why did oscar wilde write the importance of being earnest research
Here, and throughout the play, Oscar Wilde asks the following question: is biology always the framework which constrains socialisation practices, making it impossible for culture to minimise, rather than eliminate, the effects of natural biological differences between men and women? Wilde displays… But at the same time it resists the traditional notions that govern men’s and women’s lives and supports equality between the sexes. In an article published on the website “ruedutheatre” in September 2006, Priscilla Gustave-Perron qualified the performance as “disappointing”.16 The setting was uninteresting, built by Pace, a man who has been working for the theatre for 20 years. On the one hand, she has learned the dress and language codes and the values of the aristocracy and in that way, she conforms to what the audience expects from a person of her rank. For two generations Wilde’s name was mud. When the public saw the actors and actresses on stage they underwent an identification process because they lived in the same flats, wore the same clothes and spoke the same apparent language. Upper-class women were idle but sometimes did some volunteer work or some craftswork at home. His first play was Vera, but the 1881 London premier was cancelled due to fears that his de… He rejects the naturalist style and the traditional forms of drama of his time. 4In an article published this year in Études irlandaises, Pascal Aquien argues that 19th century French bourgeois drama exerted a powerful influence on Wilde’s dramatic works. 9I mentioned earlier that the play was subtitled “A trivial comedy for serious people”. The other reason for this double standard is that Algy goes to the countryside in order to meet Cecily his beloved, (Jack’s cousin) while Jack visits London in order to meet Gwendolen, Algy’s cousin. If it is destined for serious people this implies that serious people might find an interest in it. In this play, he satirizes and mocks the Victorian society particularly the institution of marriage, morality and show off. Photo by: Shutterstock. Pradel Olivier, “La constante inconstance de la jeunesse”, www.lestroiscoups.com, visited on 11/11/08. OpenEdition Journals member – Published with Lodel – Administration only, You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search, Mediating Ruskin/Colloque SFEVE, Pau, 8-9 février 2019, Epistemocriticism: Science and Literature – A Tribute to Annie Escuret, The Transformative Power of the Arts in Victorian and Edwardian Culture and Society / 58, Colloque de la Sfeve : Industrial Desires/56, 'The French Play in London': Performing, Translating, and Adapting from the French in Victorian Britain, Object Lessons: The Victorians and the Material Text, New Perspectives on Film Adaptations of 19th–Century Novels and Short Stories, Norms and Transgressions in Victorian and Edwardian Times — Appellations(s)/Naming/Labelling/Addressing, Foreign Words in Victorian and Edwardian Literature, Résistances — À l'horizon — Représenter la diversité dans la cité — Oser. The Importance of Being Earnest was the last play written by Oscar Wilde and it undoubtedly became the most celebrated. In Act III she says “When I married Lord Bracknell I had no fortune of any kind. William Archer, one of the critics, wrote about the play in 1895: It is delightful to see, it sends wave after wave of laughter . Is he really aware of his own discourse on gender? it is intangible, it eludes your grasp. Thus in the play, he mocks the institution of marriage which was considered to be sacred in Christianity. Lady Bracknell is indeed an assertive woman, but a terrifying “Gorgon” (Jack’s expression). Oscar Wilde became the most popular playwright of his time. In that case it would mean that Wilde chose to tackle serious subjects but that he did not believe his public would understand his attempts at turning traditions and preconceived notions upside down. . "The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read" Wilde quickly became a staple of London society with his clever sayings and aesthetic flair. The word “Trivial” means “unserious” or “lacking importance”. Butler Judith, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, Routledge, Londres, 1990. The play makes extensive reference both implicitly and explicitly to this debate, thus conforming to the fashionable discussion of his time. Maybe influenced by Ibsen’s Doll’s House published earlier (1879), Oscar Wilde wanted people to reflect on the relations between the sexes, which was also a very topical issue for his contemporaries known as the ‘separate sphere debate’. On the whole we know that there were positive reviews and Earnest could have expected an extended run in the St James Theatre followed by a popular tour in the provinces. Because he can’t afford to shock his audience too much and needs success for financial reasons his attack is not frontal. Here Oscar Wilde used a paradoxical punchline to explode the myths about gendered fixed identities and preferences. Lord Bracknell is