- Describe the women characters or female characters in The Importance of Being Earnest /Gender Roles
As far as Oscar Wilde is concerned he is a man of great not only for writing drama but also for delineated characters. Gender Roles In The Importance of Being Earnest are very obvious, there are four females that are totally different from one another, and they have different personalities. But Oscar Wilde creates these female characters very minutely as well as artistically. It is said that Oscar Wilde does not deal with characters psychologically but apparently. He makes his characters only on a surface level, he always forgets to paint his characters by inner self or we may say that he has lack knowledge about human nature or Gender Roles and mankind’s insight.
Four female characters dominate the whole play in’ The Importance of Being Earnest at every place in the drama, these are characters named of female Miss Prism, Cecily, Gwendolen, and last one is Lady Bracknell. They are incompatible as well as compatible they are witty, trivial, absurd etc. Cecily is a crazy girl who wants to love a man that is imaginary, sometimes she makes an engagement herself and on the same day she breaks. And she breaks the engagement on behalf of herself, she writes letters to Jack and answers herself. It seems that she is an imaginary girl who lives in dreams and she escapes from reality and another place she appears to be unrealistic as well as irresponsible because she does not like studying. She wants to be free but it does not mean she is a fool or a simple girl, she realizes a relationship that is made between Doctor Chausable and Miss Prism.
Gwendolen is a girl who is Lady Bracknell’s daughter, she is treated by Oscar Wilde very artistically. She is a typical Aristocratic Lady, she goes against her mother and loves Algernon. When Algernon proposes to her, she accepts his offer very quickly, she has a diary with her because she wants to write what is very secret for her. She likes to town but hesitates from the crowd this is ironic alienation by Oscar Wilde usually people, who live in the city do not worry about rush but having lived in the city as well as liked city life a girl never hesitates in the crowd. This is Oscar’s masterpiece of work a girl is being shown ironically. Gwendolen and Cecily are the same in thoughts in many respects Their cherished desire are that they want to love a man whose name must be Earnest and feel that Earnest,s name creates thrill and vibration and gives absolute confidence It would seem absurd all of this. Oscar Wild, here, represents similarity, they have dairies with them but Gwendolen mostly keeps dairy with her when she is going on travel because she wants to write down the things which she realizes are important for her. On the other hand, Cecily keeps her diary which is why she can write very secret things but it seems very absurd when Algernon describes some words in praise of Cecil’ ‘s beauty she writes each and everyone except something special.
When we talk about Miss Prism she reveals an unforgettable character in this play who is absently minded but she has written 3 volume novels in which a bad character punishes and a good character gains a reward, it seems that she believes in poetic justice. Like Miss Prism lady feels and has very narrow-minded thoughts about sinners because when she hears Bunbury has expired, she quotes there ‘sows bad reaps bad. She knows the feelings of a bachelor having been herself singled. She flights about Doctor Chausable he must get marriage at once because alone man can be seen by society as very merciful. She has taste in “Literature “and she is literally a lady that is why she puts the baby in a leather bag instead of a baby walker
Now, we will talk about Oscar’s fantastic character that is why this play is alive and attractive, she is a lady whose name is Lady Bracknell, and she is dominated as well as authoritative character. She is class-conscious and a very talkative woman; she can hold her house without her husband in one place she describes very clearly she does not involve her husband in domestic matters. Her class consciousness can be seen when she interrogates Jack she stresses mostly his family status when she recognizes he has no family then she adds “References from History of French Revolution” at once. This statement clears that Jack is an illegal child and reveals her class status before him. She never allows her daughter to marry a person who is suspected illegal child.
Her authority can be easily shown when she shows authoritative behaviour toward her daughter so that she may keep away from Jack’s cunning, she is a lady who is very unkind when she hears the news Bunbury has lost his life her remarks that creates an unusual feeling she says that it is so good that he has gone to this world otherwise he has to suffer a lot.
Now, we will discuss about those female characters’ wit, witty remarks, and intellectual remarks that distinguish them from one another, they have different thought manners, way of life etc. Gwendolen very sharply picks up the remarks that are given by Jack “You are perfect’ she says that the perfect thing never demands any more development, this is a case of “I am going on development” she says. Cecily’s witty remarks amuse us when she narrates that when a man is going on a new life he needs whole a meal and another place, she says that the mind has to record only things that have not happened or that will not happen.
In short, in” The Importance of Being Earnest” the female characters or Gender Roles are portrayed very honestly by Oscar Wild. We can say that there is no doubt about Oscar’s art of characterization is extremely fantastic, especially towards female characters. It does not matter whether he deals with his inner self or outer self but his characters have great appeal to modern writers. They amuse even though serious people with the help of their talk and witty remarks we cannot say Oscar Wilde does not know about feminine nature at all.