surprising that Algy, later on in Act 1, expresses such cynical views of marriage.
Lane touches on the lower class’s attitudes towards marriage briefly in this
scene. Lane says that he has had very little experience of marriage he explains that
he was “…only married once and that was a misunderstanding between himself and
a young person.” The humour in this line lies in the point that experience shouldn’t
normally be measured in the amount of times one is married but the number of
years one has lived in a marriage. He also says that it was a ‘misunderstanding’,
which is intended to be funny, as marriage is an understanding between two
persons.
We learn more about Algernon’s views on marriage in his conversation with
Jack. Algernon believes that a proposal is ‘business’. This is typical of the Victorian
gentleman's attitudes towards marriage. The typical view of marriage was that it
was more a way to achieve or sustain social status rather than a way of expressing
love. Algernon actually believes that marriage puts an end to all romance. He says
that ‘girls never marry the men they flirt with.’ This is an example of one of Oscar
Wilde’s humorous epigrams, what is even more funny is when it is completely
contradicted by what Algernon says shortly after: “The amount of women in London
who flirt with their husbands is perfectly scandalous.”
Algernon also says a comment about divorce: “Divorces are made in
Heaven”. This is an inversion of the normal phrase “Marriages are made in Heaven”.
Divorce would have being a topic up for much debate at the time not only because
of the issue of money but also that women were basically subservient to men, which
meant that women would have had limited rights. However, this is not an issue in the
play as women’s role in society in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is portrayed as
quite the opposite; all the women have more money than the male characters and
seem to get the ‘upper-hand’ over men. For example, Lady Bracknell sends her
husband to dine alone in the bedroom if Lady Bracknell’s ‘table is out’ at her dinner
parties.
Algernon also believes that marriage can’t consist of just two people, as it
would be ‘tedious’ for a man to do so. He says that in marriage “three is company
and two is none”. It was not uncommon in the contemporary society for men to have
a wife and a mistress. Wilde may be hinting at this fact or he may possibly be using
irony to have a private joke about his own ‘Bunburying’. He was known to be living a
double life with his wife and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas. It could be that he was
directing this joke to a few members of the audience at the time, who knew what he
meant. In the play, there is irony that both Jack and Algernon only have their
‘Bunburys’ while they are single men.
Lady Bracknell’s views on marriage are key to the basis of the play. Lady
Bracknell believes that it is entirely the parents’ decision on who marries their
daughter:
“An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant
as the case may be. It is hardly a matter that she could be allowed to arrange for
herself.”
This quotation is funny as it has an element of truth but is going beyond the normal
customs. It is true that the parents would have had a lot of influence of the husband
of their daughters but the girl would have an idea of who he would be. It was more a
matter of agreement than completely arranging the whole thing with the girl being
oblivious to it all.
Gwendolen’s reasons for wanting to marry Jack are quite absurd. She
illustrates that she loves Jack mainly because she thinks his name is Ernest. She
says that ‘the only safe name is Ernest’. She is being ridiculous in thinking that the
fact that a newborn baby’s character would be determined by the name he had been
given. Whilst her mother is basing her decision on Jacks money, status and
birthright; Gwendolen is basing her marriage on a name. Even though the later
seems the more absurd, Wilde may also be demonstrating that permitting marriage
on the grounds of birthright is just as ridiculous as it is true that one cannot help what
one is named or into which family one is born.
