Woman and Marriage in The Importance of Being Earnest- Response 3

Woman and Marriage in The Importance of Being Earnest

While the male characters in The Importance of Being Earnest are interesting, the female characters and the conflict around them take center stage.  Even though the play begins with the main characters and seems dominated by their dialogue, the center focus of the play (marriage) is impossible without the woman and their acceptance of the men. 

I will discuss Gwendolen first because she appears first in the play. Gwendolen can be described as a “confident socialite” (Bradford).   Her confidence is displayed in the following quote:

 ALGERNON   (To Gwendolen) Dear me, you are smart!

GWENDOLEN    I am always smart!  Aren’t I, Mr. Worthing?

JACK   You are quite perfect, Ms. Fairfax.

GWENDOLEN    Oh! I hope I am not that. It would leave no room for developments, and I intend to develop in many directions. (Wilde 12)

In this portion of dialogue, Gwendolen demonstrates that she is confident enough to praise herself in the company of society men.  Even though Algernon is her cousin, he has a way with words that could be intimidating, and yet Gwendolen seems more intent on accomplishing her goal of “catching” a man named Earnest than worrying about Algy’s little comments.  Gwendolen, in addition to be confident, was Lady Bracknell’s daughter.  Lady Bracknell was a wealthy society woman with apparently one goal in life: to marry her daughter to a well-suited companion.
            While Gwendolen could be considered a confident socialite, Cecily could be called a hopeless romantic.  According to an article written by Wade Bradford,  “When the audience first meets Cecily she is watering the flower garden, even though she should be studying German grammar. This signifies Cecily’s love of nature and her disdain for the tedious socio-academic expectations of society”(Bradford).  Also, we learned that Cecily keeps a diary in which she has been carrying on a fictitious relationship with Jack’s imaginary brother, Earnest.  In this relationship in her diary there have been proposals, breakups makeups, etc. In addition to be romantic in her own personal life, “Cecily delights in bringing people together. She senses that the matronly Miss Prism and the pious Dr. Chausible are fond of each other, so Cecily plays the role of matchmaker, urging them to take walks together”(Bradford).  Cecily is the traditional hopeless romantic and matchmaker. 

            Even though there are many different themes to be critiqued in The Importance of Being Earnest, “Wilde's most concrete critique in the play is of the manipulative desires revolving around marriage” (Critique of Marriage as a Social Tool).  Normally I would consider marriage to be a positive thing about love, but it seems to me that in the play, marriage is considered both to be a burden and some form of financial contract or business deal. For example, Lady Bracknell, speaking about Lady Harbury, seems to consider marriage a burden. She asserts, “I am sorry if we are a little late, Algernon, but I was obliged to call on dear Lady Harbury. I hadn’t been there since her poor husband’s death. I never saw a woman so altered; she looks quite twenty years younger” (Wilde 13). For me it seems that once the burden has been lifted off Lady Harbury, she has finally been able to live.  In addition to being a burden, marriage is also seen as heavily dependent on financial status.   For example, when Lady Bracknell finds out about Jack’s proposal, her biggest concern is Jack’s background and wealth.  She asks him a series of questions that includes such petty details such as how many rooms he has in his country home (Wilde 18).  Also, when Algernon wants to marry Cecily towards the end of the play, Lady Bracknell does not want them to get married until she finds out that Cecily is very rich (Wilde 50). 

            In general I believe that Wilde’s opinion of the marriage presented in the play is presented as satiric or sarcastic. Maybe his opinion comes from the fact that he doesn’t exactly believe in the gender norms in Victorian society especially since his own sexuality was not necessarily mainstream.  

Works Cited

Bradford, Wade. "Female Characters in "The Importance of Being Earnest" - Gwendolen and Cecily." Plays / Drama. About.com. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://plays.about.com/od/importanceofbeingearnest/a/wildefemale.htm>.

Crisp, Tony. "The Importance of Being Earnest | Inner Life | Dreamhawk.com." Dreamhawk - Tony Crisp | Dreams, Health, Yoga, Body Mind & Spirit. 2009. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/the-importance-of-being-earnest/>.

"The Importance of Being Earnest Themes | GradeSaver." Critique of Marriage as a Social Tool. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://www.gradesaver.com/the-importance-of-being-earnest/study-guide/major-themes/>.