blatantly absent from the play, is referred to as a sick man, almost an invalid, and plays in fact the role of the mother. In the play Jack and Algernon are not Ernest, but they can become Ernest through baptism. Counsell Colin & Wolf Laurie (eds), Performance Analysis, Routledge, London, 2001. Share. Though his boasting nature seems to be queer, yet it was, in reality, the common practice of the people of that age. Life is simply like a bubble of champagne: it makes one’s head light and makes one talk nonsense and act silly, just like the play’s characters. For instance, when Lady Bracknell interviews Jack she is glad to hear that Jack smokes because ‘a man should always have an occupation of some kind’ (p. 52). Both have a well-established life, Algy lives in London, Jack lives in the countryside as a Judge of the Peace. As the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan said in the 1960s “the medium is the message” and Wilde uses the form to speak of the content. In 1893 Wilde met Robert Ross, allegedly the man who introduced him to homosexuality. Jack is not the only conventional satire of Victorian-era but every character is a hypocrite in one way or the other. Indeed, there are serious themes in the play but Oscar Wilde does not treat them seriously, thus debunking the very notion of seriousness. It read: "To Oscar Wilde, posing as a sodomite." In fact, the Théâtre Antoine is a private theatre that depends on profitability: plays, actors and actresses are selected according to their appeal to the public. The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde.First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations. Thus in this sense, Wilde probably wants to say that the play has nothing to do with the serious people. The “dazzling conversationalist”(Norton 1720) was once reported by Yeats whom said, “I never before heard a man talking with perfect sentences, as if he had written them all overnight with labor and yet all spontaneous”(Norton 1720). Judith Butler defines “gender parody” as follows: “Gender parody reveals that the original identity after which identity fashions itself is an imitation without an origin.”5 For her the origin is a myth and there is a “fluidity of identities”. However, I would argue that more generally, despite very little room for manœuvre, he managed brilliantly to challenge the social norms, sexual stereotypes and gender representations of his time while pleasing aristocratic London socialites.In this paper I will examine the way in which Wilde’s text challenged and conformed at the same time. More reviews of that time would be required in order to determine if other critics were also ill-at-ease when they saw the play. The Importance of Being Earnest opened on February 14 at St. James' Theatre, beginning a run of 86 performances to standing ovations. If it is trivial it thus means that it has no important message to convey. Wilde displays… 15 Jane Pilchner and Imelda Whelehan (eds), Fifty Key Concepts in Gender Studies, Sage, Londres, 2004, p. 61. It could be argued, though, that this production only emphasized the superficial and camp side of the play, hardly touching the idea of what J. Butler calls “the illusion of an interior and organizing gender core”.9 If used, gender performativity must “trouble gender”. However, the writing of the play relies on a creativity and richness that combine different styles. Another review published in Le Figaro on 15/10/0717 focused on the star of the cast, Lorant Deutsch. However, I would argue that more generally, despite very little room for manœuvre, he managed brilliantly to challenge the social norms, sexual stereotypes and gender representations of his time while pleasing aristocratic London socialites. 9 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble, Routledge, Londres, 1990, p. 73. Here again, the hollowness and hypocrisy of the people in terms of religion can be seen. The Importance of Being Earnest is his exuberant parody of the 'trivial comedies' (his own amongst them) which the 'serious people' had established in the English theatre. The original producer, George Alexander, willed the copyright of the play to Wilde's son, Vyvyan. It is a reversal of stereotypes about women’s activities. Thus Wilde calls them “serious”. But I never dreamed for a moment of allowing that to stand in my way” (p. 160). Being tired of their lives and hardship both create their invalids or pretends or altered egos. Wilde … 5Wilde uses absurd and exaggerated situations, nonsensical language, paradoxical humour and puns. The play's humour derives in part from characters maintaining fictitious identities to escape unwelcome social obligations and it … 19 Eamonn Jordan, “Meta-physicality: Women Characters in the plays of Frank McGuinness,” Women in Irish Drama, A Century of Authorship and Representation, edited by Melissa Sihra, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, p. 130. One can also wonder whether he really cares about those notions. The “dazzling conversationalist”(Norton 1720) was once reported by Yeats whom said, “I