The Importance of Comedy

Comedy plays an important factor in the crucial criticisms of society’s flaws, and this role of comedy can be seen without difficulty in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Within this play Wilde uses various shenanigans and conventions of comedy in order to satirize and poke fun at a pretentious and imperfect world. 

One of the most satirized aspects of this era is the significance of one’s name and status in life. Both Jack and Algernon fall in love with women who have fundamentally flawed views on who a man should be. Of most consequences to these affluent women was the name Earnest. They believed not in the virtue of the man, but in the virtue of a man’s name. In this case the name Earnest is seen by these ladies as highly desirable, and showing the characteristics of someone whom they could truly and deeply love. But of course one of these men is named Jack and the other is Algernon, neither is Earnest. The comical aspect of this play revolves around the struggle that these men undergo in order to gain the love of their chosen woman, a struggle that drips with satirical judgement on the way these women go about life and view love. 

Wilde also pokes fun at the serious business of what makes a man suitable for Victorian society. In a scene with Lady Bracknell, the experienced and opinionated woman outlines her most important factors for the proper Victorian husband. Topping that list is ‘does he smoke’. Obviously this exemplifies the idea that the characteristics valued by this society were not the ones of most significance, the were mundane and incredibly trivial. Wilde uses this to his advantage several times and sheds light on a skewed and somewhat twisted group of people. 

By satirizing the values and beliefs of a society that he disagreed with, Wilde is able to comically impart his own judgement and views. Comedy can play a key part in social progress, as this play shows, by simply pointing out how ridiculous and utterly absurd many of society’s rules truly are.

Parallel Structure

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a prime example on the use of parallel character’s that add more depth to each other by acting in similar fashions or getting involved in similar situations. Likewise in the play The Importance of Being Earnest writer Oscar Wilde uses parallel characters who help add layers to each other and further develop the work as a whole. This two very dissimilar works are nonetheless connected by their very similar use of characters that mirror and mimic each other.

Although at first these two pieces of literature seem to have no correlation, one being a serious novel on a mad scientist and the other a twisted comedy about love and honesty, they use very similar devices to get their overall criticisms of human society across. Victor Frankenstein and Robert Walton draw connections between each other in their search for the unknown and undiscovered. Jack and Algernon are attached to each other by their “bunburying” antics and their constant struggles with the ridiculous rules and expectations of their society. In each case the one character goes through similar experiences with the other and helps the work as a whole to impart a greater meaning.

In Frankenstein Walton helps introduce and wrap up the themes of dangerous exploration and misuse of knowledge. He and Victor both are young and ambitious men in pursuit of a seemingly impossible goal that appears beyond the scope of the average man. In the end though each one ends their adventure in defeat. Victor’s leads to his death and his family’s destruction, his final moments are full of agony and regret for his carelessness. Likewise, Robert Walton is sailing into the Arctic depths in order to find some sort of prophesied utopia. However he drives his crew to the brink of mutiny and leads his men through a fruitless endeavor. In the end, both Victor and Walton parallel each other and drive home the main theme that some goals are not meant to be reached, that there are in fact limits to what man can achieve. 

The Importance of Being Earnest explores the idea that societal values don’t make logical sense through the two eventual brothers Algernon and Jack. Each gets wrapped into a similar situation of expectant love that is guided and shaped by lies and deceit. Algernon falls in love with his dearest Cecily, however their love is blocked by her longing to be with a man named Earnest. Just the same as Algernon, Jack too falls in love with a woman, named Gwendolen, who wishes only to be with a man named Earnest. The repetition of their situations helps to emphasize the idea that these two women are looking for love in all the wrong ways, a name is just a name and nothing more. However the fact that Algernon and Jack both have to work around the all important issue of their names shows that society values strength of character far less than it does the symbolism of one’s name. 

In each instance one character relates to another and works in cohesion to bring a greater point of meaning into the work. The parallels in these two pieces help show one of the many devices used in literary works to lead the reader to a better understanding of the work as a whole.

The Mask

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask! 

