Maxims and Masks: The Epigram in The Importance of Being Earnest Essay

Maxims and Masks The Epigram in The Importance of organism Earnest Oscar Wilde frames The Importance of Being Earnest around the paradoxical epigram, a skewering metaphor for the plays central theme of division of truth and identity that hints at a homosexual subtext. Other targets of Wildes absurd yet grounded wit argon the social conventions of his stuffy Victorian society, which are exposed as a shallow mask of manners (1655). Aided by clever wordplay, agitated misunderstanding, and dissonance of knowledge between the characters and the audience, devices that are now staples of contemporary battleground and situation comedy, Earnest suggests that, especially in civilized society, we all steer figure of speech lives that force upon us a variety of postures, an idea with which the closeted (until his exoteric charge for sodomy) homosexual Wilde was understandably obsessed. The plays initial thrust is in its geographic expedition of bisexual identities. Algernons and Jacks Bunburys initially function as separate geographic personas for the urban center and country, simple escapes from nagging social obligations. However, the homoerotic connotations of the punning name (even the double bus, which serve mostly an alliterative purpose, insinuate a union of similarities, and Bunbury rhymes with buggery, British slang for sodomy) flare up when paired with Algernons repeated assaults on espousal ALGERNON. ...She will place me next to Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own economize across the dinner table. That is not very pleasant. Indeed, it is not even passable ... and that sort of thing is enormously on the increase. The amount of women in capital of the United Kingdom who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It i... ... he was inextricably associated scarcely from which he could just as advantageously distance himself via a neat saying, but he treats the tension of homosexuality, his own mask, more seri ously. Jack is neer ready to admit his entrance into the Bunbury underworld, and we never learn from Algernon the necessary rules of conduct. The personification of homosexuality as a characters double is not surprising - slightly critics argue that Dr. Jekyls evil counterpart, Mr. Hyde, has some homosexual leanings - as such a controversial and, perhaps, embarrassing topic can be more easily disguised and obscured in the murky depths of the doppelganger tale. Today, with scientific evidence backing an creed that places individuals sexual preferences on a sliding scale from full straightness to full homosexuality, the simple bifurcated view of sexuality in belles-lettres may soon be obsolete.