Mr. Beerman AP English Literature, Period 4 31 March 2016 Burying Myself in Buns The Victorian era was a time of strict social standards and rules that people were expected to abide by. Often times, when people strayed from those rules, they were punished and outcast from society. When Oscar Wilde wrote he Importance of Being Earnest, he was experiencing those ramifications of not following society’s rules. Therefore, it is no surprise that T
the same strict Victorian environment is translated into the world of Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. Luckily, these two found a way to get around the rules of their society: a little trick called Bunburying. Bunburying is the act of using a fictional person as an excuse in order to get out of an undesirable situation. This act is often used by Jack and Algernon to avoid the wrath of Lady Bracknell, a character with high societal influence who represents Victorian England’s upper class. Bunburying protects the social standing of Jack, Algernon, and Oscar Wilde himself by projecting the identities that a high society member like Lady Bracknell is comfortable with seeing because if their true selves were revealed they would be ostracized from society. Jack pretends to be Ernest in order to protect his true lifestyle from those who will disapprove in order to avoid societal ostracization. When Jack is Ernest in the city, he is hiding his life in the country from Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell because they would not approve of it. The city is a place of sophistication and the country is viewed in a less prestigious light. It can be seen that Lady Bracknell carries this opinion when she discovers that Jack lives in the country
and exclaims, “A girl with a simple, unspoiled nature, like Gwendolen, could hardly be expected to reside in the country” (Wilde). Lady Bracknell believes that high social standing is a very important quality for a person to have. Not only does she care very much for social status, she seems to be the type of person whose opinion determines the fate of another’s class. Because of Jack’s motives to marry Gwendolen, he attempts to come off as a high society gentlemen even though, at that time, he is believed to be an orphan. By doing so, Jack wishes to protect himself from being cast out of high society and therefore not allowed to marry Gwendolen. Although he still comes from money, being found out as an orphan is detrimental to Jack’s social standing because Lady Bracknell has no way of knowing who he is parents were. Therefore, his status in society is a giant question mark. As Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack in order to decide if he is worthy enough for Gwendolen, she asks about his parents and learns that Jack was left in a hand­bag as a child and is unaware of who his father is. Her reaction to this knowledge is “You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter--a girl brought up with the utmost care--to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?” (Wilde). This reveal of Jack’s true qualities as “Jack” from the country and not Ernest in the city produces the expected consequences that he attempted to protect himself from. These consequences are that his position in society is knocked down a peg and he is forbidden to marry his high class love, Gwendolen. Jack’s Bunburying in the city did him no good. It is not just in the city where Jack attempts to deceive people. Jack uses Ernest as an alias in order to live a life in the city free from the rules and judgements present in the country. When Jack is in the country, he is expected to be a responsible and boring guardian, unable to act on his own desires. In order to escape his role as a caretaker, Jack turns to the city. He complains
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to Algernon when he visits for tea, “When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring” (Wilde). It can be inferred from the part of this quote where Jack states that he is amusing himself in town that he is up to mischief that can be hidden by the bustle of the city, but would be followed by dire societal consequences in the country. To Cecily and Miss Prism in the country, Ernest is Jack’s troublesome brother who is always up to no good. Jack adopts this mischievous persona, free to do as he wishes while he is in the city because he has a wall up between his true identity and those who would shame him for it. He is able to pursue his true desires, whatever they may be, and still uphold his reputation of a responsible business man in the country. Another man who uses Bunburying to pursue his true desires while escaping the consequences that doing so would hold on his reputation is Algernon. Algernon uses Bunburying to con Lady Bracknell into believing that he is the type of gentleman to take care of a friend, a person she is comfortable with, rather than one who possesses a disinterest for high society events in order to avoid being ostracized. However, rather than pretend to be a person of a different name, Algernon creates an invalid friend named Bunbury, coining the term “Bunburying”. Whenever Algernon is expected to attend a high­class event that he does not wish to, he pretends that Bunbury is in need and uses him as an excuse for his absence. This “Bunburying” can be seen in action when Lady Bracknell asks Algernon if he will be attending dinner with them and he responds, “It is a great bore, and, I need hardly say, a terrible disappointment to me, but the fact is I have just had a telegram to say that my poor friend Bunbury is very ill again. They seem to think I should be with him” (Wilde). Not only is Algernon avoiding the very event he wishes not to attend, he is also avoiding the ramifications
