Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest - Research Paper Example

?Comedic Appeal In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, two characters, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, capture the audience’s attention through their antics, convoluted lies and humorous dialogue. It is the charade of Earnest that both become involved in, which is the driving comedic force in the play and is the source of most of the play’s action. As characters, they are substantially different yet very similar. They share a penchant for playing with the English language and for skirting their respective responsibilities. However, in terms of personality, they are very different, with Algy being a comedian who does not take much seriously, while Jack feels the weight of responsibility and morals. Wilde’s play does not examine any of the serious issues of the day, but instead focuses solely on trivial aspects and comedic misunderstandings. Both Jack and Algy are important components of this and of the comedic nature of the play. Of the two characters, Algy’s willful disregard for the traditional values of society, the absurdity of many of his viewpoints and the ironic differences between him and the idea of Earnest, make him the funnier of the two protagonists. Throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, one prevailing theme is triviality, which is shown in both characters, but predominantly in Algy. This theme is strong in Algy’s approach to marriage, an important institution of the day, yet one that he has little regard for. Norms of social behavior are blatantly absent throughout the playand conventional ideas and sentiments are twisted in a way that the audience does not expect in order to reinforce this theme. Algy’s behavior constantly reflects this. For example, although he sets out a dish of cucumber sandwiches for his guest and refuses to let Jack touch them, he manages to eat the entire plat before his guest ever turns up. One way in which Wilde uses triviality throughout the play is to take a phrase that at first glance appears to be normal and to modify it, generally at the end, to say something quite different ( Jordan 103). One such passage is Algy’s declaration concerning a married couple, which is an indication of his view on marriage as a whole. He says, “The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public” (Wilde 11). This passage is an example of irony of reversal, a comic device where the tone of the declaration is substantially different than its content (Pestka 176). At first, the audience thinks they know what Algy will say, yet the whole sentence is flipped around, he is not criticizing the behavior of an unmarried woman, which would be commonplace in the time period, but instead he is complaining at the way a married couple is behaving. While the theme of triviality is present in both characters, Algy plays on it the most both in action and in words. The result is humorous, as Algy’s blatant disregard for societal norms is a direct contrast to most of the play’s original audience. This makes him a very funny character, and makes his lines much more amusing than Jack’s. Another aspect of Algy’s character that makes him both interesting and amusing is his approach to the charade that him and Jack are playing. This approach enables the comedic action of the play, which would not occur otherwise. At first glance, Jack and Algy appear to be polar opposites. For Jack, the character of Earnest is a means to spend time following his own desires without the need to “adopt a high moral tone on all subjects” (Wilde 10). Earnest gives him the freedom to visit the city whenever he chooses, and while there to behave as he sees fit without influencing his life in the country. Algy has a created character of his own, and he uses this invalid, Bunbury, as a means of escaping social obligations. While Jack appears to be a moral and respectable man, Algy is selfish, amoral and witty (Ferreira 122). He has no qualms about using Bunbury to escape from society and finds the whole process amusing. In contrast, Jack is troubled by the character he has created and wishes to kill him off and be himself and no one else. However, while Jack is planning this, Algy takes on the identity of Earnest to meet Cecily, who he has become romantically interested in as the result of his discussions with Jack. Cecily, in turn, has fancied herself engaged to the mysterious Earnest, who she has fallen in love with from Jack’s stories. Without Algy’s frivolous approach, and fascination in the imaginary characters, the comedic action and misunderstandings of the play would not have continued. One aspect of the play’s humor is the self-awareness of both characters, particularly Algy. While protagonists in most plays and fiction are unaware of the humorous implications of their words, both Jack and Algy appear well aware of their own humor, and they enjoy sparking each other on (Bull 49).. This can be seen through Jack’s remark at the end of a verbal joust between the two of them: “I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever now-a-days” (Wilde 21). Dialogues such as this are common throughout the play and speak strongly of the comedic nature of the two men, as well as their strong self-awareness. However, Algy takes this one step further than Jack. Within the same interchange, Algy comments on how perfect his phrasing is and implies that he says things for their humorous or ironic aspect, rather than to try and say anything. This pattern is seen throughout Algy’s lines in