Death is acknowledged on several of occasions throughout the complete play. It is one of the main themes of the play. The way in which death is continuously presented by the characters is by their dismissive comments and spontaneous joke. The initial thought that could develop in the audience whilst realising the occurrence of death being mentioned in the play is to give it dimension as well as some dark humour encouraging death which could be considered offensive and shocking to the readers. However none the less the play also highlights and compliments the light-hearted and jokey theme that is apparent during the whole play.
Bunbury is a character created by Algernon. This allows Algernon to escape social engagement. Bunbury as a whole is a person who provokes most conversations about ‘death’. This is the fictional character of Bunbury, a sickly, invalid friend. It creates conflicts between Algernon and Lady Bracknell conversations as, she seems rather offended by the fact that he keeps living, even with an illness and seems, convinced he should die out of courtesy to others. This is clearly vivid at one point when Algernon rejects to a dinner invitation in a polite manner in order to visit unwell Bunbury. During this act Lady Bracknell states, "I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd" (Act 1, part 2). This is rather comical as most of the characters discuss death being something an individual has control over, not seeing that death is a final decision which has no coming back neither any sort of control. This is proven by the quote stated above said by Lady Bracknell.
Subsequently the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest do not act in a manner that is appropriate or socially acceptable in modern time. The reason being is that their view on death as a group is extremely unsympathetic. The characters see death as an insignificant matter and they often misuse it in the play to avoid on the spot situations mainly involving interrogations. To the characters in the play death is shown less serious than other issues for example the consumption of cucumber sandwiches versus buttered bread which represented the theme homosexuality. They fail to see that death is a situation to show sorrow and sympathy for those who have happened to pass on, it is treated as no more importance and is given no value compared to the other themes in the play. There are numerous occasions where Oscar Wilde shows death being a mockery by the disvaluing attitudes of the characters.
Another instance during the play which relates back to death is when Jack is asking Lady Bracknell for Gwendolen's hand in marriage and she interrogates him on his past and certain aspects of his personality, this is when she asks him who his parents are and he describes to her that he was an orphan, found in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station. On hearing this statement Lady Bracknell gets very offended that a person who doesn’t know of his parents and has no clear background has come to ask her for her daughters hand in marriage. Lady Bracknell states ‘to lose both (parents) looks like carelessness", (Act one, part 2) blaming Jack himself for having been abandoned. This shows that Lady Bracknell doesn’t sympathize with the fact that he has late parents and is an orphan however is more offended due to the fact that he has come to ask for her daughter’s without a having any background status or knowledge.
Overall thought the importance of Being Earnest, I believe that Oscar Wilde mainly emphasises on the act of dying being a comical theme. He clearly indicates the Victorian attitudes being very unsympathetic and mocking upon death rather than respecting the values and sobriety of the situation. The main message shown in this comedy is that people who are ill are better out of the way, and those who are orphaned are unfortunate but probably deserved it. There is no need for grieving or memorials, for those who have passed on and in fact hold no importance. This as a whole indicates that such immoral behaviour shown by someone is considered to be mentally unstable therefore it reflects on the mentalities of the characters of the play. Oscar Wilde shows a group of individuals view to be very cold and light hearted as they portray ‘death’ being just a black comedy, whereas in actual fact death is one of the most heart breaking life events.
by
pakiprincess (student)
