The Decadence of True Humanity in The Importance Of Being Earnest

Love and Compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.
Dalai Lama
Humanity as how it can be generally defined is the quality of being humane. Such
quality includes the kind feelings, dispositions, and sympathies of man; especially, a disposition
to relieve persons or animals in distress, and to treat all creatures with kindness and tenderness
(Brainyquotes.com). As opined by Dalai Lama in the quote mentioned above, Humanity
certainly includes the elements of love and compassion and is not simply defined by looking at
how much property one possesses and how well and decent one looks in his way of bringing
himself together particularly looking at his physical aspects such as the dresses and clothes
themselves. Certainly, it is also not by judging a human through his social status what more of
his name. Hence, a question to be pondered about; what happens if human beings only recognize
others as also being human beings through judging the latter?
Oscar Wilde depicts such deterioration in human qualities particularly occurring at the
end of the Victorian Era in 1890s in his most successful and very last play written before his
death, The Importance of Being Earnest. Revolving in the setting of that time period, this story
shows how the Victorians hold on strong to their value of morality by mattering so-called
respectability in their eyes. Such respectability to them includes supporting personal duty, hard
work, decorum (women are dominated by men) and chastity; towards extent even furniture legs
had to be concealed under heavy cloth not to be suggestive (Borionetti, 2012). It also includes
severity and conformity to social standards that principally distinguish the high and middle from
the lower classes (Gilliand, 2011). Ironically, such respectability defined by them is not at all
logically respectable, since adhering to the life principle somehow allows them to do anything
beyond the true concept of humanity as defined earlier. Such concept of humanity is,
unfortunately, exactly what overseen by almost all the main characters in the play itself. The
Victorians, in other words, violated the concept of humanity generally accepted by everyone by
contradicting themselves with others using what they aspire and believe to be morally right that
is their strong faith on their respectability concept.

In the play, Victorian morality is indeed very dominant in the characters way of living. It
is generally accepted to those especially the middle and the high classes that one must not
necessarily have only one sort of personality, whereby for many Victorians, public self and
private self were separate (Vincent, n.d.). Private self was occasionally used secretively, most
often in going to Londons East End red light district (GQ Magazine, 2000), known for Jack the
Ripper gory tragedies of prostitutes murders. It was here that the private selves most probably
would be looking for means to let loose of their repressed sexuality as a result of having to
conform to the Victorian morality. On the other hand, public self is something that can be worn
publicly in front of everyone, all the time used to carry out normal daily routines.
In the play, although Jacks and Algernons cases of creating Bunbury for each of them
may not be as despicable as that mentioned above, the fact that both of them have other identities
hidden behind them highlights the Victorians extremes (Vincent, n.d.) whereby their acts of
conducting identity fabrications which is obviously and legally wrong can be masked tightly
under the belief that they are still adhering to the Victorian morality. This happens for Jack under
the excuse of having to adopt a very high responsibility of taking care of a ward named Cecily,
who lives in the country, hence it is presumably fine for him to require the presence of another
identity for his own ease of travelling back and forth between London and the country on both
work and personal matters (Act I, Scene 1, 7). As for Algernon, the fact that he is part of the
upper class simply becomes a license for him to do whatever he wishes to do even when it means
to live life as a lackadaisical rich brat who does nothing but wasting the wealth given down to
him by enjoying his life to the fullest. Apparently, this seems to be perfectly fine for Algernon to
be carrying out his bunburying activities for a reason that the upper Victorian class believe
regardless of anything they are actually born to rule through divine right and they wanted this
right to continue (Vincent, n.d.), hence they can do whatever they want as long as they are in the
upper class society. In a way, this action of bunburying done by both Jack and Algernon can be
seen as a form of decadence of true humanity as it is indeed a form of hypocrisy masked with
nobility of the upper class.
Victorian, a synonym for prude, generally implies how the society is supposed to be pure
and clean with very conservative values hold strongly such as propriety and dignity, language
of flowers, strong class divisions, and low tolerance for crime. Paradoxically, these values