-Paul Laurence Dunbar

“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar explores the existence of the many people who survive every waking moment of life by hiding behind the facade of normalcy. It isn’t merely about the simple peer pressure to “fit in” but instead a deeper and more meaningful look at how too many of us hide our feelings and true self behind “the mask”. 

Inside the first stanza Dunbar introduces the symbol of the mask, a physical barrier between the face of the wearer and the world beyond. The mask is a farce, presenting an image to the world that is far from the truth. The notion that it “grins and lies” presents the idea that grinning itself is an act of deceit, that the user of the mask isn’t truly doing anything of the sort. Thus whoever wears the mask is showing not what they feel but what they wish the world to believe they feel. The second line presents another separation from the world, this time not emotionally but physically, as the mask-wear has their face hidden from sight. Referenced in the next line is the belief that wearing the mask is a tribute to the natural trickery of human society, the one who wears the mask is just paying homage to a long held tradition of dishonesty and imitation. Ending the stanza is a more emotional look into the life of the one who wears the mask, a person who has experienced loss and misery which has forced them to live behind the shroud of obscurity. The wearers are no strangers to despair, they live with it silently every day.

Dunbar offers a slightly different perspective of those who wear the mask within the second stanza. The first two lines of this stanza form a rhetorical question in which Dunbar asks if society should change it’s opinions of anyone who shows emotions and inner turmoil. By saying “counting”, Dunbar expresses his belief that people are constantly watching and take special care to notice any moment that a person forgets to disguise their true feelings. The question is answered in a way, by saying no and once again speaking of the mask. Instead of letting the world count “our tears and sighs” Dunbar suggests using the mask and only allowing anyone to see the powerful emotions or deep feelings that lay underneath the fake grin of the mask.

The third and last stanza of the poem looks straight into the heart of the matter, a truly emotional look into the workings of those who must fight to hide all of their feelings. The first line is nothing short of pure despair, emphasized by the plea to religion that sits within the line. This despair is further punctuated in the final stanza’s second line by describing their cries as emanating from the bodies’ of those who have suffered for far too long. The next two lines outline the trap that the mask wearers have found themselves in, unable to remove their barriers but stuck in an untenable situation. They are stuck in “clay” with no way out for miles; more or less they can find no escape from their current predicament. Finally the poem concludes, not with happiness or change, everything remains as it was when the poem begins. Dunbar expresses the need to deceive the world and wraps the poem up with a line that vaguely resembles a chant, “We wear the mask!”. Instead of the situation being resolved or becoming more bearable Dunbar merely urges the mask-wearers to stay resilient and continue to smile through their tears. It might seem an unfair world, but from the eyes behind the mask this is seems to be the best course, possibly the only course, of action.

Natural Instinct

“To Build a Fire” (link) by Jack London is a great example of London’s dark, transcendentalist style; the elements of the story and careful diction all lead to a portrayal of the philosophy that nature is a harsh mistress and life is harsher still.

One of London’s prominent strategies in this short story is his descriptions of the landscape. London characterizes the scene as “exceedingly cold and grey” which leads straight into the idea that this will be a less than happy story. Within this first paragraph London goes on to mention that “There was no sun nor any hint of sun”. The sun typically signifies life and warmth, and is an indicator of the start of a new day. But instead of this new beginning the main character, a first time Yukon traveler, is greeted by darkness and grey. These will help set the tone for the events that soon unfold for the novice wanderer.

