The Importance of Being Earnest

By moving the location of the plot of a novel or literary work, the central plot and details change as well. In the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, the change of location from the city to the country creates complications that reveal the identities of characters, and exposes their ridiculous lives. By writing these complicated interactions based on the move of location, Wilde adds to the meaning of the work as a whole, which ridicules the trivial and opulent lives of the Victorian period.

When the play opens, Jack "Earnest" and Algenon are waiting for guests in the city. Their beginning physical location is vital. While in London, each  man reveals to each other their deceptive aliases. To Algy, his friend was only known as Earnest. However, his real name is Jack, and Earnest is simply a fake identity he uses to get away with mischief. Algy explains his ploy of  "Bunburying", or having a fake person to visit in order to escape responsibilities. In London, Jack can escape from his duties of raising a ward and participate in the ludicrous activities of those around him. Algy has family in London, and by changing location he can "Bunbury" and abandon them. By assuming that all others Bunbury too, Algy displays the foolish lifestyle these characters live. To the men, a life that is filled with false identities and trivial conversations is completely normal. By creating this witty dialogue centered around a ridiculous term such as Bunburying and the silly identities, Wilde exposes the ridiculousness of that lifestyle. The characters are more focused on having fun as a fake person and leaving the country or London then they are on family and relationships. Jack is too busy being Earnest in London to be serious about his ward, Cecily. Algy is focusing on escaping his duty of entertaining is aunt, Lady Bracknell.

Next, the plot of the play moves to the country estate of Jack in Hertfortshire. This physical change of the setting is an important element in the tangled identities and relationships of the characters. It is in the country that Jack looses his false name of Earnest and becomes Uncle Jack for his ward Cecily. Algy takes on the false persona of Earnest, who Cecily has created an entire fake romance with. When Jack, Algy, Gwendolyn and Lady Bracknell all come to the country estate, they learn the truth about the others. Because all are now contained in the same location, the false personas and real people all meet up. There is no longer a gap between the country and city for the men who create such elaborate ruses, so they must scramble to sort out the mixture. Jack's unknown background comes to light, because Lady Bracknell went to a new location and found Miss Prism, the wayward nursemaid.  However, no character takes these serious truths with any weight. They continue in the foolish manner of fake manners and pompous conversation. The confusion of the characters as "Earnest" is mixed up and romances are quickly ended and begun is quite comical, and it has a purpose. By creating this tangle of identities and preposterous reactions, Wilde shows the outrageous manner of the Victorian time period. When all characters come face to face and learn the truth, they do no act grave or offended. It ridicules the idea of Bunburying and acting with fake manners when there are serious issues at hand.

Audiences roar with laughter when all these preposterous characters interact in such polished and silly manners, and when all meet in Jack's country estate. By having the characters journey to one central location, Wilde creates hilarious conflict that displays the ridiculous and trivial lives of those in the Victorian time period.

Poetry Blog

The Death of a Soldier
by Wallace Stevens, on page 334 poem #281

            This poem is short and concise, and its simplicity helps define the inevitability of the poem. It is about the death of a solider, but it does not lament or grieve over the death but simply states the finality of it. Wallace compares his death to fall with the repetition of the line "As in a season of autumn". The soldier falls in  autumn like leaves falling which is a nature image and shows that the death is slow, gradual, and trivial. By repeating this line, the comparison is emphasized. There is no fanfare in death, as Wallace shows in the line "Death is absolute and without memorial". When a soldier dies, it is concrete and cannot change, and the world does nothing to acknowledge it.

          The metaphor in the last two stanzas also creates the insignificance of the soldier's death. The death is compared to the stopping of the wind, yet the clouds keep moving regardless. This is showing how the war and life move on after one death, for it does not stop them. Wallace includes the line about clouds continuing "over the heavens" despite the wind being stopped. This could be a reference to religion and about how life continues on indifferent to human's ideas of death and the afterlife.  All of these techniques demonstrate the paltriness and inevitability of death.

        This poem is one that I like very much. The brevity and directness of this poem make it easy to read and comprehend. Yet beneath the four brief stanzas is a deep complexity about death and life. While I do not have any personal experience with the death of a soldier or war, I, like every other human being, know death and wonder about it. I like the way this poem deals with it. It poses no religious beliefs or angsty musings, but is rather simple.

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
by Adrienne Rich, on page 324 poem #267

     In the poem "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers's", the themes of escape and domesticity are explored. In the first stanza, a lot of lush imagery is used. By stating that the tigers "prance across a screen" it is known that the tigers were sewn or painted. In this exotic image of the tigers, colors such as green and yellow are used to describe the jungle. These are exciting colors of life and happiness. The tigers "do not fear the men beneath the tree" and are certain in themselves. These free and dominant spirits are an escape for Aunt Jennifer. Because it is mentioned that they do not fear men, it can be inferred that Aunt Jennifer dreams she lives in a fantasy in which she has no fear of men and is allowed to do as she wishes.

      Later in the second stanza, after the rich fantasy, Aunt Jennifer is revealed to be restrained. By using an image of "fingers fluttering" that struggle to pull a small needle, it is shown that she is afraid and nervous. The shaking and weakness of hands and fingers are a sign of anxiety. Then there is the symbol of her wedding ring. The ring is described as heavy and massive, that weighs upon her. Of course the ring is not actually heavy, but it is a symbol for the burden of Aunt Jennifer's marriage with her husband. Clearly this marriage is one that restricts and scares her, so sewing majestic tigers is an escape from this restraint. The symbol is repeated in the third stanza when the Aunt is dead, "her terrified lands will lie/ Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by". Because it is her hands that were mastered, it is evident that this is a reference to the symbol of the wedding ring and all it represents. Jennifer was "mastered by" this ordeal that rings her fingers, so it was her terrible marriage that lead to her death. The poem ends on the note that her tigers will still be free, the fantasy she created to escape will still exist on the things she sewed.

       When I first read this poem, I really like it, and that feeling continued as I looked deeper at it. For one, there is the theme of the burdens of a stifling marriage, which deals with feminism. That is something I enjoy reading and discussing about. The end rhyme makes the poem pleasant to read, and the lush imagery is exciting. However, I took a double take in the second stanza with the introduction of the marriage and her nervousness. I like how the poem is haunting yet beautifully descriptive, and really emphasizes the theme of unhappy marriages and escape.