Fun Home Referencing The Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest and ways of reading it as a play, and how that shapes your understanding of Bechdel’s references to it in Fun Home.

The Importance of being Earnest has a relatively strong tie to Fun Home (aside from being explicitly referenced by Bechdel). The Importance of being Earnest was written by Oscar Wilde who was a homosexual and was accused of sodomy by the father of his friend. Similarly, Bruce Allen Bechdel, who was Bechdel’s father, was also accused of sodomy but by two brothers. The connection is strong as Oscar Wilde was a man who tried to hide his identity as a homosexual man and Bechdel’s father too tried to hide his true nature by marrying Bechdel’s mother. Aside from the context, The Importance of Being Earnest is all about being honest and true about your identity and this draws parallels to Fun Home as both Bechdel and her father try to hide they identity from the outside world for a certain amount of time (Bechdel eventually coming out unlike her father).

Parallels can also be seen between Lady Bracknell and Bechdel’s mother, aside from her mother playing the part in a play. Lady Bracknell is seen as a very conservative lady who cares much about status, money and appearances. Bechdel’s mother can also be thought of as a person who tries to keep up appearances and status and a perhaps shallow outlook on how she would like portray herself to the outside world, as of possibly knowing about Bruce’s true nature and past and still willing to hide it in order to maintain a “perfect family”. Bechdel’s mother playing Lady Bracknell really connects the two dots together to show the importance of appearance and self-portrayal to other people.

Bechdel describes The Importance of being Earnest as “In The Importance, illicit desire is encoded as one character’s uncontrollable gluttony”. This could potentially be said as secret desires are a form of sin, illicit meaning forbidden and could be drawn to a conclusion that this is about homosexuality. Bechdel’s use of indirectly stating that homosexuality is a forbidden form of love and even a sin can be said that she is using this to explain how other’s perceived homosexuality and how it was unacceptable to be a homosexual. This directly ties in with her and her identity.