The Importance of Marriage in the "Importance of Being Earnest"

Name: Nilay N. Rathod

Paper 104: Literature of the Victorians

 Subject Code: 22395

Batch: M.A. Sem-1 (2021-23)

Roll No: 18

Enrolment No:4069206420210030

Email Address: rathodnilay2017@gmail.com

Submitted to: Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

The Importance of Being Earnest, in full The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, play in three acts by Oscar Wilde, performed in 1895 and published in 1899. A satire of Victorian social hypocrisy, the witty play is considered Wilde’s greatest dramatic achievement. This play deals with the same theme as most of the writers were writing about in the Victorian era.

The main character of the play Jack Worthing Is a fashionable young man who lives in the country with his ward. He has invented a fictional brother named Ernest whose supposed exploits give Jack an excuse to travel to London periodically to rescue him. He has created a bad image of his fictional brother Ernest, that he always throws himself into trouble. Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of his friend Algernon Moncrief. Gwendolen, who thinks Jack’s name is Ernest so she loves him in return. This is the same case as Algernon. He has created a fictional friend Bunbury, whom he pretends to be called away to visit whenever he wants to avoid an encounter or an activity. He has also created a bad image of his fictional friend, by saying that he is physically fragile and always falls ill. When he heard of Cecily, he pretended to be the brother of his friend Jack Worthing so that he may meet Cecily, Jack’s ward. Like Gwendolen, she also falls in love with him thinking that his name is Ernest. Here, Both Cecily and Gwendolen love the name Ernest rather than the real person who could be earnest.

The concept of marriage has been given superiority in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Love is the thing that people of any social class aspire to, and marriage can be a consequence of it. Marriage is discussed in the context of the plot progression. Marriage is the main topic, thus demonstrating the importance that society accorded this matter. The marriage institution was held high in the Victorian era. Most of the works in this age is in one- or another-way deals with the institution of marriage. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways.

Algernon’s Thoughts on Marriage:

At the beginning of the play, the author introduced us to this subject. It is used in a discussion between Algernon and his servant, Lane. The butler insinuates that married households usually lack a sense of taste to a point where they cannot purchase “first-rate” champagne. Then he observes that the champagne in a bachelor establishment is of higher quality, and that is the reason why servants tend to overdrink. This makes Algernon wonder if the marriage has become so demoralizing to a point where people lack a sense of taste. Despite the butler’s failed marriage, he still thinks that love and marriage is pleasant experience that anyone should endeavour to have. Though Algernon’s view on love and marriage is not known during the conversation with his butler. We get to know his thoughts on the subject in a monologue where he claims that marriage is an institution that has

“Absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.”

In this conversation with Jack, Algernon’s thoughts on marriage come out on the surface. During the chats, Jack claims that he decided to travel from the country to town purposely for pleasure. As the conversation with Algernon continues, Jack claims that he has come to propose to Gwendolen, the girl he has been flirting with. This throws his friend Algernon aback since he believes that a proposal is more of a business venture than a pleasure. According to him, 

“Marriage kills the excitement of being in love and leads to uncertainty”

Algernon has such a negative mentality on marriage to a point where he vows to “forget the fact” that he is married the moment he does so. This mentality, according to Jack, is what led to the formation of Divorce Courts, but Algernon disagrees and claims, 

“Divorces are made in Heaven.”

 Defending his position, Algernon claims that most married people do not value their marriages, and most of them are even capable of flirting with other men while their husbands are sitting right across the dinner tab. Algernon is opposed to the idea of his first cousin Gwendolen getting married to Jack, he advises him that he will have to lie occasionally to be able to get away from his wife. This clearly shows that Algernon thinks that all marriages are unpleasant an opinion that Jack and Lane do not share.

Lady Bracknell’s Thoughts on Marriage:

“An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be.”

Lady Bracknell addresses this to Gwendolen when she said that she and Jack are engaged. By looking at the set of questions that Lady Bracknell subjects to Jack, she has a distorted view of love and marriage. By looking at the list of bachelors and the prepared script that Lady Bracknell addresses Jack from, it is apparent that the social class on which the story is based viewed marriage in terms of social standing, income, and character of the participants. Indeed, Lady Bracknell does not seem to have respect for the marriage institution, and that is why she tries to pair Algernon with Mary, who is already married. Algernon is cynical about marriage institutions and thinks that people’s opinions on the topic are “somewhat lax,” his views on marriage and divorce change once he meets and falls in love with Cecily. On his part, Jack is a romantic who believes that having the right attitude towards marriage is the ingredient that makes it last.

Although he believes the truth 

“isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells a nice, sweet, refined girl,”

 he ends up telling Gwendolen the truth once he realizes that it is not in his nature to lie. Once Jack apologizes to Gwendolen, her reaction becomes a clear pointer that she was also cynical about men and the marriage institution in general.

Gwendolen and Cecily’s thoughts on marriage:

Jack is in love with Gwendolen, but she loves him thinking that his name is Ernest. When Jack asked her if would she still love him if his name was John, she replied.

"I pity any woman who is married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment’s solitude."

Gwendolen doesn’t mind that if the person is earnest or not but to her the name is good enough to love, not the person but she loves the name, Ernest. It was like a dream to her to love someone whose is Ernest.

"My ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest. There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence."

This is the same case with Cecily, in fact, she has constructed her own fictional world around this romance where she has engaged Ernest. Cecily addresses Algernon, who masquerades as Ernest Worthing, Jack Worthing’s fictional younger brother. Algernon knows Cecily feels fascinated by Ernest. Cecily confesses that she’s secretly in love with Ernest. Her self-deception makes the opportunity easier for Algernon to exploit her fantasy but harder to wiggle out of the lie.

“You must not laugh at me, darling, but it had always been a girlish dream of mine to love someone whose name was Ernest.”

When both the girls find out the identity of Jack and Algernon, that none of them are named Ernest. They have faked their identity this whole time. Jack and Algernon were ready to Christiane their names. Cecily consults Algernon about the new requirement set down by her guardian, Jack: She can’t be married without Jack’s permission until she reaches the age of thirty-five.

Algy, would you wait for me till I was thirty-five?

 Algernon’s willingness to wait years confirms Cecily’s suspicion of his ambivalence about marriage. Soon after Cecily admits she doesn’t know what will happen next, Lady Bracknell’s final revelations take over the play and sort out the plot, including the future of Algernon and Cecily.

“Yes, I felt it instinctively, but I couldn’t wait all that time. I hate waiting even five minutes for anybody. It always makes me rather cross. I am not punctual, myself, I know, but I do like punctuality in others, and waiting, even to be married, is quite out of the question.”

Wilde has brought out the nature of marriage in the morality of Victorian society. As shown by the quotes from the text, the characters are divided into those who believe that marriage is pleasant (that is Algernon’s view on marriage) and those who believe that it is unpleasant (that is Lady Bracknell’s view on the theme). Even among those who believe marriage is unpleasant, something happens at the end that restores their faith in love and the marriage institution.