MARRIAGE IN VICTORIAN ERA AS REFLECTED IN OSCAR WILDE’S THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

MARRIAGE IN VICTORIAN ERA AS REFLECTED IN OSCAR WILDE’S THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST from Anissadifi

MARRIAGE IN VICTORIAN ERA AS REFLECTED IN OSCAR WILDE’S THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

Abstract

                In this paper the writer tried to analyze Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. The purpose of this writing is to analyze how marriage is treated in Victorian Era. Theories that used are textual, contextual, and hyper textual by using close reading method. The writer found that marriage is treated differently through different gender and background as reflected in the characters’ point of view. It can be concluded that how marriage is treated in Victorian Era is based on gender perspectives, social status, and wealth.

Keywords: Marriage, Victorian Era, Gender Perspective, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde

1.      Introduction

The Importance of Being Earnest is a satire play written by Oscar Wilde. The characters in this play are Jack, Gwendolen, Algernon, Cecily, Lady Bracknell, Miss Prism, and Chasuble. This play taken place in Victorian Era, and the issue reflected in this play is how marriage is treated in Victorian Era.

2.      Methodology

1.      Analyzing how marriage is treated in Victorian Era.

3.      Research Object

The objects of research are sorted into a material and formal object. Material object in this study is The Importance of Being Earnest.

4.      Biography and the story

This section will discuss the biography of Oscar Wilde and the play.

4.1.Biography of Oscar Wilde

Born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Irish writer Oscar Wilde is best known for the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and the play The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as for his infamous arrest and imprisonment for being gay.

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, William Wilde, was a doctor, while his mother, Jane Francesca Elgee, was a poet who was closely associated with the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848.

Wilde was a bright and bookish child. He attended the Portora Royal School at Enniskillen where he fell in love with Greek and Roman studies. He won the school's prize for the top classics student in each of his last two years, as well as second prize in drawing during his final year. Upon graduating in 1871, Wilde was awarded the Royal School Scholarship to attend Trinity College in Dublin. At the end of his first year at Trinity, in 1872, he placed first in the school's classics examination and received the college's Foundation Scholarship, the highest honor awarded to undergraduates.

Upon his graduation in 1874, Wilde received the Berkeley Gold Medal as Trinity's best student in Greek, as well as the Demyship scholarship for further study at Magdalen College in Oxford. At Oxford, Wilde continued to excel academically, receiving first class marks from his examiners in both classics and classical moderations. It was also at Oxford that Wilde made his first sustained attempts at creative writing. In 1878, the year of his graduation, his poem "Ravenna" won the Newdigate Prize for the best English verse composition by an Oxford undergraduate.

Upon graduating from Oxford, Wilde moved to London to live with his friend, Frank Miles, a popular portraitist among London's high society. There, he continued to focus on writing poetry, publishing his first collection, Poems, in 1881.

On May 29, 1884, Wilde married a wealthy Englishwoman named Constance Lloyd. They had two sons: Cyril, born in 1885, and Vyvyan, born in 1886. A year after his wedding, Wilde was hired to run Lady's World, a once-popular English magazine that had recently fallen out of fashion.

Wilde's first play, Lady Windermere's Fan, opened in February 1892 to widespread popularity and critical acclaim, encouraging Wilde to adopt playwriting as his primary literary form. Over the next few years, Wilde produced several great plays—witty, highly satirical comedies of manners that nevertheless contained dark and serious undertones. His most notable plays were A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), his most famous play.

4.2.  Synopsis of The Importance of Being Earnest

Jack Worthing, the play’s protagonist, is a pillar of the community in Hertfordshire, where he is guardian to Cecily Cardew, the pretty, eighteen-year-old granddaughter of the late Thomas Cardew, who found and adopted Jack when he was a baby. In Hertfordshire, Jack has responsibilities: he is a major landowner and justice of the peace, with tenants, farmers, and a number of servants and other employees all dependent on him. For years, he has also pretended to have an irresponsible black-sheep brother named Ernest who leads a scandalous life in pursuit of pleasure and is always getting into trouble of a sort that requires Jack to rush grimly off to his assistance. In fact, Ernest is merely Jack’s alibi, a phantom that allows him to disappear for days at a time and do as he likes. No one but Jack knows that he himself is Ernest. Ernest is the name Jack goes by in London, which is where he really goes on these occasions—probably to pursue the very sort of behavior he pretends to disapprove of in his imaginary brother.

Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of his best friend, Algernon Moncrieff. When the play opens, Algernon, who knows Jack as Ernest, has begun to suspect something, having found an inscription inside Jack’s cigarette case addressed to “Uncle Jack” from someone who refers to herself as “little Cecily.” Algernon suspects that Jack may be leading a double life, a practice he seems to regard as commonplace and indispensable to modern life. He calls a person who leads a double life a “Bunburyist,” after a nonexistent friend he pretends to have, a chronic invalid named Bunbury, to whose deathbed he is forever being summoned whenever he wants to get out of some tiresome social obligation.

At the beginning of Act I, Jack drops in unexpectedly on Algernon and announces that he intends to propose to Gwendolen. Algernon confronts him with the cigarette case and forces him to come clean, demanding to know who “Jack” and “Cecily” are. Jack confesses that his name isn’t really Ernest and that Cecily is his ward, a responsibility imposed on him by his adoptive father’s will. Jack also tells Algernon about his fictional brother. Jack says he’s been thinking of killing off this fake brother, since Cecily has been showing too active an interest in him. Without meaning to, Jack describes Cecily in terms that catch Algernon’s attention and make him even more interested in her than he is already.

Gwendolen and her mother, Lady Bracknell, arrive, which gives Jack an opportunity to propose to Gwendolen. Jack is delighted to discover that Gwendolen returns his affections, but he is alarmed to learn that Gwendolen is fixated on the name Ernest, which she says “inspires absolute confidence.” Gwendolen makes clear that she would not consider marrying a man who was not named Ernest.

Lady Bracknell interviews Jack to determine his eligibility as a possible son-in-law, and during this interview she asks about his family background. When Jack explains that he has no idea who his parents were and that he was found, by the man who adopted him, in a handbag in the cloakroom at Victoria Station, Lady Bracknell is scandalized. She forbids the match between Jack and Gwendolen and sweeps out of the house.

In Act II, Algernon shows up at Jack’s country estate posing as Jack’s brother Ernest. Meanwhile, Jack, having decided that Ernest has outlived his usefulness, arrives home in deep mourning, full of a story about Ernest having died suddenly in Paris. He is enraged to find Algernon there masquerading as Ernest but has to go along with the charade. If he doesn’t, his own lies and deceptions will be revealed.

While Jack changes out of his mourning clothes, Algernon, who has fallen hopelessly in love with Cecily, asks her to marry him. He is surprised to discover that Cecily already considers that they are engaged, and he is charmed when she reveals that her fascination with “Uncle Jack’s brother” led her to invent an elaborate romance between herself and him several months ago. Algernon is less enchanted to learn that part of Cecily’s interest in him derives from the name Ernest, which, unconsciously echoing Gwendolen, she says “inspires absolute confidence.”

Algernon goes off in search of Dr. Chasuble, the local rector, to see about getting himself christened Ernest. Meanwhile, Gwendolen arrives, having decided to pay Jack an unexpected visit. Gwendolen is shown into the garden, where Cecily orders tea and attempts to play hostess. Cecily has no idea how Gwendolen figures into Jack’s life, and Gwendolen, for her part, has no idea who Cecily is. Gwendolen initially thinks Cecily is a visitor to the Manor House and is disconcerted to learn that Cecily is “Mr. Worthing’s ward.” She notes that Ernest has never mentioned having a ward, and Cecily explains that it is not Ernest Worthing who is her guardian but his brother Jack and, in fact, that she is engaged to be married to Ernest Worthing. Gwendolen points out that this is impossible as she herself is engaged to Ernest Worthing. The tea party degenerates into a war of manners.