never before heard a man talking with perfect sentences, as if he had written them all overnight with labor and yet all spontaneous”(Norton 1720). For example, the “Théâtre Antoine” in Paris produced it in October 2006 (on tour until March 2008) and a Versailles company performed it at “Le Lucernaire” in September and October 2008.When first performed, the play was considered as a light comedy and classified as entertainment for Victorian society. Cecily and Gwendolen rebel against sexual roles by mastering the language and being witty—qualities often associated with men—but in fact, they talk nonsense. When I married Lord Bracknell I had no fortune of any kind. Maybe the 2005 production at the Abbey Theatre, showing the actor Alan Stanford first dressed as Oscar Wilde transforming himself into Lady Bracknell—Lady Bracknell being a perfect figure to be played by a man—was trying to take this notion on board. On the other hand, nothing is trustworthy about her because she uses clothes as would an actress to fit her role, talks nonsense, however with the right kind of accent, and can utter the most cruel things but in a very proper language. Oscar Wilde tells us that our world is absurd and that it is pointless to try to find any meaning to it. At the same time we know that she wasn’t born an aristocrat and that she became one by imitating the customs and integrating the values of the upper-class. Oscar Wilde was gay in a society stifled by social conventions and governed by very tough laws on homosexuality. 11More seriously, what people maybe did not understand and forgive him was that by making his “coming out” during the trial he had disrupted the social and gender order. Brigitte Bastiat, « The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) by Oscar Wilde: Conformity and Resistance in Victorian Society », Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens [Online], 72 Automne | 2010, Online since 21 June 2016, connection on 05 October 2020. Did Wilde ever write a more brilliantly witty put-down than this? 16More recently, in September 2008, the Versailles company “L’air de rien” performed a version adapted from the play (translated by Astrid Hauschild and Magali Prompolini) directed by Astrid Hauschild at the Théâtre du Lucernaire in Paris. Therefore, Oscar Wilde rebels against the artificial and hypocritical social codes of his class and suggests that anybody can pass for an aristocrat with a bit of practice. 14Modern stagings in Britain have tried to be more daring than their predecessors. Again in the end when it is proved that his real name is Earnest, she chooses him as the future husband of her daughter. Was it because they were really shocked by his homosexuality or just to conform to the new trend that was to despise him? Thesis Statement. It is cleverly done so that the audience may ignore the subversive politics in the play if it chooses to. The Importance of Being Earnest, in full The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, play in three acts by Oscar Wilde, performed in 1895 and published in 1899.A satire of Victorian social hypocrisy, the witty play is considered Wilde’s greatest dramatic achievement.. Jack Worthing is a fashionable young man who lives in the country with his ward, Cecily Cardew. However, he manages to combine commercial success with conservative audiences whilst mocking the very conventions that these audiences are supposed to live by. However, in 2009 one of them told me that she had not actually found the play funny! In the play, Algy and Jack are idle and lazy, but morally the women are not better than them: like them, they are idle, lie, cheat and are interested in money. This way of viewing things seems to suggest that the gender order may be disrupted and changed, and Oscar Wilde was certainly one of the first ones to do so in his life and by using theatre as a means of expression for his questioning and mockery of both the social and gender orders. What if, in fact, it were a serious play for trivial people? 1 Terry Eagleton, “Only Pinter remains,” www.guardian.co.uk, 7/7/07. but as a text to criticism it is barren and delusive . 8However, having stated that women do not enjoy the position that they deserve in society doesn’t mean that Oscar Wilde finds women superior to men and that society would benefit from their presence in the public sphere. Université de La Rochelle, Centre d’études irlandaises Rennes II.Brigitte Bastiat holds a PhD in Media and Communication Studies from the University of Paris VIII. Was it because they had chosen to overlook the questionings of the play or simply because they had completely misunderstood the undertones in the first place? Yet, she then adds unexpectedly: “It makes them so very attractive,” hinting that a male chauvinist may not be what women prefer. Jordan Eamonn, “Meta-physicality: Women Characters in the plays of Frank McGuinness,” Women in Irish Drama, A Century of Authorship and Representation, edited by Melissa Sihra, Palgrave Macmillan, Grande-Bretagne, 2007, p. 130–143. Phelan S. (ed), Playing with Fire: Queer Politics, Queer Theories, Routledge, New York, 1997. Well, I suppose I must give my consent.”