The uninformed reader may interpret Oscar Wilde’s play, The Importance of Being Earnest, as a light-hearted celebration of humanity; but one who is keen to Wilde’s personality and personal history will certainly note this novel as much a celebration as it is a satire, subtly implemented but dripping with bitterness. Although Wilde crafts an accessible and humorous account of aristocratic life, he fails to omit his own hostility towards the upper-class, his own class, in the make-up of the story. Because he fuses the genres of satire and honest comedy, using elements from both, one can easily see that The Importance of Being Earnest cannot fully be categorized as either.
To recognize the ambivalent nature of Wilde’s play, one must become familiar with his personal history in order to clearly identify the two genres in his play. After understanding certain aspects of Wilde’s life, it becomes quite sensible that a man with essentially two lives, two conflicting natures, would write a play conflicted in motive.
Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 to a philandering Doctor and a feminist poet. He was given a privileged education and lived a rather posh life. Wilde attended Oxford and received his degree in 1878. He began his career writing art reviews and articles for magazines (Layman).
Wilde worked as an art reviewer in 1881 and soon embraced the idea of art for art’s sake. He eventually became widely known as one of the most fervent advocates for aestheticism. Rupert Hart-Davis explains this turning point in Wilde’s life,
He was the most articulate and popular spokesman in the late nineteenth century advocating the doctrine of aestheticism, which insisted that art should be primarily concerned with ‘art for art's sake,’ not with politics , religion, science, bourgeois morality, or other intrusions. ‘All art,’ he said, ‘is quite useless’ (Layman).
Obviously, despite his notorious cynicism (which was apparent from his first literary works), Wilde had a true appreciation for the arts.
He eventually gained celebrity among the cultured European crowd. His career began to take flight when he was involved in writing several “farcical” plays. It was during this time that he married his friend’s sister, Constance Lloyd. They had two children and he continued to write, despite often negative reviews from such writers as Henry James and Bernard Shaw. Hart-Davis writes of such reviews in his The Letters of Oscar Wilde, “James McNeill Whistler, who, with increasing acrimony, accused Wilde of pretentiousness and plagiarism” (Layman). He goes on to write of the reception of his novel, The Picture of Dorian Grey, “Widely reviewed, the novel generated considerable distaste, even revulsion, among many reviewers because of its suggestion of homosexuality” (Layman).Despite such instances, his success eventually grew, spurring several tours throughout America, Canada, and Europe.
The most pertinent and conspiratorial chapter in Wilde’s personal life began in 1891. With only nine years of his life left, he met Lord Alfred Douglas, and soon initiated what was then referred to in the Victorian Period as “The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name” (Kanfer). Wilde had since gained notoriety for his promiscuity with young boys, making his affair with Douglas more expected than surprising. Hart-Davis writes,
Wilde was also self-destructive, for his progressively compulsive homosexuality…arising from a need for inner stability but resulting in increasing guilt and inner division, led him into experiences with ‘renters’ (male prostitutes) as well as casual pickups. It was, he said, like ‘feasting with panthers. The danger was half the excitement’(Layman).
While his love affair with “Bosie”, as he was called, was kept quite under wraps from the general public, word eventually got out causing Wilde’s wife to leave him and Wilde was accused of homosexuality by his lover’s father (Hart Davis). Wilde considered this the undoing of his career and the cause of his demise, saying of Bosie,
My genius, my life as an artist, my work, and the quiet I needed for it, were nothing to him when matched with his unrestrained and coarse appetities for common profligate life: his greed for money: his incessant and violent scenes: his unimaginative selfishness.... I curse myself night and day for my folly in allowing him to dominate my life(Hart-Davis).
Wilde was soon imprisoned for sodomy and sentenced to two years of hard labor, most of which was in solitary confinement.
Armed with the knowledge of Wilde’s dramatic personal history, one can attempt to deconstruct his most notable play, The Importance of Being Earnest, and strip it to its two conflicting voices: Satire and sincere comedy.
