Importance of Being Earnest Context

What was the role of birth, wealth and occupation in terms of who was classed as a ‘Victorian Gentleman’?

Members of the British Aristocracy were gentleman by right of birth but this was a paradox as it was emphasised that birth alone was not enough to make a man a gentleman. New industrial and mercantile elites attempted to have themselves designates as gentleman due to their growing wealth and influence. Clergy belonging to the CofE, army officers, MPs were all recognised as gentleman by their occupations but members of other respectable professions, like engineers, were not.

What were the moral components of what constituted a Victorian Gentleman and how was this a paradox?

There had been a revival in the 19th Century of a chivalric moral code derived from the feudal past, with the code of the gentleman - and abuses of it - appearing repeatedly in Victorian fiction. John Ruskin wrote that a “gentleman” is “perfectly bred” and has “gentleness and sympathy” and that it is “no part of their duty of privilege to live on other people’s toil” - however, many ‘Gentlemen’ did just that, with most authors having been gentlemen.

How was who could be classed as a Victorian Gentleman contested in literature of the day?

Dickens desired to be recognised as a gentleman while Thackeray insisted a writer of novels could not be a gentleman.

How had the concept of the Victorian Gentleman evolved by the latter part of the 19th Century and how did this reinforce the English Class system?

By the latter part of the 19th Century, the concept of the Victorian Gentleman evolved to incorporate new standards of wealth and merit, with it accepted that the recipient of a traditional liberal education at one of the elite public schools would be recognised as a gentleman, no matter his origins.
This may have, however, helped to perpetuate the English class system as the emphasis on education over birth still favored affluent families who could afford such schooling, thereby limiting true social mobility - public schools like Eton were extremely expensive and exclusive so the same upper class still retained this status. It also meant that new money families could “buy in” to the class system, where sons learned how to perform the role of the gentleman.

How may the paradox of the Victorian Gentleman - as a man of high birth but also of good moral character - link to Importance of Being Earnest?

In "The Importance of Being Earnest," the paradox of the Victorian Gentleman is illustrated through characters who manipulate their identities, showcasing the tension between social status and moral integrity, ultimately satirizing the superficial nature of Victorian society. By the end of the play, there is no real commupance for Jack and Algernon’s deceit, which would have been considered ungentlemanly characteristics. Jack is barred from marrying Gwendolen because of his birth, not his character. Jack and Algernon also perform the role of the gentleman in terms of education and speech, but not necessarily honour or nobility.

What quote from Act 2 of Importance of Being Earnest may link to this view of the Victorian Gentleman?

Jack: “Your duty as a gentleman calls you back”
Algernon: “My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree”

How was the process of mourning treated in Victorian society?

In Victorian society, the process of mourning was treated with strict protocols and customs, reflecting the era's emphasis on proper conduct and social propriety. Mourning attire, duration, and behaviors were prescribed to signify respect for the deceased, highlighting the societal expectations surrounding death and grief.

How long was a widow expected to mourn for?

• The longest period was two years and the shorter period was 18 months

• Crape was worn for one year and nine months and for the first twelve months, widows were expected to wear deep mourning attire of the dress entirely covered with crape, while the next six months allowed for lighter mourning clothing such as a chiffon veil in place of the crape.

How were mourning rituals for men and women different?

Widows were subject to stricter mourning conventions, often lasting up to two years, while widowers were expected to wear mourning for only one year and could enter society after three months. Women had to avoid balls and dances during the first year of mourning, with her visiting confined to her relations and intimate friends. Men had a lot more latitude in terms of their mourning attire, re-joining social activities in the length of time they had to observe mourning. Women were expected to buy an extensive amount of new “appropriate” clothing to wear for up to two years.

How does the idea that mourning duration and clothes signifiy one’s inner grieving therefore suggest about gender roles and attitudes?

Idea that women are more emotional and are weakened by mourning more so than men are. Furthermore, the magazines that provided information about mourning, such as Jay’s Mourning Warehouse, shows that women were expected to discipline their physical bodies in order to be accepted by society.

How were funerals in Victorian England “a big business”?

Funerals in Victorian England were heavily commercialized, with various businesses specializing in funeral services, elaborate coffins, and mourning attire. The growing middle class contributed to the demand for ornate funerals as a way to display social status and adhere to societal expectations. Something as personal and sensitive as the mourning process was heavily regulated for businesses to make money.

What historical event meant that funerals and mourning was further ritualised?

The death of Prince Albert - Queen Victoria went into deep mourning for the remainder of her life, with death practises becoming more elaborate as the century progressed and influencing societal expectations around mourning. This event highlighted the importance of public displays of grief and set a precedent for the ritualization of funerals and mourning attire among the elite. Importantly, by the 1890s, funerary practises were regulated to a prescribed set of social rules and countless articles and books were written chronicling the “ettiquette of funerals.”

