Author: salva56790@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg

In The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde challenges the Victorian ideals of “decency” and personal identity by portraying the character of Jack/Ernest as one constantly living a double life. Though introducing himself as Ernest to Gwendolen (which, it is later revealed, is his actual name), his “real” name is Jack, and much of the drama of the play revolves around him attempting to be re-christened to change names (hence, also referencing the title of the play, “The Importance of being Ernest“). The duality of his character, with him constantly living a double life as Jack to some people, and Ernest to others, challenges the Victorian values of transparency and decency in identity by showing a deeply deceitful and untruthful character. “The cleverness of the multiplicity of the character of John/Jack/Ernest Worthing is not simply a farcical conceit […]” (The Importance of Being Out, pg. 15), indeed, it is simultaneously a source of comedy, a plot device, and a critique of society’s expectation of transparency and truthfulness.

In the first act of The Importance of Being Earnest, several characters are established as almost satirical, or at least parodic, caricatures of the traditional values of the time. Chiefly among them is Algernon, who, in stark contrast to what one would assume to be puritanic values of the time, seems to revel in cynical debauchery, often espousing absurdly crude statements such as “The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else, if she is plain.” and, upon hearing that Jack has come to town to propose to Gwendolen, “I thought you had come up for pleasure? I call that business.”. All these statements establish him as an outlier; a man living with few constraints who seems to draw pleasure from disregarding social norms and disrespecting the traditions of the time concerning marriage and sexual normalcy. Similarly cynical, Lady Bracknell is also established in the first act as a domineering, assertive woman, equally jaded with the idea of marriage, stating that “I hadn’t been there since her poor husband’s death. I never saw a woman look so altered; she looks quite twenty years younger.”. Equally so, she seems attached to societal norms, telling Jack that “[The cloak-room] could hardly be regarded as an assured basis for a recognised position in good society.”, referring to Jack’s unfortunate circumstances of birth.

How does Oscar Wilde render Act One of The Importance of Being Earnest funny?

Wilde makes use of dry sarcasm, outlandish statements, and shift in word-class to create a general sense of incongruity and absurdity in Act One, contributing to the humour of the Act. For example, upon Jack stating that he has come up to town expressly to propose to Gwendolen, Algernon responds “I thought you had come up for pleasure?… I call that business.” This statement both helps flesh out Algernon as a thoroughly unromantic character, but also creates humour; his dry sarcasm’s contrast with the lovestruck Jack gives the scene a light-hearted juxtaposition. Wilde also makes use of wildly inappropriate statements, such as when Algernon declares that “The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.”. The statement is funny not only because it comes out of the blue, but also because of how it contrasts with what one would expect to be the prudish values of the time; you would never anticipate such wild licentiousness from a society as conservative as 19th-Century England. Finally, Wilde’s use of shift in word-class also creates humour in the Act, most notably in how he used “Bunburying” as a verb for sneaking away from marriage under the excuse of a (imaginary) friend being unwell, drawing on his purported friend, “Bunbury”. In a sense, the humour of the scene derives from how it contradicts the traditional representation of Victorian ideals; whereas we begin the play with a preconception of a prudish, socially conservative, traditionalist society, especially in the upper-class, Wilde contradicts this by presenting us with an image of exactly the opposite.

What is your definition of a graphic novel so far?

In my mind, a graphic text is a piece of literature that employs visual aid (illustrations) as a primary vehicle for storytelling, on the same level, and occasionally even more, than the writing itself. This distinguishes graphic novels from both purely visual art (which tends to entirely employ visual aid as a means of conveying an idea) and a novel (which tends to entirely employ language and writing to convey a story, concept, or idea).

How do speech and narrative language

In the case of Fun Home, parallels and themes are drawn through use of both text and images, especially regarding the fantastical metaphors made when describing Alison Bechdel’s father [e.g the text describing him as “Daedalus”, foreshadowing his eventual proverbial “fall”, whilst the image of him carrying the pole paints him as a messianic figure, similar to Jesus carrying the cross].

Whose story is told here? How is identity represented?

Though Alison acts as the narrator of the work, I would argue that her father, is in fact the protagonist, as the events of the book aren’t dedicated to describing the life of Alison, but the impact her father has had on it, with the first pages establishing him as the central character of the book. Whereas her father’s identity is expressed in his fixation on decor, his pride in his work as a mortician (expressed in the letters he sends Alison), and his constant fixation on reading (painting him as an analytical, cold figure), Alison’s is expressed in her narration. Even when describing the events of the past, her identity shines through; her bitterness at the abuse and emotional distance her father subjected her to as a child, mixed with her dry admiration of her father’s conviction. Key quotations that emphasise this include her constant reference to him as both “Daedalus”, and his anger as “the Minotaur” (“My mother, my brother and I knew our way around well enough, but it was impossible to tell if the Minotaur lay beyond the next corner.” [pg. 21]), entailing both his great intelligence (in the trappings of the mythical inventor of Daedalus), and his unfounded, almost beastly anger (when he is alluded as the wrathful mythical creature of the Minotaur). However, this metaphor is most interesting in that it perfectly describes Alison’s father’s anger, especially when referring to the house as a “labyrinth”. The Minotaur of legend was held in a labyrinth constructed by Daedalus (metaphorically referring to how her father’s anger is expressed only at home [the proverbial “labyrinth”], instead putting on the external appearance of an “ideal husband and father”) [“He hid the Minotaur in the labyrinth–a maze of passages and rooms opening endlessly and into one another… And from which, as stray youths and maidens discovered to their peril… Escape was impossible.” [pg.12]].

This is a graphic memoir – how does this genre affect your reading of it?

I find that I’m less willing to “read into” characters, as these are not narrative devices, constructed by the author, but actual flesh-and-blood humans who actually lived within this story. I’m less willing to accept that a “character” (if you can call them that) is somehow a metaphor for an idea because of this; they are not created by the author, they are actual people.

What image and text do you find most striking, and why?

[See “What story is told here? How is identity represented?”]

What are your predictions for the rest of this book?

I think there may be a downwards spiral involved; now that the start [Alison’s childhood] and the end-point [her father’s death/suicide] have both been revealed, Bechdel has to explain not only the role her father played in her transition from child to adult, and how her father also changed.

The article linked on the OLP also connects strongly to the feelings of shame that Alison feels throughout the story, firstly in her own sexual awakening (to the point where she would scratch out the words “masturbating” and “menstruating” in her journal), then later in her father’s actions; despite have worked up the courage to finally come out as lesbian to her parents, she finds herself “upstaged” by the news of her father’s pedophilia.