Blog #23

I am proud to say that I am writing this most recent blog post on the fact that I actually enjoy a required reading assignment in AP Lit class. I can proudly say that “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde is quickly becoming one of my favorite plays thus far. The play is set during one of my favorite periods, the Victorian period, a time where it was only right and proper to do everything a certain way and to obey every single social and politically correct rule or else you were perfectly banished forever. The juxtaposition of this extremely strict and unforgiving society with the humor created in the dialogue and actions of the characters is positively hilarious. I find it so amusing that these characters in this play can pay attention to such detail as what kind of food is acceptable to serve during a visit, yet the same characters do not understand the absurdity of writing to the Scotland Yard about a missing cigarette case!

On another level to this situational irony that results in hilarity, underneath the jokes and the puns is the deeper context of what this play is actually saying about society during this time period. The insanity of blaming your servant for consuming the eight bottles of champagne that you drank and the whole concept of Bunburrying are all tiny pieces of the larger puzzle. What all of these situations are suggesting is that society’s rules and regulations and judgment are so air-tight and stuffy that it forces a person to take on another personality just to escape. Algernon feels that it is completely necessary to create this fake “ill friend” so that he may escape the drab parties that his aunt throws and that he is forced to attend. The irony in this overall situation is that this society is one to focus on the fact that everyone must do what is morally right in society and in order to ensure that everyone does so they have set in place all of these rules and societal-norms. The irony being that the sheer amount and strictness of these rules is what forces people like Algernon and Jack/Earnest to create a deceitful double life just to cope with society. In a sense this society is self-destructing by attempting to enforce order and properness through strong societal norms however the only thing is succeeds in doing is forcing members to break these norms just so that they can be sane enough to be accept4ed by the members abiding by the original norms in the first place.

The whole matter is very deep and circular if one thinks about it too hard, but that is another reason why I am coming to love this play so much. It is much like Emma in that is seems trivial on the surface but has a much deeper meaning. I enjoy the slapstick comedy and the hidden jokes within this play and cannot wait to see how the rest of it turns out. Will society win, or will Bunburying win?

Blog #22

I began reading Emma by Jane Austin with the mental set that this book was going to focus around mundane activities that were commonplace in the regency era. I thought the majority of the book would center on such trivial activities as walks in the garden and taking tea. I was accepting of this because I have always found the regency era to be fascinating, nevertheless I was not necessarily looking forward to reading 400 pages worth of information about it. On one level I was correct about what this novel contained, however on another level I completely underestimated the potential complexity of this novel. The research that we have done in class regarding the different theories about what the novel is truly about have been fascinating to me. Such examples as the entire book being about the repressed sexual feelings of the characters during this time period, or the fact that Mr. Woodhouse is the major villain in the novel, and even that the archetypal ending was not for the sake of the readers but rather to show the never-ending plastic perfection of the micro chasm of society that this book dissects.

Looking back on major passages in the novel I have come to discover evidence here and there supporting each of these “theories” regarding the underlying theme and overall meaning of this novel. For example, in the first volume when Mrs. Bates and Miss Smith were over for dinner Mr. Woodhouse goes on a rant regarding the what his guests should eat and how much. The way in which this scene is worded is very subtly sexual. The description of a “very soft” egg and how Mrs. Bates should “not be afraid” of them. Granted, I came to this conclusion after hearing of this particular lens that the novel may be written in however I do agree that during this time period especially it is a strong possibility.

Another theory that I found particularly interesting and certainly unexpected was that Mr. Woodhouse is the main “blocking” or villainous figure and Mr. Nightly is more the father-figure to Emma. This theory agreed with me the most out of all of them. I found that it was easier to be supported by the novel and by looking back through the novel and the most important scenes a second time I was able to identify with this. It is evident that throughout the novel Mr. Woodhouse is continuously causing trouble and inconvenience to everyone around him. It is as if if Mr. Woodhouse cannot have it then no one can. Since Mr. Woodhouse does not have a wife anymore, he does not support marriage and believe only bad can come from it. Since Mr. Woodhouse cannot enjoy such delicacies as cake, no one else should be able to enjoy it. This pattern reoccurs throughout the novel and what is truly fascinating about it is the fact that Jane Austin gives the reader a glimpse of this side of Mr. Woodhouse in very small and very diluted sections. It is all very subtle which again reflects how, during this time, everything major was shown through some sort of subtle action.