The Nature of Marriage in The Importance of Being Earnest - Term Paper Example

[Student’s Name] [Instructor’s Name] [Course name and code] 4 December, 2010. The Importance of Being Earnest: Discussion on Marriage as a major theme of the play: The whole play fundamentally debates whether to consider marriage as pleasant or unpleasant. Marriage, in the Victorian era, was far less romanticized than what is conventionally reflected in the literature (Ziegenfuss). Marriage indeed, assumes a vital role in the overall mood, plot and formulation of the play “The Importance of Being Earnest”. The whole play revolves around the sacred constitution of marriage and how people of different age group visualize its importance in the social setup. Marriage as a topic of philosophical orientation motivates the whole plot of the play and causes debate to arise among the readers once they are finished reading the play. One tends to realize the link between meaning of marriage and the maturity level of an individual interpreting it as per his/her own point of view. The play “The Importance of Being Earnest” reflects the consideration of marriage from the point of view of young lads, young lasses and others from the category of their parents in the Victorian age. Algernon and Jack happen to be the young lads, Gwendolen and Cecily play the role of young lasses while Lady Bracknell assumes the position of Gwendolen’s mother. The three categories pointed out here fundamentally belong to two generations, with Algernon, Jack, Gwendolen and Cecily belonging to the young generation and Lady Bracknell belonging to the old generation. The two generations visualize marriage quite differently depending upon their social responsibilities and assumed roles as prevalent in the Victorian age. The opinions opposite genders belonging to different generations in the Victorian age held were a reflection of their conventional commitment to marriage that was influenced by the role each one of them played in the social structure of the Victorian society. Marriage, in the Victorian age was particularly visualized as a bond between two individuals from opposite genders in which each fulfilled the desires and took care of the needs of the other. Through marriage, both individuals not only achieved their physical and mental satisfaction in a lawful way, but also mutually completed each other by covering up each other’s weaknesses and promoting the strengths. Marriage was considered a big commitment. Social responsibilities of individuals were decided by their position in the marital bond. Men were looked at as the bread earners for the whole family. However, rich women could be a good source of help for the husband in running the finances associated with their living. Parents used to decide the right partner for their daughters. The most surprising visualization of marriage happens to come from the girls in the Victorian age. Victorian women were always considered delicate, weak and in need of care (Thomas). Obsessed with the immense formality, nurturing and care they were always offered by their parents and elder ones, young girls in the Victorian age looked forward to men who would take them farthest from formality. Marriage for girls in that period used to be a means of escape from the social, cultural, political and moral norms in which they felt suffocated. One can easily estimate the importance of marriage among all the subjects discussed in the play from the fact that in the very start of the play, Algernon in a way argues over the nature of marriage with his butler, Lane. Right from this point till the end of the play, marriage remains the focus of discussion, act and moods displayed by all actors that make fundamental part of the cast. After lane brings Jack to Algernon, they happen to conduct a discussion apropos the nature of the sacred constitution of marriage. They exchange their views on whether to refer to the proposal of marriage as a business deal or else, as a means of pleasure. They say so because men were conventionally in a stronger position when both genders tied in the marital bond were compared in the Victorian age. Men were at a leverage in that they could either do justice to their role in marriage and approve and appreciate the equality of the wife they were married to or else, they could use them as a doll for their personal pleasure in which case, they would consider their wife more of a possession than a living being with sentiments and emotions. In the first model in which men chose to visualize women as equal, marriage would be more of a business deal in which both genders would mutually serve each other and play their roles as chosen for them by the religion, culture and / or society. in the second model, in which the men sapped the rights of women, marriage would bring more pleasure to them than when they played the role of a businessman in marriage. However, Lady Bracknell’s one sentence speaks volumes about what role marriage had in the life of their daughters in the Victorian era. As in the play, Lady Bracknell says, “An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be” (Wilde), she demonstrates that marriage used to be enforced upon girls as their fortune whether or not they felt comfortable with the man the proposal came from. As Lady Bracknell refers to marriage as a “surprise” for a young girl, that essentially means the girls were not given the right to choose for themselves their right partner in those days since the play is a reflection of the cultural norms, trends and traditions prevalent in the time in which it was written. In a vast majority of cases, the girls would not know whom they would be married to. It would not be surprising for a girl in those days to see her husband for the first time after marriage. A girl’s future was only decided by her parents and she was conventionally offered little room to express her consent over the matter. Her personal will mattered little for the most important decision of her life. Although there was generally no point suspecting the honesty of parents in their effort to select the most appropriate lad for their daughter, yet there was always a great verisimilitude that the girl would have to compromise upon the dream image of her husband in that age. The parents did try their best to choose the most capable lad for their daughter. This is evident from the fact that Lady Bracknell was accoutered with a long list of bachelors who had already proposed to marry her daughter, Gwendolen. Also, one can judge that Lady Bracknell was too particular about this subject because she had already had a complete list of questions to interview Jack with, once he expressed his consent to marry Gwendolen. Those questions fundamentally reflect the assumptions regarding the nature of marriage from the perspective of mothers in the Victorian age. The factors against which mothers conventionally judged the capabilities of willing bachelors conventionally used to be social status, financial strength and backing, and last but not the least, the character of individual willing to marry their daughter. In the Victorian era, “a gentleman was someone who had a liberal public (private) school education” (Miller). Also, Lady Bracknell approved Cecily for Algernon only because she was financially strong enough to support him in the marriage. Financial arrangement was hence, a priority in the definition of marriage, as interpreted by Lady Bracknell. Girls were supposed to get married as they could not support themselves alone because their illiteracy did not allow them to earn for themselves (“Women’s Issues”). It surprises the reader to think what is it about the name “Earnest” that both of the beautiful young girls, Cecily and Gwendolen, want to marry no one other than a man named “Earnest”. Also, both Cecily and Gwendolen think of Algernon and Jack as their right partner because both display disreputable origins. This tells that money was, by no means, a priority for the girls in that age when it came to idealizing their husband. Neither Jack’s confession of being an orphan discontented Gwendolen nor Algernon’s “wicked” reputation bothered Cecily. Earnest was indeed, the title of hero they always wanted to marry irrespective of his character. What mothers checked in a lad mattered least to the daughters, and what daughters searched for in their husbands was shocking for their mothers. This portrays the influence of difference of maturity on the visualization of the nature of marriage between mothers and daughters in the Victorian age. However, the ultimate authority to decide for their daughters rested with the mothers. Daughters had not been granted enough freedom to decide for themselves. Men also had to respect the consent of parents. This is evident from the fact that none of the two couples could get married unless Lady Bracknell gave them her approval after she discovered that the two lads were from a sufficiently rich background and could take good care of the girls. The play ends on a happy note as the two couples get married. Works cited: Miller, Ilana. “The Victorian Era (1837 - 1901).” n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. Thomas, Pauline W. “A Woman's Place in C19th Victorian History.” n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. 8th Edition, Vol. 2. NY: W.W.Norton & Company. 2006. “Women’s Issues Then & Now: A Feminist Overview of the Past 2 Centuries.” 3 May 2002. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. Ziegenfuss, Jen. “Marriage in the Victorian Era.” n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2010. Read More