the play. The result is that Algy lines are more often comedic that Jack’s, making Algy a funnier character overall. Of the two protagonists, Algy is more openly comedic, his lines frequently being absurd or ironic. This is evident from the start of the play when Algy is playing the pianoforte in the other room and then enters to speak to his manservant Lane. Algy engages Lane in a discussion that ranges from the amount of champagne consumed during a meal earlier in the week (eight bottles and a pint) to the state institution of marriage. Throughout this, Algy’s character begins to become clear, as well as the way in which he plays on language. He comments, “As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life.” (Wilde 5). The play on language here is evident, as forte means strength, yet is also part of the name of the instrument that he was playing. In fact, the entire exchange between Algy and Lane appears to be mostly for its comedic effect. Little is said in the exchange that is of any relevance, and Algy appears to be enjoying the verbal interplay. In contrast, Jack’s lines do not play on language in the same way, and he tends to say things for a specific purpose. The result of this is that Algy’s lines are more amusing and nonsensical than Jacks, making Algy a funnier character overall. Irony is one of the main comedic methods used in The Importance of Being Earnest. One of the ways that this can be seen the most prominently is in the play on the name Earnest, and particularly in relation to the character of Algy. Both Gwendolen and Cecily are fascinated by the name, declaring it to imply honesty and uprightness, and that it inspires complete confidence. Yet, Algy’s character is nothing like this. In fact, one of the amusing factors throughout the play is that fact that Algy has none of the characteristics that one typically associates with someone who is earnest. When reading the title of the play, one could be forgiven for believing that it is about the importance of maintaining social values and on being sincere, however the reverse is in fact true (Ferreira 121). While Jack does show a level of caring about the values of society, Algy is determined to give them no heed. As Jack makes moves to fix the problem that he finds himself in as a result of the creation of Earnest, Algy intentionally undermines this proceeding for the purpose of satisfying his curiosity. This pun on the name Earnest is no clearer than in the closing line of the play, where Jack denies that he is being trivial: “On the contrary, Aunt Augusta, I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest” (59). Throughout the play and in this scene in particular, the traditional meaning of earnest is turned and redefined. Jack has not learned the importance of being honest or convicted; instead, he has learned that there were many benefits to pretending to be someone else (Niederhoff, 46-48). However, this pun is much stronger when considering Algy. Throughout the play he has never shown the slightest interest in being earnest, in fact his frivolous natures has driven almost everything that he does. Yet, at the end of the play, he is christened Earnest, to satisfy his love’s desire for an honest man, despite the fact that he is obviously nowhere near this. In this way, Algy is a much funnier character, as he is constantly at odds with the idea of being earnest while the play and the female characters promote the idea of earnestness as a virtue. Throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, both protagonists are amusing characters whose wordplay, unique perspectives, and confusing circumstances that they find themselves involved in make the play a fascinating and humorous experience. While Algy is more openly comedic, his character focusing on the absurd and twists of language, Jack is more reserved, his responses tending towards the ironic, as indeed his life has been. Of the two protagonists, I consider Algy to funnier, especially through his frequent asides into the absurd, his focus on the trivial, and the irony that someone who behaves like he does could ever be considered earnest. In fact, much of the action of the play comes from the fact that Algy is adamant on continuing the charade of Earnest. Without this, the play would be less funny and probably much shorter. Consequentlyis, Algy is funnier both as a character and because he drives comedic action within the play. However, the humor of the play does not come from a single character, but from the way in which they interact with each other and their environment. Algy would not be so humorous if he did not have the more serious Jack to act as a foil. Works Cited Bull, J. “What the Butler Did See”: Joe Orton and Oscar Wilde”. Joe Orton: A Casebook. Ed. Coppa, F. Vol. 32: Psychology Press, 2003. Print. Ferreira, N. “Being Earnest and Being Polite: Applying Brown & Levinson’s Theory to Wilde’s Play.” Ciencas Da Linguagem 23 (2009): 115-128. Print. Jordan, R.J. “Satire and Fantasy in Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.” ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 1.3 (1970): 102-109. Print Niederhoff, B. “Parody, Paradox and Play in the Importance of Being Earnest.” Connotations 13.1-2 (2003): 32-56. Print. Pestka, D. “A Typology of Oscar Wilde’s Comic Devices.” Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: An International Review f English Studies 22 (1989): 175-93. Print. Wilde, Oscar. “The Importance of Being Earnest.” 1895. Norton Critical ed. Ed. Michael Patrick Gillespie. New York: Norton, 2006. 5-59. Print   Read More