Satire In The Importance Of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is regarded by many as one of the wittiest plays in the English language. However, it is not simply a “trivial comedy,” as its title proposes, but also a cutting satire appraising the conventions of Victorian society, chiefly the upper class. Much of Wilde’s social commentary is portrayed through the speech of the dictatorial Lady Bracknell, who embodies Victorian upper class conventions. Having ascended to her current high social status through a profitable marriage with Lord Bracknell, she defends her esteemed place in society. Fixed in her beliefs, Lady Bracknell criticizes education as “a serious danger to the upper classes” and blames Jack for “carelessness” for “losing” his parents, necessary family connections if he wishes to marry her daughter.
In accordance with with her zealous protection of her own elevated status, Lady Bracknell maintains that the members of her family, counting her daughter Gwendolen and nephew Algernon, wed for social and financial refuge rather than love, thus becoming the foundation of the play’s main conflicts. Pompous from her first “Wagnerian” ringing of his doorbell, Algy’s Aunt Augusta initially becomes a key problem when she intrudes on protagonist Jack Worthing’s proposal to Gwendolen
with a comical degree of stiffness, commanding that he “Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture. It is most indecorous”. When Gwendolen complains at her mother’s interruption, claiming that she and Jack are engaged, Lady Bracknell continues to spoil the lovers’ plans in a speech that decisively establishes her character as inflexible and forceful and her relationship with her daughter as one of absolute authority. The speech satirizes Victorian marital conventions, especially the lack of importance placed on the desires of the engaged couple.
“Pardon me,” says Lady Bracknell, “you are not engaged to anyone. When you do become engaged to some one, I, or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact”. As before, she speaks with formality, using a courteous expression, “Pardon me.” Yet, this decorum is not articulated in extravagant language. Rather, it is a firm and unbending formality, reflecting Lady Bracknell’s stiff refusal of Jack and Gwendolen’s engagement. Her sentences are fairly brief, and divided by commas, creating a choppy effect. Her speech is curt, systematic, and unadorned. She uses only three adjectives in the paragraph, “engaged,” “pleasant,” and “unpleasant,” and no figurative language of any kind. Likewise, with the exclusion of the imperative, “Pardon me,” Lady Bracknell speaks completely in declaratory sentences, making unquestionable, fixed statements instead of questions or requests. This absence of imperative language, though, does not mean that her speech is not littered with commands. Rather, Lady Bracknell is so certain that her wishes will be fulfilled that she expresses them as statements rather than commands. “You will wait for me below in the carriage,” she says to Gwendolen at the end of the paragraph. Instead of asking Gwendolen to wait, or even telling her to wait, Lady Bracknell says that she will wait, in the language of a basic, simple statement. By wording her orders as statements rather than demands, Lady Bracknell abolishes the option of refusal. Requests and commands can be denied; facts simply are, and to Lady Bracknell, compliance with her desires just is, a measurable fact. Lady Bracknell is firm and complete in her language, allowing no possibility for uncertainty or contestation. Among the verbs she uses are “are not,” “will inform,” “should come,” and “will wait.” Words like “will” and “should” lack the malleability of counterparts like “may” and “could.” Lady Bracknell states unconditionally the sequence of events that “will” transpire and the way that society “should” be. “You will wait for me below in the carriage,” she says, and “An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be”. In Lady Bracknell’s mind, there is a single course of action that should be taken, and only one way of going about an engagement, which should be followed at all times, regardless of the needs of the couple. “Will” and “should” are each meaningful terms, with “will” expressing inescapability and fact and “should” communicating a judgment and a correct way of doing things. The slightly more bendable terms “may” and “could” are also used once, but “may” in the formerly cited sentence, “An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be,” speaks of Gwendolen’s feelings about her imminent engagement. “May” is used in this way because, to Lady Bracknell, feelings are unrelated to the situation. They “may” be either optimistic or negative, it is of no importance to the commanding Lady. “Could” is used in the following sentence, “It is hardly a matter that she could be allowed to arrange for herself” (1893). “Could” is a word that articulates possibility and is more open than the other, more unconditional verbs that Lady Bracknell uses, but it is negated by the word “hardly.” It is an impossibility rather than a possibility that Lady Bracknell is expressing. Engagement is not a matter that a girl could organize for herself, according to Lady Bracknell, who seems to dismiss the notion as ridiculous, coaxing the audience to contemplate the subject and conclude whether or not such a decision is indeed something that a girl could “hardly be allowed to arrange for herself.” The close of the play, which shows Gwendolen engaged to Jack, with her mother’s permission, seems to contest the statement, as Gwendolen does ultimately arrange her own engagement. In addition to flatly asserting that Gwendolen’s organizing her own engagement is unheard of, Lady Bracknell depicts her daughter as utterly lacking in any kind of agency. Not only are choices made without her agreement and even against her will, but she is discussed as a passive entity, acted upon rather than acting. “An engagement should come on a young girl,” Lady Bracknell says. She also mentions Gwendolen “becoming” engaged. In both of these circumstances, engagement seems to be an unavoidable force of nature and not a choice, something that happens to Gwendolen rather than something that she participates in. The phrasing that an engagement should “come on” a young woman is particularly ominous, evoking the idea of marriage as something that comes over a girl, a force that acts on her regardless of her own feelings. Lady Bracknell is equally insensitive towards Jack, whom she ceremoniously refers to as “Mr Worthing,” proclaiming that she has “a few questions to put to you”.
She does not ask if she may question him. Instead, she declares that she will, much as she announces that Gwendolyn will wait for her in the carriage. She also selects an oddly antagonistic set of words, “put to you,” rather than “ask you.” To “put” questions “to” a person sounds vaguely like an attack, and it is true that their interview following the passage is frustrating and volatile. In it, Lady Bracknell further exposes her desire for social and financial sanctuary in her daughter’s marriage, rather than
love. Lady Bracknell is a fascinating character, quotable, flamboyant, and an instrument of conflict and satire. Unyielding and protective of her high social status, Lady Bracknell resolutely endorses the ideals of Victorian society, especially the upper class, often to the point of silliness. She speaks in artless, succinct, yet formal language. Assuming her word to be law, which it usually is, she phrases instructions merely as statements of what “will” be done. This is only one instance of the kind of conviction and absoluteness revealed in her speech, which is replete with declaratory sentences, and strong words like “will” and “should” that show expectations and judgments. The unconditional language in which she speaks and her own rigid, unreasonable nature demand the audience question the ideals she communicates, including the social helplessness of young women, and much of her discourse may be taken ironically.