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that would normally go along with being absent for such high society events. He does this by making it seem as if he is making a sacrifice and being a good samaritan because he is “helping a friend” and not actually freeing his schedule to pursue his true impulses. In this way, Algernon uses the act of Bunburying to protect his social standing while still being true to himself. Algernon follows suit to Jack and takes this act of Bunburying to the country as well. He also uses the name Ernest as an alias, however, Jack is Ernest in the city and Algernon is Ernest in the country. This is where the actual definition of the word earnest comes into play. Ironically, Jack and Algernon are both being their true selves while they take on the persona of Ernest, although in doing so they are lying as well. This display of irony assists in further exemplifying the idea that one whose true self does not align with societal norms must lie in order to be honest. Algernon uses the persona of Ernest, Jack’s brother, to win over Cecily who had an already-existing infatuation with the character. He must be careful not to be found out, though, as his true name is not attractive to Cecily. Because Cecily comes from the country and is not of an important family name, Algernon foresees that Lady Bracknell will not approve of their engagement. He is correct. However, once the status­preoccupied Lady hears of Cecily’s inheritance, she changes her mind stating, “A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! And in the Funds! Miss Cardew seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her” (Wilde). It is not until Lady Bracknell’s view of Cecily changes and she becomes part of what is accepted in society that Algernon can abandon the name of Ernest and be honest with everyone about his true self. This gives the message that in order to be completely truthful, one must conform to the societal norm in order for their identities to not cause uncomfort among those in power. When people with high social standing do not feel comfortable with another’s ipseity, that is when the
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excommunication of that individual from society occurs. The characters of both Jack and Algernon display knowledge of this phenomena, as it is the reason for their Bunburying. Oscar Wilde’s characters most likely took a cue from their author’s life, as he is a bonafide Bunburyist himself. Oscar Wilde “Bunburies” when he projects a heterosexual self in order to hide his true homosexual identity that does not comply with the societal norm in order to avoid ostracization. There are many parallels between the personal life of Wilde and the storyline of the characters in his play. Claude Summers notes in his research that “although Wilde frequently (and sometimes self-servingly) asserted the impersonality of art, his own art is inseparably bound to his personality [...] and thus his works cannot be appreciated in isolation from his life” (29). In the Victorian Era, homosexuality was not only a sin, but also against the law. Those who were homosexual, as Wilde was and is highly speculated to have been, had to hide their true identities in order to avoid the harsh consequences society would dole out on them for not complying with the norm. Thus, Wilde was committing his own Bunburying when he married his wife, Constance Lloyd (Ross). Wilde put up a heterosexual facade that - at least, for a significant period of time - protected himself from being made into a societal outcast by those in power. His tactic of Bunburying was successful until his true identity was eventually revealed, just as Jack and Algernon’s were. This parallelism between Wilde’s life and Jack and Algernon’s life may possibly also carry into the true motives of the characters’ Bunburying. T
he Importance of Being Earnest is full of homoerotic undertones that hint at a likelihood of Jack and Algernon being homosexual. To help support this statement is the double meaning of both the words “earnest” and “Bunbury”. It is speculated by many researchers, including Melvyn Bragg, that in the Victorian era, the word
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“earnest” was interchangeable with “gay” (132). Bragg goes on to say that “there are learned theses about this play which deconstruct it as a perfectly disguised description of the place of homosexuals in Victorian society” (Bragg 132). The comical pun hidden in the word “Bunbury” further supports this statement, possibly alluding to male homosexual sodomy. When the possible second meanings of these keywords are put into context, the sexual identities of Algernon and Jack are now under speculation. Perhaps their reason for Bunburying is the same as Oscar Wilde’s, playing the parts of heterosexual males when their true desires are to be with other men, and therefore that is what they are doing when they are off “bunburying”. The necessity of Bunburying is all the same: their actual desires are seen is immoral by society. Thus, they must conceal their true identities in order for their reputations in society to not be destroyed. The characters of Jack and Algernon in T
he Importance of Being Earnest and
its author Oscar Wilde may be viewed as one and the same. The three men live in a strict Victorian society, where broken rules lead to dire consequences in regards to social standing. Their secrets, whether related to their sexuality or not, are protected through the act of Bunburying, allowing the men to be as true to themselves as they please. 7
Works Cited T Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language. New York: Arcade Bragg, Melvyn. he
Pub., 2004. Print. Ross, Alex. "Deceptive Picture." T
he New Yorker. The New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2011. Web. 31 Mar. 2016. Summers, Claude J. G
ay Fictions: Wilde to Stonewall: Studies in Male Homosexual Literary N York: Continuum, 1990. Print. Tradition. ew
Wilde, Oscar. he
T Importance of Being Earnest. ew
NYork: Dover Publications, Inc., 1990. Print. Talia Housik 8