In both Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, webs of deceit are spun through various characters misrepresenting the truth. Gender is frequently used as a tool to advance the characters' ability to deceive, or in some cases, hinder it. Both authors use these two key themes to develop their contrasting storylines, one being a murder mystery, the other a comedy of manners. They differ not just in storylines and genre but era, with Oscar Wilde having written his play in 1895 and Gillian Flynn writing her book in 2012. Unsurprisingly society's values, stereotypes, and rules most definitely have changed, notably in terms of homosexual rights, gender privileges stereotypes, and the class system as explored in both the texts and the authors' actual lives as Wilde was forced to practice deception and Flynn's attempts to flip gender stereotypes.
Oscar Wilde himself was deceptive through necessity; he was a man of numerous identities. He was a high-class play writer and a socialist, a husband and a homosexual, he was a dandy who dressed excessively, and he often criticized the way of life of the upper classes and the stereotypes of the Victorian era, but in the end, it was his homosexuality that caused him to be imprisoned and outcasted from society. Flynn, a woman, has been accused by some critics of misogyny due to her often using unflattering depictions of female characters in her books. Flynn identifies as a feminist and feels that feminism allows for women to be bad characters in literature. She states 'The one thing that frustrates me is this idea that women are innately good, innately nurturing, there's still a big push back against the idea that women can be just pragmatically evil, bad and selfish' (source?) she says she particularly mourns the lack of female villains, people assume all female characters are good and cannot make for good villains. Therefore it is perhaps unsurprising that both authors, despite their varying contexts, have created texts that explore the relationship between gender and deception.
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In Gone Girl, Amy can get away with her lies and deceit due to being a woman. When people hear of a missing wife and a suspicious husband they immediately point fingers at the man even when there is little evidence to say he did anything at all, 'The bigger the lie the more they believe it'. This short sentence highlights how Amy can be very sweet but also scarily shrewd as we have seen with her plan to betray Nick. She is vastly underestimated as a woman, because as Flynn stated 'people assume all women are innately good'. 'Don't fret, we'll sort this out; the true and the not true and the might as well be true' Where does this quote come from? The repetition of true conveys Amy's commitment and determination to orchestrate her fake disappearance. She pretends to be another person for an entire year, writes a fake diary, tells her neighbor awful Nick abuse stories, and then pretends to be another different person when she goes into hiding, that's a commitment to deception. Compared to The Importance of Being Earnest's female characters, Amy's gender furthers her cause, no one even in the 20th and 21st century would expect a to coordinate such a dark attack on her husband. Women are fiercely underestimated and stereotyped in society, historically women in power were also treated with distrust in literature, particularly Shakespeare's plays where they would often have questionable morals and forego their typical 'feminine' traits like motherly compassion for more 'masculine traits like ambition and deception.
However the women in The Importance Of Being Earnest, due to the period, are hindered when being deceptive. For example, Cecily Cardew, Jack's ward, lives in the country and is cared for by Miss Prism. She lives the typical life of a high-class woman, she is taught to be a good housewife and her education is limited to what men dictate is acceptable for women to know and not know. Due to her limitations socially, physically, and about society, the only freedom and deception she can create is within her diary and her mind. Therefore when hearing about a mysterious mischievous man by the name of Ernest, she takes this and creates her fantasy even going as far as convincing herself that this is a real relationship and writing letters from Ernest to herself 'But my own sweet Cecily, I have never written you any letters'. When Cecily finally gets to meet Ernest (Algernon), she continues the deception and tells him they are already engaged, to which he is rightfully surprised 'You silly boy! Of course. we have been engaged for months. The three short sentences back to pack emphasize the dreamlike state of her psychological deception which she plays out so effortlessly without question. Within Victorian society, upper-class women were considered to be inherently moral - in comparison to men. Wilde inverts these ideas when Cecily is immediately presented as being deceptive for example lying about Miss Prism having a headache, this being in line with the play's comedy of manners genre. However, due to her limited freedom, Cecily is unable to practice deception on the same scale as Jack and Algernon, as she is expected to be 'innately good' and follow along with social conventions, and is therefore forced to deceive herself to cope with the restrictions placed upon her because of her gender.
