Living by ideals breeds hypocrisy. This was evident in the Victorian era: the era of contradiction. The societal morality during this time placed a great value on sexual restraint, low tolerance of crime, and a strict social code of conduct. One was expected to live life earnestly. This obsession with the pursuit of earnestness made people, specifically the upper class, compromise with anything. The values that society once held turned upside down; respect, honor, and duty morphed into discourtesy, corruption, and irresponsibility. Victorian morality became everything it was trying not to be—artificial and hollow within. Oscar Wilde recognized this deceitfulness in the values of upper-class individuals and did not accept any of the obligations or restrictions that they enforced. Wilde believed in the exact opposite, that “pleasure is the only thing to live for” and even displayed this in his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, where he was highly critical of the norms and values of Victorian Society. Oscar Wilde displays this criticism of the Victorian code of morality by exposing its hypocrisy in endorsing decadence through the theme of dual identities, paradoxical epigrams, and the symbolism of food.
At the beginning of the play, Wilde introduces the reader to the hypocrisy of a double identity through Algernon's and Jack's method of fleeing social restrictions, specifically in response to the surface-obsessed society at the time, and uses this to validate an indulgence in pleasure. The first introduction of the concept of double identity is the term “Bunburying”, which is defined by Algernon Moncrieff as the invention of a fictitious character used as an excuse to escape a disappointing routine arranged by a repressive code of morality. Algernon is a member of the upper class of society, but he is not meant to represent their values, he has no moral conviction other than to live life for pleasure. To achieve pleasure Algernon uses the notion of Bunburying as a way to escape his social obligations while still maintaining his image and high authority. Algernon believes that “one has a right to Bunbury anywhere one chooses. Every serious Bunburyist knows that… One must be serious about something if one wants to have any amusement in life” (Wilde 78). Here, Algernon is stating that people have the free will to act as their double identity anywhere they please, or in other words that one is allowed to indulge in pleasures that society may deem immoral. He believes that people should create an imaginary persona to cope with the difficulty of living in a society with Victorian values. For Algernon being a Bunburyist means one should live free of the world’s responsibilities and unwanted social strain. The one who is serious about everything is not serious at all. Wilde even has Algernon continue to argue for the importance of this principle to lead a fulfilling life; that even being passionate about something as deceitful as a double life is more worthwhile than living a life void of satisfaction. This belief in indulging in pleasure instead of repressive morality holds strong throughout the play as Jack begins to develop his own Bunbury.
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Essay on ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’.
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