The truth is rarely pure and never simple part 2

So in part one of this post it wasn't until the end of the post that I realized how true the title of the post was. I randomly chose the title from a quote from the play, The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde, that I really liked.

But when you pull that quote out of the play itself and compare it to the play as a whole, it almost makes a better title than The Importance of Being Ernest (almost).

For those of you who haven't read the whole play or ever seen the movie, here is a brief summary. But SPOILER ALERT, just in case you want to be surprised if you plan on reading/watching it.

I man named Jack lives in the country and under the guise of visiting his useless brother, Ernest, he visits the city. Ernest doesn't actually exist but to keep up the rouse, Jack tells his friends in the city that his name is Ernest. Under this rouse he meets a woman, Gwendolyn, and falls in love with her and proposes, but she thinks his name is Ernest and shows much pride in the name and even says she wouldn't marry anyone else. However, since Jack was an orphan, Gwendolyn's mother refuses to approve of the marriage.



Meanwhile Jack's friend Algernon (Gwen's cousin) learns of Jack's rouse and plans a scheme of his own to go to Jack's country house and pretend to be the horrid brother, Ernest. Once there, he falls in love with Jack's ward, Cecily (who thinks his name is Ernest), and proposes. Cecily has often heard of Ernest because that's why Jack goes to the city and has already developed a relationship in her head with him. So much so that she also exclaims how important the name Ernest is and how she could never marry anyone else.

Then Gwendolyn decides to come visit Jack (who she thinks is Ernest) at his country home. Before she sees either Jack or Algernon, she meets Cecily and they have the argument over who Ernest really proposed to. Then comes the untying of the story where both Gwen and Cecily find out that neither man's name is Ernest. That in itself is not a very 'simple truth'. But it doesn't stop there. Gwendolyn's mother comes to the city to find her and through some more untying and discovery we find out that Jack is not an orphan at all but Algernon's brother and was accidentally abandoned. And what do you suppose Jack's Christian name is...but Ernest. 

Okay, I guess that summary wasn’t very brief. But it proves my point that the quote, “the truth is rarely pure and never simple,” could be a very fitting title for the play. But admittedly, The Importance of Being Ernest does win out in the end.

This post is turning out to be much longer than I originally intended. So feel free to stop reading if you get bored. But there are two sections of the play that I wanted to delve into a little deeper.

Gwendolyn and Cecily.

Their relationship is so interesting and hilarious that I can't even stand it. They start out as attempting to be good friends until they find out they are both engaged to Ernest who they don't know at this point is a fictional character. Then they proceed to call out each other's bad traits to prove why they are more deserving of Ernest. The part that really gets me is what they each said separately before they even met:

Gwendolyn in Act 1: I am told; and my ideal has always been to love some one of the name of Ernest. There is something int hat name that inspires absolute confidence. (...) The only really safe name is Ernest.

Cecily in Act 3: You must not laugh at me, darling, but it had always been a girlish dream of mine to love some one whose name was Ernest. There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest.

I just find it so absolutely hilarious the pressure that both women put on the name Ernest. But how does this fit into the genre of the play? The play is a comedy of manners. These are a few characteristics of a comedy of manners that these two quotes exemplify:

• Characters are types rather than individuals-This is true in this instance if you consider that both Cecily and Gwendolyn are essentially the same person. They come from different places and yet they say almost the exact same thing. They are the same type of person and not at all individuals.
• There is an illicit love duel- The duel that proceeds after Cecily and Gwendolyn meet has to do with their both loving who they think is the same man. But it is a duel between women and not men.
• Plot is less important than the characters-The development of the characters in this play, as evidenced by the above quotes and similarities shows that the characters are really more important. The things that they say, their hilarity and wit, far outweighs the plot of the story.

I didn't realize there were different types of plays, but knowing the subgenres actually really helps in analyzing the play itself. Comedy of manners has told me a lot about this play that I might not have understood otherwise.