The Importance of Being Earnest as a Comedy of Manners - Book Report/Review Example

Thesis: This paper will show that if indeed The Importance of Being Earnest is a ic example of this genre then such a play, despite its prodigious wit and literary value, could not operate as it was intended in a classless non-hierarchical society. In the second act of The Importance of Being Earnest, Gwendolen Fairfax and Cecily Cardew have just discovered that they are both engaged to man named Ernest. Cecily indignant at Gwendolen's accusations of entrapment suggests, "This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners. When I see a spade I call it a spade." Gwendolen sardonically responds, "I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different" (Wilde 37). The phrase "comedy of manners" is applied to works that satirize the class hierarchical structure and attendant customs and habits of the society from which they are drawn (Hirst 1). Manners, commonly conceived, offer a way of social interaction which minimizes embarrassment or offense in a public setting. However, what manners often do is conceal or "mask" true feelings and moments of authenticity through contrived and complex social rituals that arbitrarily distinguishes one person from another. Those distinctions usually fall along class lines or in terms of socioeconomic status. The arbitrary nature of these rituals coupled with the real consequences of their actions can be both amusing and pathetic. Hence in many manner comedies there is an element of social commentary on class structure along with the obvious comedic aspects. To the degree that such comedies require a pre-existing class hierarchy to operate; it might be the case that such dramas could not operate in classless societies. It is of course openly admitted that such a society has rarely if ever existed; but, to develop from a critical standpoint the nature of a comedy of manners, the lens that is society through which individuals construct their world must be taken into consideration. This paper will show that if indeed The Importance of Being Earnest is a classic example of this genre then such a play, despite its prodigious wit and literary value, could not operate as it was intended in a classless non-hierarchical society. To evaluate this claim it is important initially to briefly describe the genre and the comedy's relation to it. Finally, this paper will consider the question of whether such a play could operate effectively in a classless, generally egalitarian society. The plots of manners comedies often revolve sex and money, thus marriage, divorce, and financial dealings play important plot elements in these dramas (Hirst 1). These subjects of the idiom are essential at highlighting the emptiness and folly of the social forms that structure manners. They are essential because in modernity they represent two areas of human activity that are not only extremely important for a functioning society but are also the most highly regulated in their expression and articulation in "polite" society. As such their deployment in such comedies is immediately familiar to their audiences and the usually ridiculous behaviors that are associated around these two subjects are easily referenced. Another important characteristic is that of the presence of stock characters that rapidly resonate with the audience (Foster 19). This serves to instantly connect the audience with the character without expending too much time on his or her development. It is to the comedy's benefit, typically, when characters remains fairly flat and un-evolved, as it allows the author to keep their motivations uncomplicated and their behavior predictably silly. In any comedy, timing is everything, thus having the luxury of one-dimensional characters allows the final component of many a comedy of manners to be emphasized, that of stylized, subtle wit (Hirst 2). Style itself becomes a sort of substance in the comedy of manners. Style here is not meant just as a superficially clever form of expression, though that is undeniably a portion of such comedies, what is meant here is that insofar style encapsulates and mediates content, manners and social comportment encapsulates the characters. By emphasizing style the writer emphasizes the superficiality and emptiness of manner. In many ways Wilde perfects many of these attributes in The Importance of Being Earnest. The plot centers on the desire for social mobility and marriage. The idleness and presumptive nature of the upper classes is humorously portrayed. Stock characters such as the overbearing and shrilly elitist Lady Bracknell are caricatured with bitingly epigrammatic dialogue. The character of Lady Bracknell is the very target of the comedy of manners. She represents the constructor and mediator of the processes by which manners and social conventions organize and establish hierarchies with groups (Lalonde 662). Her presence in the play allows the audience to deconstruct the arbitrary and empty nature of social form and convention (Lalonde 661).The audience is immediately introduced to that empty and arbitrary nature via the ludicrousness of Victorian politeness in the very first lines of the play. It opens with Algernon asking his servant Lane if he heard him playing the piano in the other room to which Lane quickly explains, "I didn't think it polite to listen, sir" (Wilde 1). The conversation moves to the readiness of cucumber sandwiches for Lady Bracknell and then quickly to the topic of marriage to which Lane admits that though the wine in married households are usually not of first rate, marriage is a relatively pleasantly state. Disclosing his own experience of marriage, he offhandedly comments that it was a "consequence of a misunderstanding between myself [sic] and a young person" (Wilde 1). The witticisms come fast and furious, and the notion of style as described above is self-consciously present in the mind of Wilde and his characters. This is evidenced in a scene where Miss Fairfax is questioning Algernon's reasoning for impersonating her guardian's brother, unsatisfied with the first answer she agrees with Cecily that it was in fact a beautiful one and proclaims, "In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing" (Wilde 44). It is only possible to believe that these characters could say such things to each other earnestly is in part due to their lack of development as people or at least people we care or could ever care about. Some scholars suggest that the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest are so essentialized that much of the social commentary is muted in favor of a commentary of the genre itself (Foster 19-20). It is clear that while the epigrammatic nature of the dialogue in Wilde's play would not be missed even in a society that was basically classless and non-hierarchical, the literary quality and rhetorical punch of Wilde's quips would be accessible regardless, some of the relevance of the play and what little believability was left, notwithstanding the above analysis, in the characters would be totally nullified. A comedy of manners works because the particular manners instantiated can be recognized as just that, manners. The comments and behavior of these characters would just be recognized as appalling and borderline irrational in a classless society, rather than what they are intended to be seen as, appalling and ostensibly justified by our notions of civility and politeness. The characters themselves would be seen by this hypothetical audience as generally failed and improbable ones, as their lack of development as individuals being that they are supposed to be class representatives would empty any emotional or motivational content behind their actions or speech. Our non-hierarchal, classless audience would literally have no idea where these characters are coming from, and frankly, what they are doing in this work other than running around saying horrible, though nevertheless funny things to each other. As things currently stand, we must give credit for its genuine humor to Mr. Wilde, while we, as a stratified class-oriented society, must take credit for the abundance of horrible material with which he had to work. Works Cited Foster, Richard. "Wilde as Parodist: A Second Look at The Importance of Being Earnest." College English 18.1 (1956): 18-23. Hirst, David L. Comedy of Manners. London: Routledge, 1979. Lalonde, Jeremy. "A "Revolutionary Outrage": The Importance of Being Earnest As Social Criticism." Modern Drama 46.4 (2005): 659-676. Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1990. Read More