How does Wilde parody and subvert these rituals in Importance of Being Earnest?

Humour and absurdity of Jack’s mourning clothes as he mourns the death of “Ernest,” his fictional brother. “Dressed in deepest mourning, with crape hatband and black gloves.” Wilde parodies the mourning customs by exaggerating Jack's portrayal, showcasing the absurdity of adhering to strict social conventions when they are based on a fabricated story, ultimately highlighting the frivolousness of Victorian social norms. Jack with these elaborate mourning clothes seem to fit with the role of a widow rather than a widower or a brother — his dandy persona.
Jack’s portrayal of grief seems more so to represent the elaborate and ostentatious funeral practise of the earlier 1800s - contemporary audiences would have been able to recognise the humour in it.

In what year did Wilde begin editing for the Lady’s World and what were his objections to the magazine?

• Wilde began editing for the Lady's World in 1887

• He suggested that it was a ‘very vulgar, trivial and stupid production,’ objecting to its lack of literary quality and the emphasis on superficiality over substance in women's writing, advocating instead for more depth and artistic integrity.

How did Wilde change the magazine?

• He renamed it the magazine The Woman’s World and he aimed to transform the magazine into ‘the recognised organ for the expression of women’s opinions on all subjects of literature, art, and modern life.’

• He asserted that it would ‘take a wider range, as well as a high standpoint, and deal not merely with what women wear, but what they think, and what they feel.’

• He listed key contributors, invited several men to submit articles, and in a significant departure from convention, attributed each article to its author by name.

• He relegated fashion to the back of the magazine, instead promoting literature, art, travel and social studies.

What were Wilde’s motivations in taking up this post and transforming the magazine in the way that he did?

• Many assume that he took on the role simply to secure access to a regular income but this does not account entirely for his motivation.

• Wilde was a committed individualist and in this, he believed that women should be allowed far more autonomy than they had been afforded by the Victorian patriarchal society.

• He also shared his mother’s opposition to gendered writing, quipping in a letter that ‘artists have sex but art has none’ — perhaps links to his blurred lines between gender in IOBE, with men often possessing more female traits and women possessing some male traits.

• He used the Woman’s World to point out the absurd aspects of gender discrimination, and to facilitate the debate on the contentious issues faced by women attempting to enter the public sphere, offering a platform to emerging women writers.

How did Wilde’s editorship offer new ideas about fashion?

There were articles on cross-dressing, aesthetic design and rational dress that questioned traditional notions of femininity and fashion.

• In his first edition, he published ‘The Woodland Gods’ which showed images of Janey dressed as a young man to play Orlando in ‘As You Like It’ and embracing a woman as Perigot in Fletcher’s ‘The Faithful Shepherdess’

• In ‘Women Wearers of Men’s Clothes’ Emily Crawford insisted that women who adopted masculine styles could accomplish ‘heroic duties’

• Wilde declared that in time ‘dress of the two sexes will be assimilated, as similarity of costume always follows similarity of pursuits’

• He suggested that restrictive clothing prevented women taking their rightful place alongside men. ‘The health of a nation depends very much on its mode of dress.’

How did The Woman’s World promote women’s education?

Education was a key focus of the magazine. Wilde commissioned articles on the women’s colleges and on Alexandra College in Dublin, publishing a series of articles encouraging the few, fortunate women who had benefitted from access to higher education to explore opportunities opening up to them in the professions.

How did The Woman’s World promote women’s literature?

He commissioned new works of fiction from emerging and established female writers, commisioning stories and poems by Amy Levy; South African born radical feminist Olive Schreiner; he also gave ‘special prominence’ to books written by women, particularly promoting aesthetic and new woman writers such as E. Nesbit and poet Rosamund Watson.

How does Wilde’s progressive work through the Woman’s World seen in Importance of Being Earnest?

Largely through Cecily and Gwendolen - Subvert traditional gender roles, they are assertive and take control of their relationships with Algernon and Jack.
Blurring of lines of gender — Jack and Algernon possessing feminine traits and Gwendolen and Cecily possessing more traditionally masculine traits.
Women as controlling society - Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen with little mention of Lord Bracknell.

What are some of the key characteristics of the figure of the Dandy?

The figure of the Dandy is characterized by an all-consuming interest in self-image, a pose of world-weary cynicism combined with quick wit which is languorously expressed. It is a stereotype that has long been associated with dissident sexualities and Wilde is its high priest. Strong emphasis on aestheticism, flamboyant style, and a witty, often ironic demeanor. Dandies defy societal norms and conventions, embodying a sense of individuality and sophistication, while often being preoccupied with personal appearance and the pursuit of pleasure.

How is the Dandy presented in Wilde’s work and how did it relate to Wilde himself?

The dandy is depicted as witty, overdressed and a self-styled philosopher that speaks in epigrams and paradoxes and ridicules the hypocrisy of society’s moral arbiters. To a large extent, this figure was a self-portrait of Wilde himself.

