost the privilege to go out “Bunburying”, but also lost so much in his other public facet, affecting his professional life. Wilde would, therefore, directly experience proof of his own insight “ there is not a single real poet or prose-writer of this century, for instance, on whom the British public have not solemnly conferred diplomas of immorality”. As, in comparison to Wilde other famous writers would have their lives and art surrounded by their non-hereto-conforming practices, such as Virginia Wolf in her novel Mrs.Dalloway (1925).

          The protagonist, Clarissa Dalloway, has a young passion for Sally Seton that is rekindled when Sally attends her party many years later, even though both of them are married. Clarissa has her thoughts portrayed in the novel, creating acknowledgment of her same-sex desires which may appear as Wolf suggesting that despite the society’s unwillingness to acknowledge and accept homosexuality in post World War I London, Clarissa still can admit her feeling for Sally even if it’s just to herself. 

          Thereby, to some extent Clarissa did have different facets, as one in her thoughts and another on how she presented herself to others, she could even be qualified as an ‘introspective Bunburyist’. As per usual, we can spot something similar in Wolf’s life. As she took part in the Bloomsbury Group, that had the majority of its group members engaged in homosexual and polyamory relationships. Also, even though married to Leonard Wolf, she had a romantic affair with the writer, Vita SackVille-West, who was ten years younger than her and also married. However, at the time homosexuality was still a criminal offense in the U.K, but there was no equivalent legislation as “gross indecency” targeted to gay women, which contributed Wold to have a different ending from Wilde on that aspect.

          Yet another famous saying of Wilde is that “ a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment, than is by the occasional occurrence of crime”, which is just so descriptive of the discriminatory culture present made to oppress minorities, as Wilde suffer directly from it, the theme brought up by this quote is so timeless that even can be spotted nowadays, e.g. the protest against police brutality towards the African American communities after the murder of George Floyd.

Conclusion 

             In conclusion, looking back at the play from the sobering perspective of Wilde’s disgrace and imprisonment, we can thus see how his play is a plea for tolerance. As Wilde tries to create a world in which the societal laws have no power and the double lives can be revealed, this idea would most likely match Oscar Wilde’s ideal world. By writing this play it could have been his safe way to come out, to feel more free without having to put his reputation at the stake, as he also wanted other homosexuals and non-hetero-confirming people to read the play and feel represented as much as they could, whilst having to coexist with the huge prejudices of the time.

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