In contrast to this Lady Bracknell is presented as an ironically empowered woman who holds all of the authority in her marriage. She is therefore freely able to deceive her husband when she goes to fetch Gwendolyn from Jack's, telling him Gwendolyn is at a lecture on 'the influence of a permanent income'. She goes on to say she would never 'propose to undeceived him' which is ironic as she has and not just on this occasion but many in the past inverting the gender roles which her scandalous deception.
A Victorian audience would find this inversion of gender roles and apparent lack of morality both scandalous and hilarious, something a modern-day audience wouldn't find remotely amusing as equality between genders has since improved
An example of male deception in Gone Girl is the main character Nick, he hides his true thoughts and when out in public, he pretends to be a worried husband for his missing wife, he deceives everyone around him including his sister whom he trusts most. The deception in Gone Girl is different from the deception in The Importance of Being Earnest as Nick's deception in Gone Girl is more psychological than physical, there are no name changes dress changes, or even location, he just decides using his mind and words. 'I'm a big fan of the lie of omission'. This short sentence reflects how Nick cuts his answers short, leaving out details when he talks to the police, 'it was my fifth lie to the police. I was just getting started, and he came up with rationalizations and justifications for his lies, in this case, if you don't tell people about something, it never happened. Nick has two personas - one who is upset that Amy is missing and does the interviews, public appeals, and police interrogations, he is the deceptive man who is just there to please the public and entice Amy out of hiding, and the real Nick who resents his wife and is trying his hardest to not go to prison for a murder he didn't commit. 'Now is the part where I tell you I have a mistress and you stop liking me. If you liked me, to begin with. This direct address is significant as Nick not only deceives his sister, Amy, and the police, but us too, as he even states.
The male characters in The Importance of Being Earnest use their deception a lot more freely and more as a way of life than a way to save it. 'He has a great smile, a cat's smile'. This metaphor can be linked to the smiling Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, he is sly, deceitful, manipulative, and mischievous, he Is vastly unpredictable, treacherous, and whimsical, and he is constantly changing between a supportive ally and a devious foe. Yet he draws people in with his inviting smile and lures them into all kinds of trouble. This is much like Nick making himself likable and approachable in the Find Amy headquarters, he uses his gender and his smile to appeal to the women and deceive them into thinking he's completely guiltless. This however fails to work once he has been labeled as a wife killer and has to create a whole new persona in line with his gender through the TV interview to make himself likable gain as a humbled, remorseful, and apologetic husband. Unlike the male leads on the Importance of Being Earnest, there are much more serious consequences for Nick's deceptions, therefore adapting his identity accordingly.
An example of deception In The Importance of Being Earnest is the two primary male characters, Jack and Algernon. These two men are upper class and due to the expectations and rules of society decided to invent aliases that enable them to go and do as they please. Jack creates Ernest, a wicked brother who 'lives in Albany and gets into terrible scrapes'(Jack). This enables Jack to leave the country where he's a respectable, responsible gentleman who cares for his ward, to go to the city and live for pleasure. Algernon similarly creates Mr. Bunbury, an invalid in the country who often falls ill, meaning Algernon can leave the city and his responsibilities so he can have fun in the country without it affecting his city persona. The word Bunbury reflects this duality as it is used as both a noun and a verb throughout the play. Algernon accuses Jack of being a 'Bunburyist' and also informs Lane that he intends to go 'Bunburying'. The flexibility of the word reflects the freedom the male characters have in terms of practicing deception - they can create a male alter ego to mask their behavior. However, due to the constraints of the period and Victorian's fixation with morality and social class men must still practice their deception relatively privately as the whole of society accepts it, as long as it's hidden and covert as morally, they know it's wrong. During the Victorian Era, men were expected to be responsible, serious, providers, and were expected to marry and have children as soon as possible. This didn't leave much time for relaxing or having fun so many men had affairs or created an excuse for getting out of engagement so they could go and do what all men desired. Due to being a man they were able to carry out these extremely deceptive plans as other men did the same and women didn't have the authority it question them.
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