Jack and Algernon arrive toward the climax of this confrontation, each having separately made arrangements with Dr. Chasuble to be christened Ernest later that day. Each of the young ladies points out that the other has been deceived: Cecily informs Gwendolen that her fiancé is really named Jack and Gwendolen informs Cecily that hers is really called Algernon. The two women demand to know where Jack’s brother Ernest is, since both of them are engaged to be married to him. Jack is forced to admit that he has no brother and that Ernest is a complete fiction. Both women are shocked and furious, and they retire to the house arm in arm.

Act III takes place in the drawing room of the Manor House, where Cecily and Gwendolen have retired. When Jack and Algernon enter from the garden, the two women confront them. Cecily asks Algernon why he pretended to be her guardian’s brother. Algernon tells her he did it in order to meet her. Gwendolen asks Jack whether he pretended to have a brother in order to come into London to see her as often as possible, and she interprets his evasive reply as an affirmation. The women are somewhat appeased but still concerned over the issue of the name. However, when Jack and Algernon tell Gwendolen and Cecily that they have both made arrangements to be christened Ernest that afternoon, all is forgiven and the two pairs of lovers embrace. At this moment, Lady Bracknell’s arrival is announced.

Lady Bracknell has followed Gwendolen from London, having bribed Gwendolen’s maid to reveal her destination. She demands to know what is going on. Gwendolen again informs Lady Bracknell of her engagement to Jack, and Lady Bracknell reiterates that a union between them is out of the question. Algernon tells Lady Bracknell of his engagement to Cecily, prompting her to inspect Cecily and inquire into her social connections, which she does in a routine and patronizing manner that infuriates Jack. He replies to all her questions with a mixture of civility and sarcasm, withholding until the last possible moment the information that Cecily is actually worth a great deal of money and stands to inherit still more when she comes of age. At this, Lady Bracknell becomes genuinely interested.

Jack informs Lady Bracknell that, as Cecily’s legal guardian, he refuses to give his consent to her union with Algernon. Lady Bracknell suggests that the two young people simply wait until Cecily comes of age, and Jack points out that under the terms of her grandfather’s will, Cecily does not legally come of age until she is thirty-five. Lady Bracknell asks Jack to reconsider, and he points out that the matter is entirely in her own hands. As soon as she consents to his marriage to Gwendolen, Cecily can have his consent to marry Algernon. However, Lady Bracknell refuses to entertain the notion. She and Gwendolen are on the point of leaving when Dr. Chasuble arrives and happens to mention Cecily’s governess, Miss Prism. At this, Lady Bracknell starts and asks that Miss Prism be sent for.

When the governess arrives and catches sight of Lady Bracknell, she begins to look guilty and furtive. Lady Bracknell accuses her of having left her sister’s house twenty-eight years before with a baby and never returned. She demands to know where the baby is. Miss Prism confesses she doesn’t know, explaining that she lost the baby, having absentmindedly placed it in a handbag in which she had meant to place the manuscript for a novel she had written. Jack asks what happened to the bag, and Miss Prism says she left it in the cloakroom of a railway station. Jack presses her for further details and goes racing offstage, returning a few moments later with a large handbag. When Miss Prism confirms that the bag is hers, Jack throws himself on her with a cry of “Mother!” It takes a while before the situation is sorted out, but before too long we understand that Jack is not the illegitimate child of Miss Prism but the legitimate child of Lady Bracknell’s sister and, therefore, Algernon’s older brother. Furthermore, Jack had been originally christened “Ernest John.” All these years Jack has unwittingly been telling the truth: Ernest is his name, as is Jack, and he does have an unprincipled younger brother—Algernon. Again the couples embrace, Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble follow suit, and Jack acknowledges that he now understands “the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”

5.      Discussion

Discussion of “Elements” is focused on how marriage is treated in Victorian Era reflected in The Importance of Being Earnest.

It seems that marriage is treated differently through different gender and background. Once a couple is married to each other, they cannot be separated in any condition except death. Marriage should be a very pleasant moment for a couple, but in this play, we can see different perspectives of marriage.