An equally integral part of the narrative is the “big native husky” that follows the man around. This dog is used as a symbol for everything that the inexperienced traveller is not. The traveller believed that the temperature did not matter, that he was a man and he could brave the 50 below 0 weather, when the sad truth is that he could not. The dog on the other hand has the natural instinct of an animal, it knows “a truer tale than was told  by the man’s judgement.” In the end it is easily seen that the man’s poor judgement and choices led him to his death, while the natural instincts of the dog kept him alive. A prominent example of this is the difference in how they each respectively handled getting wet in the freezing weather. When the dog falls through some ice into the cold water he immediately makes the effort “to lick the ice off it’s legs” because it “was a matter of instinct”. The dog is able to survive his brief stint with the water. On the other hand though the man’s own fall through the ice is not so fortunate. After he falls through he makes a fire and warms himself, but he does not possess the same instinct and natural prowess that the dog does. No, instead he “built the fire under a spruce tree” which soon loosed it’s payload of snow and snuffed out the fire. In short the man did not survive his own encounter with the ice break. London introduces an interesting point in this story, that even though a man might be taught the essentials of survival in the woods and seem ready for everything, he can never be as prepared for nature as a creature of nature will be. The dog is part of that environment and because of that he is more knowing than the man, his survival is due to the fact that he realizes the harsh ways of the wild and dares not underestimate the dangerous of the world. The man tries to defy nature but nature is not so easily tricked

Domestic Troubles

Cat by J. R. R. Tolkien

The fat cat on the mat

may seem to dream

of nice mice that suffice

for him, or cream;

but he free, maybe,

walks in thought

unbowed, proud, where loud

roared and fought

his kin, lean and slim,

or deep in den

in the East feasted on beasts

and tender men.

The giant lion with iron

claw in paw,

and huge ruthless tooth

in gory jaw;

the pard dark-starred,

fleet upon feet,

that oft soft from aloft

leaps upon his meat

where woods loom in gloom --

far now they be,

fierce and free,

and tamed is he;

but fat cat on the mat

kept as a pet

he does not forget.

Leave it to Tolkien to explore the inner workings of the classic domestic cat, to take a deeper look at something as seemingly trivial as the calm life of a house cat. A first reading of this poem may sound light hearted and generally silly, due mostly to it’s twisting rhyme scheme, but look again and you will see that the poem isn’t merely a cute homage to the lazy cat sitting on the porch. Instead Tolkien explores the tamed nature that domestic life has forced onto the cat, ruminating on the contrasting shared history of all cats to live a life of cunning and exhilaration in the wild. It might seem amusing that Tolkien glorifies the spirit of felines in this way, but the longing of a docile creature to experience adventure is something that is shared with everyone. 

Tolkien opens up the poem by describing the “fat cat on the mat” who lies around each day in a seemingly happy dream state. It’s important to note that the cat “may seem see to dream” and is not in fact necessarily dreaming. Instead the perception of the cat is that he wastes his days away in joyful imaginings of tasty treats and comfort. But Tolkien breaks this perception in the fourth line when he introduces the concept of freedom. He goes on to describes the free roaming cats as “unbowed” and “proud” which are both in direct contrast to the previously mentioned cat whose head lies on the floor and his body remains immobile. These wild felines are “lean and slim” they don’t spend lazy afternoons napping on the couch, they move about the world without restraint or regret. What Tolkien is getting at here is that it’s only natural to enjoy the freedom of the wild over the comforts of domestic living. This isn’t a trait that is reserved solely for house cats though, it’s seen throughout life and literature. When Chris McCandless chose to find himself, like so many other transcendentalists, within the trials of nature he gave up the easy way of life he enjoyed at home. Like those before him, he would rather risk the perils and uncertainties of nature than to enter the stagnant life of the suburbanite. Likewise, the cat has the same feeling inside as the young adventurous McCandless. Both belong to a caged society, while in their hearts they yearn for something with more substance. 

The final lines of the poem wrap it all together by returning to the “fat cat on the mat”. Tolkien writes that although the cat remains inside the home as a pet, he has not lost his inherent lust for adventure and primal instinct to roam freely upon the earth. The cat “does not forget” that it’s ancestors lived a more rewarding life, it recognizes the sacrifice that it has made by living domestically. It is not uncommon to feel this way at one point in life, few have acted on the feeling but regardless many have felt discontented about their lazy lives as the cat in this poems feels and reminisces on. It remains the choice of the docile dreamer to get up and find the adventure that they wish to experience, to free themselves of urban comforts and try their hand at a more fulfilling but trying existence in nature.