| vanity. He is secure enough in his position to be the person he wishes everyday, despite social appearances. His actual social self seems to be much of an enigma created by his aunt and his constant care to his �invalid friend� �Bunbury�.
Algernon�s viewpoint of bunburying is revealed in the very beginning in the first act. He originally states his opinion of marriage when saying about proposals �I really don�t see anything romantic in proposing�I call that business.� It is apparent that Algernon speaks of the kind of proposal that is executed for the purpose of social appearances or social gain. He later says �A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it.� Of course someone marrying for social status would need some sort of means by which they could pursue their actual desires. Algernon also makes a quite remarkable statement which is nearly the best example of his feelings toward his need for bunbury. He says, ��it isn�t easy to be anything nowadays. There�s such a lot of beastly competition about.� At this point in time it seems as though Algernon may be a little insecure underneath his initial front of self-confidence. This insecurity may stem from one of a great deal of things. But probably the most reliable source for his insecurity is the vulnerability that a social front lends. Anyone would experience insecurity if they had to deny their natural state and adopt aires which are untrue to their inner self.
Jack�s viewpoint of bunbury is a little less realizable. He creates a younger brother named Earnest who he, in the country, uses as an excuse to go into town, and while in town, takes on the role of this imaginary, unruly, younger sibling. He denies to Algernon that he is a bunburyist at all, however. The reason why Jack seems to feel that his bunburying is excusable probably has to do with the fact that he is between social classes: never quite adopted by his guardian, yet brought up in the upper class. He makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with bunburying when he says, �If I marry�I certainly won�t want to know Bunbury.�
In the first Act Jack states, �When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people��. Knowing that Jack lives mainly in the country, one can assume that Jack does a great deal of social amusement. This may be the factor which ultimately drives him to create �Earnest�, and embark on his career in �bunbury�. Jack as Earnest proposes to Gwendolyn. Of course her mother, Lady Bracknell must interfere and inquires of Jack a few things in a manner comparable to an interview. He reveals his somewhat unsavory past when he tells Lady Bracknell ��I actually know who I am by birth.� Along with not knowing who he is, he likewise does not know what social standing he should have, therefore is resigned to the middle class through the upbringing he received and the lack of family name.
The reasons for Algernon�s use of bunbury seem much more of a ruse than that of Jack. Although common referrals to his lack of monetary substance, Algernon belongs to an upstanding socially active family. It may be his family, however, that drives him to create Bunbury and begin to play with fa�ade. We are informed in the latter half of the first act of Algernon�s feelings toward relations. He says �Relations are simply a tedious pack of people who haven�t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die.� It turns out that both of Algernon�s parents appear to be deceased. He is left to the caretaking of his Aunt Augusta/Lady Bracknell. Lady Bracknell is a very socially aware character. She is constantly hosting dinner parties which her husband is very commonly forced to avoid if her table ends up in an uneven number. In OSCAR WILDE Art and Egotism, Rodney Shewan alludes to the fact that Bracknell may represent society itself�(191). This very socially conscious woman, for Algernon at least, most likely does represent social class and the restrictions within it.
In the end the title really becomes a curiosity for the reader. It appears that The Importance of Being Earnest is a farce meant to make light of the fact that the characters are the farthest from earnestness imaginable. However, what is earnestness in this society afterall? Is it being true to one�s clever social ruse? Or is it being true to one�s own self? If the latter be the case, the characters are being rather earnest in their escape of society�s conventions, even if through seemingly unearnest means. A parallel which supports this theory comes through Wilde�s own life. He was a bisexual man in a very tragically unaccepting time. He probably did a lot of social bunburying himself. Acting the social part, and bunburying on the side. Mary McCarthy supports this, in her essay The Unimportance of Being Earnest, contends that Wilde employed the joke about the name Earnest as privete one which makes fun of the fact �that a man should have one name�for his wife�and another for his male friends, for trips and �lost� weekends��(108).
The issue of bunburying and being true to oneself does not seem to be the major issue taken home by the first time viewer/reader of The Importance of Being Earnest. However, it seems, after numerous readings, to be one of the more obvious intents of Wilde. Although considered a farce, not to be taken seriously, it seems more of a farce meant to bring to light serious issues. In the introduction to The Importance of Being Earnest in The Norton Anthology of English Literature it is said that although Wilde �was pleased with the �bright and happy� tone and temper of his play, he wished it might have had a �higher seriousness of intent���(1761). Ultimately Wilde wished the play to have more efficiently communicated these issues. |