. Gwendolen then continues “And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not? Dr. Chasuble, a local Vicar is in love with Mrs. Prism, the ward of Cecily. In 1888 unmarried women were allowed to vote for the new county and borough councils for the first time. Gwendolen says in Act II that ‘the home seems to be the proper sphere for the man’, which might have sounded funny and absurd to a Victorian audience, although less so to a modern one. Jack and Algernon are men, but they are effeminate dandies. Lady Bracknell also plays the role of a father when she interviews Jack to find out whether he would be “an eligible young man” (p. 52) to marry her daughter, “a girl brought up with the utmost care” (p. 60). The Importance of Being Earnest, 1992 A production of the play featuring an all-black cast. Charlot Monica, The Road to Universal Suffrage (1832-1928), Didier Erudition, CNED, 1995. Here it has to be said that a lot of Victorian women had psychosomatic diseases—like Lord Bracknell who has little appetite and often retires to his bedroom—mostly because they were unhappy and frustrated by their assigned impotent roles as daughters, wives and mothers. Oscar Wilde is one of the renowned Irish dramatists of Victorian Era, infamous for his notorious history. 7 R.W. 1 The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) by Oscar Wilde is a popular play that is still widely performed in English-language theatres and also in many different languages.. 2 When first performed, the play was mostly considered as a light comedy and classified as entertainment for Victorian society. Oscar Wilde was an established writer of the late 1800’s who had a gift of being witty. This was partly because she only focused on the serious aspects of the play and found Wilde nihilistic. The play revolves around the story of two bachelors Algy and Jack. It can be contended that The Importance of Being Earnest is in essence a play on morality since the major argument surfacing after its reading relates to honesty as being the best policy. 2When first performed, the play was mostly considered as a light comedy and classified as entertainment for Victorian society. 2 Pascal Aquien, “Sardoodledum Revisited, or a Few Trivial Remarks about Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband (1895),” Études irlandaises, no33.2., automne 2008, p. 9–19. Algy introduces himself to Cecily as the brother of Jack and also keeps his real name as a secret before her until revealed. For example, at the end of the play, Jack says: “Why should there be a law for men and a law for women?” (p. 176). 1The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) by Oscar Wilde is a popular play that is still widely performed in English-language theatres and also in many different languages. 6The play is subtitled “A trivial comedy for serious people”. Hence, it is a trivial comedy (having little meanings) for serious people (the people obsessed.) Both these ladies self-conscious, emancipated, educated and support their individuality but their narrow-mindedness can be seen when each of them claims that “my idea has always been to love someone of the names of Earnest”. In 1867, when the Conservatives gave the right to vote to workers in Britain, John Stuart Mill, who was elected to Westminster, moved an amendment to Disraeli’s Representation of the People Act in which he proposed to replace the word “man” by the word “person”. Exaggeration and nonsensical dialogues probably helped Wilde get away with the more troubling questions he raised. Algernon spends money extravagantly on clothes and is greedy, qualities often associated with women. It can be argued that by refusing a specific genre Oscar Wilde produces a discourse on theatrical art. Indeed, the second half of the 19th century saw women begin to organise themselves in pressure groups in England; the Sheffield Association for Female Franchise held its first meeting in 1851. Matthews Jill, Good and Mad Women: The Historical construction of femininity in Twentieth Century Australia, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1984. Eagleton Terry, “Only Pinter remains,” www.guardian.co.uk, 7/7/07. It has all the elements of a comedy of manners: the title delivered as a punchline to the proceedings, the marriage problem, the foundling child, the idea of the double life, the highly-formalised style of language, the fast-moving verbal exchanges and a lot of entrances and exits. Is it because he is afraid of losing his readership and audience? For example, Cecily’s outside appearance is “feminine” but her attitude may be considered as “masculine” since she “has got a capital appetite” and “goes long walks”6—in Victorian times women were not supposed to have body functions or practise sport. The Victorian audience then laughed at itself. Lady Bracknell gives her consent for the marriage of her daughter Gwendolen with Jack when he introduces himself as Earnest. It reveals the hypocrisy, absurdity, and triviality of the upper class of Victorian society. Thebaud Marion, “Lorant Deutsch, dandy de comédie”, www.lefigaro.fr, visited on 11/11/08. In fact, we do not really know the intentions of Oscar Wilde, except perhaps that, and to paraphrase Jack in the play, when he is in town he amuses himself (p. 18). Only Macha Méril as Lady Bracknell seems to have been spared by the critic. 