Location in The Importance of Being Earnest

     While the variability of physical movement in Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest is generally exiguous, the emphasis placed on the one major shift in setting is immense. The comedy, set in Victorian era England, invokes facetious drama stemming from the double-identities of each of the two main characters, Algernon and Jack, who switch their respective personas when they travel from the country to the town. While the physical difference in landscape between Algernon’s town flat in Act I to Jack’s estate in Acts II and III characterize the major thematic changes, some of the play’s shorter, more superficial journeys provide context for Wilde’s true satirical intentions. Overall, physical movement in The Importance of Being Earnest ultimately reveals the true natures of Algernon and Jack’s prevaricated identities, and ultimately serves to satirize the superfluously well-mannered etiquette of Victorian England. 

 
     Amid the affable, quizzical banter held between the two English friends, Algernon accuses Jack of being a “confirmed Bunburyist”. This term is coined by Algernon to classify his own manner of sneaking out of the town to frequent the country; purportedly off to be by the side of his severely invalid friend, Bunbury. This pretense is often utilized by Jack to bypass dinner with his cousin, Gwendolen, and his scrupulous aunt. These qualities of Bunbury are manifested in Jack through the incarnation of his false brother, Ernest, who Jack uses to evade the responsibilities of his niece and ward, Cecily. A convoluted plot finds Algernon, attempting to pursue Cecily, and Jack, attempting to court Gwendolyn, both having convinced their respective affections that they each are “Ernest”. This irony is greatly accelerated by location. In Algernon’s town flat, Jack is acquainted to Gwendolen as Ernest; and at Jack’s estate, Algernon introduces himself to Cecily under the identity of Ernest as well. This leads to the confusing situation in Act II where Jack hastily claims that his “brother” has died; while “Ernest” in very much alive in the next room, with Algernon in discourse with Cecily. This perplexing outcome forces Jack and Algernon to affirm their actual identities; and dismiss any comprehensions of Ernest and Bunbury. In using two contrasting locations, Wilde is able to create a dramatic, ironic scenario where multiple identities (both imagined and real) are converged in one ultimate arena.

 
While the physical journeys experienced by Jack and Algernon are crucial to developing irony in the plot, the movement of Cecily and Gwendolen is essential to identifying the underlying theme applied by Wilde. In Act II, Cecily is in her uncle’s manor, being entertained by Algernon, who she still believes to be “Ernest”. Gwendolen arrives in the country a scene later, expecting to be met by Ernest (who is really Jack). The emotions experienced by Cecily and Gwendolen when they discover that they have been the affections of the same “person” are appropriate: those of confusion and indignation. However, Wilde contrives to convey these sentiments not with exclamations or venomous insults, but with jesting reciprocations of mannerly, constrained representations of spite. Even at the height of their confusion, the two women seldom refrain from the composed, urbane decorum of speech expected by their high social standards. Wilde pokes fun at the emphasis placed on reserved, courteous manners; and shows that even the apex of two women’s fury can scarcely result in an erosion of elevated etiquette. Ultimately, this scene is created by the physical placement of Cecily and Gwendolen at Jack’s country estate.

Additionally, upon reconciling over their mutual deception, Cecily and Gwendolen make a very brief venture from the manor gardens into the kitchen. This isolates Jack and Algernon outside on the patio to ruminate on their erroneous pretenses. However, instead of consciously evaluating their sly deceptions of the two girls, Jack and Algernon immediately submit to frivolous bickering - inciting each other over their respective idiosyncrasies. Subsequently, the focal point of the discussion ends up being the etiquette of eating muffins. While this absurd exchange imparts to the comedic aspects of the play, it also serves as a way for Wilde to further satirize the very cosmetic nature of English attitudes. In this case, Cecily and Gwendolen’s physical departure from the scene allows Jack and Algernon to augment their most juvenile enterprises, in a time where they should be grounded by more serious sensibilities. 

“To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman provides commentary on how the achievements of an athlete invoke the ardor and honor of an entire social setting, and then quickly wane from public consciousness as the athlete declines in skill and the novel excitement he created dissipates. The poem suggests that the young athlete may be “smart” if he contrives to die at the peak of his glory, so no other individual can ever beat him or exceed his accomplishments. While this notion serves only as a small compensation for the early death of a promising young individual, the poem does reveal to the everlasting fame imparted upon the deceased “Townsman of a stiller town”.

      In “To an Athlete Dying Young”, a literary device that emphasizes the poem’s central theme of eternal glory conceived from premature death is metonymy. Lines 11-12, “And early though the laurel grows / It withers quicker than the rose”, present the word “rose” as an efflorescent symbol of death, which serves as a foil to the honor-symbolizing laurel; and as a verb that parodies the quick and imminent loss of fame.  With the proper capacities for talent and admiration, an athlete can attain a rapid ascent to the echelon atop the shoulders of his common peers of “men and boys”; and the laurel crown is bestowed upon his head. Where the laurel is used to represent fleeting exaltation and honor, the rose stands as a more permanent symbol of lasting admiration and grandeur conferred upon his death. Exceedingly, this “rose” is not given to all worthy of it; as their laurels have diminished more quickly than they had risen up. 