The Importance of Being Earnest as a satire is quite digestible. Knowing that Wilde was often attacked by literary critics, one can filter out lines in the play that target the critics specifically and recognize the bitterness behind them. This is evident when Algernon says to Jack,
Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow. Don’t try it. You should leave that to people who haven’t been at a University. They do it so well in the daily papers (Wilde 6).
Although this is obviously meant to be humorous, that does not excuse it from inferring more. Oddly enough, the critics and writers alike responded rather positively to the play. Hart-Davis writes, “H.G. Wells applauded the work, saying, ‘delightful revival of theatrical satire’” (Layman).
The most important reason one might consider this play a satire is the issue of Wilde’s homosexuality. The pertinence of this matter of Wilde’s lies in his possible motives for cynically targeting the aristocracy in his play. While he was known to keep company with the upper class, the aristocracy never fully accepted him, socializing with his celebrity but criticizing his personal life. While his homosexual tendencies would not cause as much as an eye twitch in the 21st century, homosexuality, and sexuality in general, was not something to be publicly tolerated. In her article, “The Bi-Social Oscar Wilde and ‘Modern’ Women,” Margaret Stetz writes,
Victorian homophobia, which was by no means confined to muscular men of the Rudyard Kipling and W.E. Henley type, but was also shared by women—even by sophisticated, intellectual, “modern” women (Stetz).
It is just as easy to find evidence in the play of his resentment for the public disapproval of his personal life. The criticism of upper-class follies appears when Gwendolen says to Jack of her mother,
Although she may prevent us from becoming man and wife, and I may marry someone else, and marry often, nothing that she can possibly do can alter my eternal devotion to you (Wilde 17).
It is hard to overlook the thinly veiled bitterness in this passage. Wilde points out the hypocrisy of people who criticize his flaws while being equally marred themselves.
Wilde attacks this shallowness throughout the play, as seen when Gwendolen explains why she loves Jack, “We live in…in an age of ideals. The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines…my ideal has always been to love some one of the name Ernest” (Wilde 10).
Although there is much evidence that this play is written in a satirical fashion, there is also support of it as an honest comedy. Knowing that Wilde was a subscriber to the philosophy of “art for art’s sake,” one would easily discount the play of having any substance or motive beyond pure, innocent comedy. Hart-Davis addresses this possibility, saying in reference to the characters of this play,
“The wit of the amoral dandy, who, in embodying the artistic ideal, is principally concerned with the beauty and perfection of phrasing rather than with its truth or moral vision”(Layman)
He goes on to say, “Wilde absorbed the idea that art was superior to life and that the one obligation was to transform life into art--to be as ‘artificial’ as possible” (Layman). Since Wilde fervently supported aestheticism and artificiality, The Importance of Being Earnest can be classified as a purposely artificial and aesthetically pleasing (the words used), and nothing more.
After weighing evidence of The Importance of Being Earnest as both a satire and an honest comedy, it is important to address the most compelling reason to consider the play as not fully either. Wilde struggled internally throughout his life with spirituality and material gratification. Margaret Stetz addresses this issue, perhaps unintentionally, saying in reference to Alice Meynell, a friend of Wilde’s “Meynell had converted to Roman Catholicism, a move that Wilde himself was several times on the verge of making.” (Stetz) In fact, Wilde did convert to Catholicism on his deathbed despite his firm loyalty to aestheticism—a testament to his dual personality.
Hart-Davis provides testament to this duality of Wilde’s play, saying, “Wilde's ironic use of the double, or doppelganger, perhaps unconsciously parallels the psychological division within himself” (Layman). With equal evidence in favor of the play as a satire and an honest comedy, as well as the recognition that these genres are conflicting in nature, it is easy to classify The Importance of Being Ernest as only partially earnest.
Citations
Kanfer, Stefan. "Feasting With Panthers." New Leader 06
1997. 11 May 2005 <>.
Layman, Bruccoli C. "Oscar Wilde." Dictionary of Literary
Biography,Volume 10: Modern British Dramatists, 1900-1945. Ed. Stanley Weintraub, and Rupert Hart-Davis. Pennsylvania State University: The Gale Group, 1982. 204-218.