The first perspective comes from Lane, the servant of Algernon. He said that marriage is a kind of accident happened to his life.

LANE. I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir. I have often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand.

ALGERNON. Good Heavens! Is marriage so demoralising as that?

LANE. I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience of it myself up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person. (ACT 1, page 1)

It is almost impossible that marriage is happened only because of the misunderstanding between two people. There are many aspects to think deeply and a lot of preparation to do before marriage.

Social status is one of the aspects to think about. In Victorian Era, marriage can be an agent of woman’s social climbing. It is because the social status of a husband has a great influence to the wife. If the husband belongs to the upper class, the wife will also live in the upper class society. But it has nothing to do if the one that is in the upper class is the wife. If so, the husband’s social class will not change. The husband will remain live in his society, and the wife’s social status will automatically change.

The second perspective comes from Algernon. Marriage must be very romantic for a couple, but according to Algernon, there is nothing romantic in a married life. He said that even in marriage, there is still possibility that one or both of the couple have an affair with other people, and it seems like a common thing in life.

ALGERNON. I really don’t see anything in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If I ever get married, I’ll certainly try to forget the fact. (ACT 1, page 3) 

JACK. That is nonsense. If I marry a charming girl like Gwendolen, and she is the only girl I ever saw in my life that I would marry, I certainly won’t want to know Bunburry.

ALGERNON. Then your wife will. You don’t seem to realize that in married life, three is company and two is none. (ACT 1, page 7) 

Meanwhile, woman’s perspective of marriage in this play is rather complicated. Woman believes that marriage is something special that must be well prepared. It has to be done through proper engagement, parents’ acceptance, and many other factors. We can see how social status and wealth of someone are important to held a marriage.

LADY BRACKNELL. ..................... What is your income?

JACK. Between seven and eight thousand in a year.

LADY BRACKNELL.[Makes a note in her book] In land, or in investments?

JACK. In investments, chiefly.

LADY BRACKNELL. Well, that is satisfactory. What between the duties expected of one during one’s lifetime, and the duties exacted from one after one’s death, land has ceased to be either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one position, and prevents one from keeping it up. That’s all that can be said about land. (ACT  1 Page 13)

From the dialogues above, we know that wealth is very important in the marriage. Lady Bracknell, who was the mother of Gwendolen, were asking Jack many question, and the question about wealth is actually one of the most important question toward Jack. If Jack really wanted to propose Gwendolen to be his wife, Lady Bracknell should make sure that Jack has a good income to support their life.

Beside wealth, Lady Bracknell also questioned Jack about his belonging. When Lady Bracknell knew that Jack was found in a hand-bag, which means that it is not clear who are Jack’s parents and what is his social status, she refused the proposal.

LADY BRACKNELL. Me, sir! What has it to do with me? You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter- a girl brought up with the utmost care- to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel? Good morning, Worthing!

[Lady Bracknell sweeps out in majestic indignation] (ACT 1 page 15)

It can be seen that wealth and social status are important, especially to the woman. Woman needs a kind of social climbing if possible, and does not want her status to become lower. If these two factors had been fulfilled by the man who proposes, the marriage could be held.

6.      Conclusion

It can be concluded that there are different perspectives toward marriage in Victorian Era. It is influenced by the gender. The examples given in this paper is that man sees marriage as something that is not special. They think that marriage is only a waste of money, or a decreasing level of a lover, or even an accident.

On the other hand, woman thinks that marriage is something really important. It makes the woman make a lot of preparation before marriage. They create some condition in which they want the man to fulfill before they accept the man’s proposal. These conditions are whether the man has good income and in higher social class or not. If these conditions cannot be fulfilled, it is no use to marry.

This different may happen because of the law. It is said that woman’s social status is following her husband’s. Because man has stronger influence, they think that marriage has no impact to his life.

7.      References

http://www.biography.com/people/oscar-wilde-9531078

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/summary.html