An additional device is paradox, found in the last stanza: “And round that early-laureled head / Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead”. The contradiction of flocks of people coming to celebrate a now “strengthless dead” person imparts to the legacy of the athlete who was never known to have anything but strength while he was alive.

     This poem particularly resonates with another runner, Steve Prefontaine, who is arguably more popular today than he was at the time of his death. Prefontaine perished in the prime of his career, leaving society to do nothing more than expand on his incredible strength, which was never evidenced to have any limits. This poem may also serve as an allegory for A-Roid, who may have had the sagacity to retire in 2005 before the momentum of his own stupidity could exceed his initial promise as a ballplayer. 

 
In “Wish You Were Here” by Robert Phillips, a prominent literary device is tone. Through the duration of the poem, it is evident that the speaker is emotionally perplexed by the unexplained absence of his wife or girlfriend, projecting a distracted, unobtrusive tone. In a setting where the rain and packed movie theaters impede him from partaking in a semi-productive preoccupation, the absence of his loved one leaves him to spend the day completing menial tasks. He shaves “again”, which implies it as being a compulsive, anxious method of passing trivial minutes; sorts hardware that he “doesn’t even own”, which imparts to his level of desperateness; and consumes cocktails at five that were “too much looked forward to”, which represent the disparity of meaning he feels without the person he wishes was with him.

Another literary device present is parallelism. As previously mentioned, the speaker infers in the middle stanza that he had been repeatedly and compulsively shaving as means of diverting time. In the final stanza, he awakes from the dream where he was fired “without warning” by his bearded boss. At a time where his life is bereft of meaning or serious occupation, constant shaving becomes a product of the speaker’s timidness and frivolity. His boss, who has a beard and is clearly not subject to the constant shaving, is shown to have control and prominence in his life. This parallel reinforces the disparaged and trivialized life of the speaker while the person he wishes to have with him is absent. 

The Handmaid's Tale

a. A symbol from the The Handmaid’s Tale which particularly contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole is the game of Scrabble. Played during furtive evening meetings between Offred and her Commander, Scrabble represents a vestige of name-brand material reminiscent of pre-Gilead society. While the popular identifications of theaters, movies, cosmetics, and local shops have been replaced with designations such as “Soul Scrolls” or even rudimentary illustrations, Scrabble, with its commercial title, persists. However, besides its element of familiarity from the past society that Offred so dearly misses, Scrabble also serves to convey important information on the purpose of the novel: that women possess a high level of sophistication, and are fully capable of acquiring a position of power. 

Gilead’s mantra is that it that it protects women from the atrocities of “modern society”; atrocities which are portended by female’s supposed lack of intellect and inherent gender inferiority. As a consequence of this, Gilead confines women to tasks consistent with the focal stereotypes of their gender: cooking, cleaning, and becoming pregnant. Additionally, in association with their supposed lack of intelligence, women are prohibited from reading or writing. However, when the Commander invites Offred to play Scrabble in his office, Offred beats the Commander with ease; facilely playing elevated words such as sylph, prolix, larynx, or zygote. Additionally, in cleverly governing her environment, she even allows the Commander to win in a second round. Offred’s academic sophistication is juxtaposed with the Commander’s intellectual inability to perceive the insinuations that his female opponent forms with merely tiles on a board game. Scrabble plays an important part in emphasizing the meaning of a work as a whole, as the game illustrates that a women can not only be more sophisticated than a man, but can also be more powerful than him.

b. My favorite quote from The Handmaid’s Tale is from the epilogue, “Historical Notes on The Handmaid’s Tale”: 

He could have, of course, assassinated her himself, which might have been the wise course, but the human heart remains a factor, and as we know, both of them thought that she might be pregnant by him. What male of the Gilead period could resist the possibility of fatherhood, so redolent of status, so highly prized? Instead, he called in a rescue team of Eyes, who may or may not have been authentic but in any case were under his orders. (Atwood 311)

This passage, near the epilogue, discusses Nick, the Gilead guardian and Offred’s subject of affection, revealing his association with the Eyes and making some more direct statements on his involvement with Offred’s removal. I like this passage because I believe more is revealed about the vulnerability of Gilead in it than in any other point in the novel. Throughout the story, Gilead is feared as an intimidating, infallible force; not entirely invulnerable to minor, covert infractions, but potent in promoting its rules. The gruesome spectacle of the bodies hanging from the Wall, the cult-like methods of the Salvagings, and the uncertainty surrounding the capacities of the Eyes, serve the purpose of accelerating Gilead’s ruthlessness. Meanwhile, Nick, an Eye as opposed to a Guardian groundskeeper, is portrayed as having components of emotion and affection. While Nick could have simply been  saving himself for his relationship with a Handmaid, Nick utilizes his status to instead give Offred a method of escape, pregnant or not; assumedly from Gilead. Nick’s rejection of Gilead control, whether for personal motives or not, represents the first step in the break down of the society’s rigid codes. 

c. Overall, I believe Margaret Atwood did an excellent job conveying her opinions on the modern treatment of women through a wide variety of symbols, metaphors, allusions, and potent characterization. While I personally was not fully intrigued by the concept or plot of the book, I do value it as respectable social commentary.