Stetz, Margaret D. "The Bi-Social Oscar Wilde and "Modern"
Women." Nineteenth-Century Literature 2001. 11 May 2005 <://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0891-9356%28200103%2955%3A4%3C515%3ATBOWA%22%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z >.
Wilde, Oscar, and . The Importance of Being Earnest.
Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1990.
To recognize the ambivalent nature of Wilde’s play, one must become familiar with his personal history in order to clearly identify the two genres in his play. After understanding certain aspects of Wilde’s life, it becomes quite sensible that a man with essentially two lives, two conflicting natures, would write a play conflicted in motive.
Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 to a philandering Doctor and a feminist poet. He was given a privileged education and lived a rather posh life. Wilde attended Oxford and received his degree in 1878. He began his career writing art reviews and articles for magazines (Layman).
Wilde worked as an art reviewer in 1881 and soon embraced the idea of art for art’s sake. He eventually became widely known as one of the most fervent advocates for aestheticism. Rupert Hart-Davis explains this turning point in Wilde’s life,
He was the most articulate and popular spokesman in the late nineteenth century advocating the doctrine of aestheticism, which insisted that art should be primarily concerned with ‘art for art's sake,’ not with politics , religion, science, bourgeois morality, or other intrusions. ‘All art,’ he said, ‘is quite useless’ (Layman).
Obviously, despite his notorious cynicism (which was apparent from his first literary works), Wilde had a true appreciation for the arts.
He eventually gained celebrity among the cultured European crowd. His career began to take flight when he was involved in writing several “farcical” plays. It was during this time that he married his friend’s sister, Constance Lloyd. They had two children and he continued to write, despite often negative reviews from such writers as Henry James and Bernard Shaw. Hart-Davis writes of such reviews in his The Letters of Oscar Wilde, “James McNeill Whistler, who, with increasing acrimony, accused Wilde of pretentiousness and plagiarism” (Layman). He goes on to write of the reception of his novel, The Picture of Dorian Grey, “Widely reviewed, the novel generated considerable distaste, even revulsion, among many reviewers because of its suggestion of homosexuality” (Layman).Despite such instances, his success eventually grew, spurring several tours throughout America, Canada, and Europe.
The most pertinent and conspiratorial chapter in Wilde’s personal life began in 1891. With only nine years of his life left, he met Lord Alfred Douglas, and soon initiated what was then referred to in the Victorian Period as “The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name” (Kanfer). Wilde had since gained notoriety for his promiscuity with young boys, making his affair with Douglas more expected than surprising. Hart-Davis writes,
Wilde was also self-destructive, for his progressively compulsive homosexuality…arising from a need for inner stability but resulting in increasing guilt and inner division, led him into experiences with ‘renters’ (male prostitutes) as well as casual pickups. It was, he said, like ‘feasting with panthers. The danger was half the excitement’(Layman).
While his love affair with “Bosie”, as he was called, was kept quite under wraps from the general public, word eventually got out causing Wilde’s wife to leave him and Wilde was accused of homosexuality by his lover’s father (Hart Davis). Wilde considered this the undoing of his career and the cause of his demise, saying of Bosie,
My genius, my life as an artist, my work, and the quiet I needed for it, were nothing to him when matched with his unrestrained and coarse appetities for common profligate life: his greed for money: his incessant and violent scenes: his unimaginative selfishness.... I curse myself night and day for my folly in allowing him to dominate my life(Hart-Davis).
Wilde was soon imprisoned for sodomy and sentenced to two years of hard labor, most of which was in solitary confinement.
Armed with the knowledge of Wilde’s dramatic personal history, one can attempt to deconstruct his most notable play, The Importance of Being Earnest, and strip it to its two conflicting voices: Satire and sincere comedy.
The Importance of Being Earnest as a satire is quite digestible. Knowing that Wilde was often attacked by literary critics, one can filter out lines in the play that target the critics specifically and recognize the bitterness behind them. This is evident when Algernon says to Jack,
Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow. Don’t try it. You should leave that to people who haven’t been at a University. They do it so well in the daily papers (Wilde 6).