In what works of Wilde’s is the Dandy presented as a villain, rather than a comic figure?

In A Woman of No Importance and The Picture of Dorian Gray, the Dandy takes the form of the villains Lord Ilingworth and Lord Henry Woottonwho embody immorality and manipulation, representing the darker aspects of aestheticism.

In what works of Wilde’s is the Dandy presented in a more comic and positive way?

In works such as Lady Windemere’s Fan, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde appears to be evolving a more positive and clearly defined moral position on the figure of the Dandy, pretending to be all about surface, which making him seem trivial, shallow and ineffectual but in both Lady Windemere’s Fan and An Ideal Husband the dandy turns out to be something close to the real hero.

How do the characters in Importance of Being Earnest embody characteristics of the Dandy?

• Algernon possesses many characteristics of the dandy, but he remains morally neutral throughout the play

• Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell possess dandy qualities when they assert the importance of surfaces, style or “profile”

• Jack echoes the philosophy of the dandy when he appears on stage asserting that “pleasure” is the only thing that should “bring one anywhere”

• For Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen as well as Jack, it is the wrong sort of superficiality as it doesn’t recognise nor applaud its own triviality

• Cecily, with her impatience with self-improvement and conventional morality as well as her curiosity about “wickedness” seems to most embody the Dandy, after Algernon, making her a perfect match for him

Using quotes, how does Jack show the Dandyish trait of lying?

“My dear fellow, the truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!”
“Oh! one doesn’t blurt these things out to people”

Using quotes, how does Gwendolen embody traits of the Dandy?

“The story of your romantic origin, as related to me by mamma, with unpleasing comments, has naturally stirred the deeper fibres of my nature. Your Christian name has an irresistable fascination. The simplicity of your character makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to me.”
- Interestingly, the Dandy is opposite to someone with ‘simplicity of character’ and is of course, never Earnest.
- Gwendolen’s love for Jack is clearly based on surfaces and an ideal

How did Wilde himself perform the figure of the Dandy on his American tour?

The clothes he wore to give his lectures were a joke and not chosen by home - very provocative costumes - long hair, knee breeches, fine fabrics, langorous poses — regarded as painting this very effeminate scene, a sustained assault on the periods conventions of masculine attire.
Performing a role - they were a costume.

What were Wilde’s views on ‘Earnestness’?

• For Wilde, being earnest is hypocritical, since earnestness is an expression of stuffy morality.

• The concept of duty, which Wilde clearly despises, is connected with being earnest - sincere and serious

• For Wilde, this seriousness is the object of satire - all those who claim to privilege earnestness are in fact hypocrites and for Wilde, an irreverent approach to life is truly moral by comparison

Victorian Courtship - What were Victorian Gentlemen expected to do prior to pursuing a Lady and what should he do first?

• “Before he ventures to take any step towards the pursuit of this object, to consider well his position and prospects in life”

• He should first ‘procure an introduction to the lady’s family’ - about respect for parents and family, being accepted by family before receiving an introduction to the Lady

What should a gentleman’s sole aim and motivation be during courtship? What would happen if he instead dallied and flirted?

To be a man of honour, ‘his only motivation to paying court for a young lady was to eventually seek her hand in marriage.’
- Reputation would be compromised ‘if he dallied and flirted with a number of young women’ and if he did so, ‘vigilant parents would take all the measures necessary to ensure that he had no further access to their daughters’

What was the etiquette associated with courtship?

• Etiquette prescribed cautionary rules for the purpose of averting the mischief that unchecked intercourse and incautious familiarity might give rise to

• A couple that was known to be attached to each should never be left alone for any length of time nor be allowed to mmet in any other place than the lady’s home, particularly at balls, concerts and other public places except in the presence of a third party

• Young people in the Victorian era were fiercely chaperoned and had no privacy, with social intercourse strictly circumscribed

• Couples really had very little opportunity to get to know each other in private, meaning that most couples embarked on commitments of marriage based on a very limited acquaintance

What kind of conduct would be considered unacceptable during courtship?

Visiting the Lady at irregular hours, shows disrespect at her age - sneer at things sacred or absent himself from regular attendance at divine service or evince an inclination to expensive pleasure beyond his means, or to low and vulgar amusements, not to display a frivolity of mind.

What was expected of the Lady to be a suitable partner?

The gentleman should observe the conduct of the young lady in her own family and the degree of estimation in which she is held by them as well as amongst her intimate friends. She was expected to be attentive to her duties, respectful and affectionate to her parents, not easily ruffled in temper, her mind be prone to cheerfulness and her pleasures and enjoyments should be those which chiefly centre around the home.

What does this approach to courtship suggest about Victorian society?

Life changing choices were based on rigid social expectations and a limited drawing room acquantaince — a hollowness to marriage and courtship, with a lack of any real personal connection - romance and marriage as a business.