17 Marion Thebaud, «Lorant Deutsch, dandy de comédie», www.lefigaro.fr, visited on 11/11/08. In so doing Wilde keeps the appearances of a genre the audience is familiar with but subverts it with great subtlety. Through the mode way comedy, Wilde brings to light the ills of the Victorian era and mocks it. For him, this institution is quite hollow. Oscar Wilde was gay in a society stifled by social conventions and governed by very tough laws on homosexuality. According to Eamonn Jordan, McGuinness’s dramas, for example, “set specific challenges, especially when it comes to female characters. If he is, he does not seem to want to push it too far. In other words, it must arouse curiosity and stir traditional feelings and ideas about gender. Of all the male playwrights writing today in Irish theatre, McGuinness consistently confronts romanticized, conventionalized and stereotypical gendered roles and imperatives”.19. Therefore, if it is ridiculous to state that for men, why shouldn’t it be equally ridiculous to state that for women? The play thus looks like a comedy of manners but it is something else. Algernon and Jack are two rich layabout Victorian young men with love on their minds. Its first performance at the St. James’s Theater on February 14, 1895 came at the height of Wilde’s success as a popular dramatist. The setting was more daring than that used by the Théâtre Antoine since it was reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s colours, but the interpretation remained traditional, according to Olivier Pradel, who also wrote that it would have been more original and impertinent to set the play more in our present-day society, where nobility has been replaced by the jet-setters and the traders.18, 17Any writer, male or female, can find it hard to work outside the conventions, practices and aspirations of his/her predecessors. But I do not approve of mercenary marriages. The worse condition of Victorian upper-class society can be seen in the opening lines only when Algernon says to his servant that “Divorces are made in heaven.”. What can a poor critic do with a play which raises no principle, whether of art or morals, creates its own canons and conventions, and is nothing but an absolutely wilful expression of irrepressibly witty personality.13. 7Nevertheless, Wilde chose to tackle serious subjects such as marriage, hereditary privileges, education, the Church, sexual roles and language, and also tells us that appearances are deceitful. Wilde was influenced by Walter Pater, the co-founder of the aesthetic movement in art, literature and criticism for whom all art forms are self-sufficient. 18On the other hand more recent critics have perhaps put too much emphasis on the subversive nature of the play and a re-appraisal might be needed. They staked love, sacrifice, honesty for the sake of pseudo-status. 13 World Magazine, 20/2/1895, cited by Ruth Robbins, York Notes Advanced on The Importance of Being Earnest, Longman, 2005, p. 6. Two years later J.S. 12As far as the staging of the play was concerned, conformity was the rule for Victorian directors, who chose a naturalist setting and realistic costumes made in London or Paris. Wilde Oscar, The Importance of Being Earnest, version bilingue (traduction de Gérard Hardin), Pocket, 2004. www.ruedutheatre.info, visited on 11/11/08. The Importance of Being Earnest is considered to be the most famous and his most original work. Finally, in 1894, one year before the play was published, a quarter of a million women signed the petition for the right to vote for women. 4 Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, version bilingue (traduction de Gérard Hardin), Pocket, 2004, p. 62. In one Act, Gwendolen says, “In matters of utmost importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.” However, they are not fully responsible for this kind of attitude but the society has also a considerable impact on them. Mill, who hadn’t given up on the idea of promoting equality between men and women, published his essay The Subjection of Women (1869). But what do we know about what men and women are supposed to do, like and dislike? Is Wilde “a pre-Ionesco challenger and re-interpreter of language,” as Pascal Aquien said?3 The genre is uncertain and resists characterisation. It is indeed an attractive and challenging notion, although Judith Butler has admitted herself that performativity does not always allow the degree of “free play” with gender that some other queer theorists have suggested.10. Thus this condition too becomes important for Jack and Algy for creating their other-self. 15In France, the two most recent stagings of the play have not been particularly daring. 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