An Analysis and Interpretation of The Importance of Being Earnest and Dr. Faustus - Essay Example

Earnest” and “Dr. Faustus An Analysis and Interpretation Although both “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde and “Dr. Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe are filled with plenty of comedic moments, they each center on a core theme of deception. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”, more than one man is found playing at being someone else. It is only through being earnest that they finally find happiness in who they really are. “Dr. Faustus” on the other hand, deals with deception in an entirely different light, allowing the main character to carry off a series of mean tricks only to seal his own doom in the end. In both plays, deception may be the main theme, but each shows deception is not all it’s cracked up to be in their own unique way. The two main characters in “The Importance of Being Earnest” are Algernon “Algy” Moncrieff and Jack Worthing. Both constrained by the rigid conventions of the Victorian upper class, each has developed an alter ego under which they are provided more ‘breathing space.’ Although this deception allows them the freedom they’ve been missing, when they each fall in love with a woman who believes them to be someone else, they find deception is not so desirable after all. Jack falls in love with Gwendolyn Fairfax, Algy’s cousin, and Algy falls in love with Cecily Cardew, Jack’s ward, but neither woman will marry their respective beaux unless their names are Earnest. Algy immediately makes arrangements to be rechristened, while Jack, through an amazing coincidence, both finds his family and learns his name really is Earnest in a rare act of honesty. Far from seeking honesty, Dr. Faustus, the main character in “Dr. Faustus,” is a scholar who is famed the world over for his extensive knowledge, who feels he has reached the limits of knowledge yet still hungers for power. Tempted by the allure of magic, he trades his soul to the devil in exchange for 24 years of having everything he wants. Rather than using his new powers to free his country or help the poor, Faustus chooses to perform parlor tricks for the Emperor and practical jokes on the Pope. Although deception is more than evident in the way in which Faustus deals with other characters throughout the play, it is his deception of himself that remains in the mind of the reader after the play has finished. The most obvious method of depicting deception in both “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “Dr. Faustus” focuses on the main characters’ deception of other people throughout the course of the play. In order to achieve freedom in a highly structured and constricted world of Victorian England, both Jack Worthing and Algy Moncrieff develop alter egos named ‘Earnest’ and ‘Bunbury’ respectively. “You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to town as often as you like. I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose” (Wilde, Act 1, Scene 1) Algy tells Jack in the opening scene of the play, making it obvious that each are playing a similar game of deception. Faustus’ spends his entire magical career, with all the powers he has at his command, committing base pranks such as the pranks he pulls on the Pope at a special banquet in Act III, Scene 1 demonstrates. As the Pope crosses himself following an invisible Faustus grabbing his dishes out of the air, Faustus tells him “Well, there’s the second time. Aware the third; / I give you fair warning. / [The POPE crosses himself again, and FAUSTUS hits him a box / of the ear; and they all run away.] These characters believe they are more clever by far than any of the characters around them. None of these main characters in either of these plays would be willing to go so far as to admit that they were being deceived by another, yet in both plays, deception by others plays a large role in how the play unfolds. Both Jack and Algy fool each other in their development of their alter egos, but it is the deception of the nurse maid who lost an infant in a bathroom that leads to the final revelation of Jack’s true identity and paves the way for his future life of truth. “Twenty-eight years ago, Prism, you left Lord Bracknell’s house, Number 104, Upper Grosvenor Street, in charge of a perambulator that contained a baby of the male sex. You never returned. … Where is that baby?” (Wilde, Act III, Scene II), Lady Bracknell demands of Ms. Prism, upon which Prism confesses she has no idea and the entire truth of Jack is revealed. Although Mephastophilis, the devil’s servant, tells Faustus nothing but the truth, including the horrors he suffers wherever he goes, Faustus chooses to focus on those who would deceive him such as Cornelius and the evil devil. Trying to make the study of magic seem like the best thing that ever happened to him, Cornelius tells Faustus “[t]he miracles that magic will perform / will make thee vow to study nothing else” (Marlowe, Act 1, Scene 1) while the evil angel distracts Faustus from thoughts of repentance to “think of honour and of wealth” (Marlowe, Act 1, Scene 5) instead. Perhaps the greatest deception in both tales, however, is the deception the main characters of Faustus and Jack Worthing pull on themselves. Faustus continues to deceive himself that he’s doing the right thing for his own well-being despite repeated feelings of trepidation and warnings from others such as the good angel and the old man – “I might prevail / To guide thy steps unto the way of life, / By which sweet path thou mayst attain the goal / That shall conduct thee to celestial rest!” (Marlowe, Act III, Scene III). While Jack believes himself to be out deceiving the world, he learns in the end that he has never lied at all about who he is as he was christened both Earnest and John after his father before him and that he really does have a disreputable younger brother in the figure of Algy: “Algy’s elder brother! Then I have a brother after all. I knew I had a brother! I always said I had a brother!” (Wilde, Act III, Scene II). With deception playing such a large role in both plays, it is notable to see the different forms of deception inherent in the stories as well as the widely different results this deception produces. While both Dr. Faustus and Jack Worthing practice deception on others and feel they are too clever to fall to the deception by others, they each are deceived in their own self-evaluation. Jack Worthing proves to be worthy of a good, honest life despite his attempts at trickery mainly because the truth was on his side while Dr. Faustus is provided the truth from the beginning and suffers eternally for his complete deceit of himself. References Marlowe, C. (1616). “Dr. Faustus”. Masterplots. Ed. S. Flecher. Salem Press, Inc., 1996. Wilde, O. (1895). “The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People”. Masterplots. Ed. S. Bromige. Salem Press, Inc., 1996. Read More