NON-AFRICAN DRAMA
OSCAR WILDE: The Importance of Being Earnest
How important is marriage in the play?
Explanation
Marriage is an important theme in the play. All the major characters are deeply concerned with the issue of marriage and at one time or the other express strong views on this issue. It serves as a force which motivates most of the important actions in the play. Further, it forms the subject of many arguments and very lively, if not heated, debates.
The issue of marriage is brought into every conversation, however trivial it may be. Right at the start of the play Algernon broaches the subject in a conversation with his butler, Lane. He asks the question: “why is it that at a bachelor’s establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne?” Lane’s response hits straight home at the point: “I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine… I have often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand.” They then launch into a short conversation on the nature of marriage in which Lane remarks that he does not find the subject of marriage an interesting topic for discussion. This leads to Algernon’s comments, when Lane insists that “Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat lax”.
The conversation between the friends, Jack and Algernon, inevitably touches on the issues of marriage. Jack’s sincere belief in the romanticism of marriage is countered by Algernon’s cynical views. While Jack expresses the wish to always enjoy the company of his wife when he does marry, Algernon insists that the married man should always create an alter ego which will give him an opportunity to run away from his wife from time to time. Algernon’s views, of course, change when he falls in love with Cecily.
The question of marriage occupies the top spot in Lady Bracknell’s list of priorities. Her perspective on marriage is expressed solely from a materialistic viewpoint. Her “list of eligible young men” does not, therefore, include Jack who wants to marry her niece, Gwendolyn.
Lady Bracknell puts status first: “a man should always have an occupation of some kind”. Her “list of eligible young men” is based on social status and wealth. Therefore, Jack with his “nondescript origin” having been found abandoned in a handbag at Victoria Station will never make her list.
Lady Bracknell’ s interview of Jack accentuates the ludicrousness of her criteria for eligibility. For her, “a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing. To Jack’s response that he knows nothing she says: “I am pleased to hear it”. Wilde is certainly poking fun at Victorian ideals of marriage here. The important issues, such as a person’s character takes the back seat: “I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which I think is not good thing” (Lady Bracknell). As it turns out, Jack is actually Lady Bracknell’s nephew – and Algernon’s brother! This accentuates the foolishness of prohibiting marriage on the grounds that the proposed suitor’s background is undistinguished. After all, she admits herself that when she married Lord Bracknell she had no fortune of her own but that she “never dreamed for one moment of allowing that to stand in my way”.