Although this is obviously meant to be humorous, that does not excuse it from inferring more. Oddly enough, the critics and writers alike responded rather positively to the play. Hart-Davis writes, “H.G. Wells applauded the work, saying, ‘delightful revival of theatrical satire’” (Layman).
The most important reason one might consider this play a satire is the issue of Wilde’s homosexuality. The pertinence of this matter of Wilde’s lies in his possible motives for cynically targeting the aristocracy in his play. While he was known to keep company with the upper class, the aristocracy never fully accepted him, socializing with his celebrity but criticizing his personal life. While his homosexual tendencies would not cause as much as an eye twitch in the 21st century, homosexuality, and sexuality in general, was not something to be publicly tolerated. In her article, “The Bi-Social Oscar Wilde and ‘Modern’ Women,” Margaret Stetz writes,
Victorian homophobia, which was by no means confined to muscular men of the Rudyard Kipling and W.E. Henley type, but was also shared by women—even by sophisticated, intellectual, “modern” women (Stetz).
It is just as easy to find evidence in the play of his resentment for the public disapproval of his personal life. The criticism of upper-class follies appears when Gwendolen says to Jack of her mother,
Although she may prevent us from becoming man and wife, and I may marry someone else, and marry often, nothing that she can possibly do can alter my eternal devotion to you (Wilde 17).
It is hard to overlook the thinly veiled bitterness in this passage. Wilde points out the hypocrisy of people who criticize his flaws while being equally marred themselves.
Wilde attacks this shallowness throughout the play, as seen when Gwendolen explains why she loves Jack, “We live in…in an age of ideals. The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines…my ideal has always been to love some one of the name Ernest” (Wilde 10).
Although there is much evidence that this play is written in a satirical fashion, there is also support of it as an honest comedy. Knowing that Wilde was a subscriber to the philosophy of “art for art’s sake,” one would easily discount the play of having any substance or motive beyond pure, innocent comedy. Hart-Davis addresses this possibility, saying in reference to the characters of this play,
“The wit of the amoral dandy, who, in embodying the artistic ideal, is principally concerned with the beauty and perfection of phrasing rather than with its truth or moral vision”(Layman)
He goes on to say, “Wilde absorbed the idea that art was superior to life and that the one obligation was to transform life into art--to be as ‘artificial’ as possible” (Layman). Since Wilde fervently supported aestheticism and artificiality, The Importance of Being Earnest can be classified as a purposely artificial and aesthetically pleasing (the words used), and nothing more.
After weighing evidence of The Importance of Being Earnest as both a satire and an honest comedy, it is important to address the most compelling reason to consider the play as not fully either. Wilde struggled internally throughout his life with spirituality and material gratification. Margaret Stetz addresses this issue, perhaps unintentionally, saying in reference to Alice Meynell, a friend of Wilde’s “Meynell had converted to Roman Catholicism, a move that Wilde himself was several times on the verge of making.” (Stetz) In fact, Wilde did convert to Catholicism on his deathbed despite his firm loyalty to aestheticism—a testament to his dual personality.
Hart-Davis provides testament to this duality of Wilde’s play, saying, “Wilde's ironic use of the double, or doppelganger, perhaps unconsciously parallels the psychological division within himself” (Layman). With equal evidence in favor of the play as a satire and an honest comedy, as well as the recognition that these genres are conflicting in nature, it is easy to classify The Importance of Being Ernest as only partially earnest.
Citations
Kanfer, Stefan. "Feasting With Panthers." New Leader 06
1997. 11 May 2005 <>.
Layman, Bruccoli C. "Oscar Wilde." Dictionary of Literary
Biography,Volume 10: Modern British Dramatists, 1900-1945. Ed. Stanley Weintraub, and Rupert Hart-Davis. Pennsylvania State University: The Gale Group, 1982. 204-218.
Stetz, Margaret D. "The Bi-Social Oscar Wilde and "Modern"
Women." Nineteenth-Century Literature 2001. 11 May 2005 <://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0891-9356%28200103%2955%3A4%3C515%3ATBOWA%22%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z >.
Wilde, Oscar, and . The Importance of Being Earnest.
Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1990.
