The Importance Of Being Earnest Double Life

The Importance of Being Socially Acceptable.
Often times we find ourselves living a double life at the very least and sometimes we even share multiple variations of ourselves with the world. In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of being Earnest there is a strong central theme of living a dual life and then doing what is socially acceptable even when mocking the idea as the ridiculous concept that it is. From the beginning of the play Algernon Moncrieff is showcased as an irresponsible dandy who is not fit for what Society would call the civilized and respectable world. Alternatively we are given Earnest “Jack” Worthington who on the surface at the begging is seen as his counter part until Algernon reveals that Jack is also hiding a double life, his country life and his city life. Two secret lives led by well off Society men.
Algernon is painted as a rake in London Society, with the capital ‘S’. Society is a social body that sets the tone for what is acceptable or not in the greater community. He has the privilege of his family name and his position but is still looked down upon
and not as marriage material because he does not share the masculine traits that are valued in a husband. Being a dandy or having close relations with another member of the same gender was not considered entirely taboo when the play was written. It was not until after Wilde’s trials that these acts where starting to attract negative attention. Relations that were once seen as normal and beneficial were suddenly under the microscope for fear of impropriety.
Lady Bracknell’s character design challenges the expected female norms while she also is trying to enforce traditional ideals.
Lady Bracknell is pictured as a rather “manly” woman in her appearance and mannerisms, she is loud and brash and takes charge. Traditionally, these are the actions of a man. No one questions this in the play and in fact seem to bend to her will even when she makes demands that one would not be able to complete with any seriousness. When she asks Jack to produce parents by seasons end knowing full well that he has already explained what has happened and that there is nothing he can do about the situation. This is a good example of Society, which Lady Bracknell is a major player, being able to use what is acceptable to limit the people who make up society based upon often arbitrary rules and guidelines that will also be disregarded if that will suit their purposes
better.
We find ourselves in need of excuses or reasons to manipulate our friends and family to ensure that we are able to be free to be ourselves or at least act in the ways that we want with more freedom. Jack and Algernon have created for themselves a separate person that they use to escape. Jack creates the City identity of Ernest this gives him freedom and secrecy for his real responsible life as the guardian of Cecily. Algernon created an entire new person to hide his lifestyle behind, Lord Bunbury. When Algernon is able to force Jack to reveal his secret life he explains that the actions he has been taking makes him a Bunburyist a term that Algernon coins in honour of his imaginary friend.
What is a masculine male? Wilde seems to be addressing that issue in his last play and in fact this play coupled with his private relationships place him on a path to defend what he saw as a normal and healthy relationship. The Importance of Being Ernest, is Wilde’s last play written. Performed for the first time in February of 1985, mere months before the start of the Wilde Trials between Queensbury and Wilde in April of that same year. Queensbury is upset with the relations between his son Lord Alfred Douglas and Wilde, and what he sees as inappropriate behaviour between the two men. The relationship between Algernon and Jack seem to mirror that fine line of male to male relations that Wilde found personally important. Wilde was asked in trial to explain a phrase from a poem that he wrote to Douglas. The phrase was “love that dare not speak it’s name”, Wilde responded with this argument,"… It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so the world does not understand. The world mocks at it and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it.” Persecution or derision arising from ones associations or interests is a driving force in the need to conform to what society wants from an individual.
There is a line that summarizes the dual feelings of the play and comments simply on the state of society then and it can even be applied to today’s society standards. “Algernon: The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility.” (891) Highlighting the reality that there is no such thing as a pure and simple truth exemplifies all the dual natures that are revealed in this play. Algernon, while seeming to be uninterested in the world at large is rather astute in his conclusion that that there is an atmosphere of lies that makes society run.