reflect how false the Victorians can be at times, by basing on the contradicting nature of the
characters own actions and opinions when things do not go the way they want. It is true that
propriety and dignity as well as language of flowers, for instance, is distinctively practised by
all the characters in the play, particularly the ladies themselves. However, such excessive
maintaining of propriety and dignity and uses of euphemisms as well as hints in conversing can
be very sarcastic and hypocrite at times, for it can sometimes be just for the purpose of being
polite but not revealing exactly what is hidden inside their thoughts. As seen in the excerpts
below, Gwendolen certainly practises such value:
Gwendolen : Cecily Cardew? What a very sweet name! Something tells me that we are
going to be great friends. I like you already more than I can say. My first impressions of
people are never wrong.
When later, as she discovers that both of them are infatuated to the same man named Ernest,
she turns the table around by saying what most probably may be her hidden thought kept right
from the beginning of her meeting with Cecily:
Gwendolen : From the moment I saw you I distrusted you. I felt that you were false and
deceitful. I am never deceived in such matters. My first impressions of people are
invariably right.
The last sentences of both dialogues illustrate the ugly truth of how contradicting Gwendolen can
be or in other words, how bogus of thought and action Gwendolen can have. One of them must
definitely be a lie, and if it does this reflects how she actually only utilises euphemisms and
flowery language just for the sake of being polite on the face, but not honestly and wilfully
respecting an owner of a house she visits.
Victorians too, typically swam on the surface of line in order to avoid probing what
hidden beneath the surface of any appearance or utterance (Vincent, n.d.). Supposedly such
quality can be considered a proper act to be done as it avoids people from breaking into others
privacy. However, things are different as what seen in Algernons words to his butler, Lane, as
seen in the excerpt below:

Lane: I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience of it myself
up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in consequence of
misunderstanding between myself and a young person.
Algernon: (Languidly) I dont know that I am much interested in your family life, Lane.
In a sense, Algernons action of dismissing Lanes opinion on marriage may be initially seen as
simply occurring from an attitude problem or simply due to the fact that he may not be someone
who loves to get deeply involved into somebody elses private issues. However, as the issue of
social status comes into the picture, such words uttered by Algernon can be interpreted as simply
being insensitive and degrading :
Algernon: Lanes views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders
dont set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to
have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.
Thus, such lack of empathy displayed through Algernons utterances can be sensationally
interpreted as an act of ignorance towards others who came from a different or more
appropriately a lower status than he does.
Wilde too, depicts some characters as upper class Victorians who indeed value history,
heritage, lineage, and continuity of their family line particularly in the very same social status.
Here is where one of the themes of the play comes in; marriage, to them, does not have to be
based on love but rather on wealth and properties possessed. Such is overtly expressed by the
character Lady Bracknell, whom, in her probing session with Jack on his background, inclines
to agree to let Jack marries Gwendolen after hearing the huge amount of wealth possessed by the
gentleman. Again, when Jack is about to fail in his attempt to gain permission from Lady
Bracknell to propose her daughter since the old lady discovers him as an orphan, Lady Bracknell
does not fail to enquire more in making sure that Jacks family line is of a noble one, displaying
materialistic nature of her :

Lady Bracknell : To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to
lose both looks like carelessness. Who was your father? He was evidently a man of some
wealth. Was he born in what the Radical papers call the purple of commerce, or did he
rise from the ranks of aristocracy?
For Lady Bracknell, if Jack wishes to marry her daughter, he needs to have an acceptable title
and parents to approve. Satirically, it also occurs to the lady that having much wealth and
possession is something more relevant than that of Jacks familial background, as prior to the
dialogue uttered above, right before she began asking on Jacks family, she says something very
comical :
Lady Bracknell : Now to minor matters. Are your parents living?
Such is clear evidence on how Lady Bracknell can be seen as an embodiment of the Victorians
materialistic value of appreciating social status more than any other thing in their life. Ironically,
Wilde somehow seem to implicitly mock the Victorians for such value of mattering social status
in their lives by ending the story with the fact that nobody really breaks the rules set by the
values all the young ladies and gentlemen colour within the lines by marrying precisely the
type of person their society expects them to do.
In conclusion, The Importance of Being Earnest can indeed be seen as a form of
criticism of the Victorian society based on the values hold and practised by the characters of the
play. By all means, although the story seems to dwell on the theme of love and marriage as well,
the love depicted is not that of what people normally perceive as true since love is not literally
liking and accepting somebody else just the way they are. Those who deprived of the true type of
love most probably deprived of the true senses of humanity as well, hence the characters in the
play can be said as demonstrating what seems to be the decadence of true humanity in the
Victorian era.
(1934 words)