Oscar Wilde frames 'The Importance of Being Earnest' around the paradoxical epigram, a confusing metaphor for the central theme of the play about the division of truth and identity that hints at a homosexual subtext. Other targets of Wilde's absurd but well-founded wit are the social conventions of his stifling Victorian society, which are exposed as a "superficial mask of manners" (1655). Aided by clever wordplay, frenzied misunderstandings and knowledge dissonances between characters and audience, devices that are now staples of contemporary theater and situation comedy, "Earnest" suggests that, especially in a society “civilized,” we all lead double lives that impose a variety of postures on us, an idea with which the closeted homosexual (until his public accusation of sodomy) Wilde was understandably obsessed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the Original EssayThe Original Purpose of the Play: Exploring Bisexual IdentitiesThe “Bunburys” of Algernon and Jack initially function as geographical characters distinct for the city and the countryside, simple escapes from stubborn social obligations. However, the homoerotic connotations of the pun name (even the double "bu", which serves primarily an alliterative purpose, insinuate a union of similarities, and "Bunbury" rhymes with "buggery", British slang for sodomy) shine through. when associated with Algernon's repeated assaults on marriage:ALGERNON. “…She will place me next to Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband at the table. It's not very pleasant. In fact, it's not even decent...and this stuff is on the rise dramatically. The number of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is absolutely scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply a matter of washing one's clean linen in public” (1633). The mixed truth of a Wilde epigram – stating the normal in a ridiculous way, as with Algernon's dismayed reaction to marital flirting, and often capped by a modification of an established cliché, as with "washing one's clothes clean” – is not only humorous, but striking; his distaste for public displays of "clean" heterosexual affection implies his deep resentment that his laundry is considered dirty and must be washed in private. Although both men are "Bunburyists", Wilde maintains and increases the dramatic tension through Jack's denial of the fact. . The characters are driven to hyperbolic conviction in their brief speeches, a rapid technique that magnifies the play's distant relationship with vaudevillian humor and reveals another duality within homosexuality; Algernon is perfectly happy being gay, while Jack is loath to the idea, perhaps even to the point of hating himself. Algernon makes a pun on the phrase "to separate from", showing his reluctance to distance himself from both the world and the physically divided position of homosexuality: "Nothing will induce me to separate from Bunbury , and if you ever get married, which seems extremely problematic to me, you will be very happy to know Bunbury. A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time” (1634). Jack claims he will “kill [his] brother,” confusing his sexual duality because all he will kill is a part of himself: “That’s nonsense. If I married a lovely girl like Gwendolen, and she was the only girl I ever saw in my life that I would marry, I certainly wouldn't want to know Bunbury” (1634). His trust in Gwendolen ashis only soul mate is an ordinary declaration of love in most plays; here, it suggests a fundamentally homosexual man who "converted" to heterosexuality on this one occasion. Wilde extends the duality of homosexuality to the female population, as Algernon points out Gwendolen's alternative to settled marriage: “Then your wife will do it. You don’t seem to understand that in married life, three is company and two is nothing” (1634). Once again, Wilde updates a pre-existing aphorism ("Company of two, company of three" and applies it to his own subversive measures, simultaneously ridiculing two distinct cultural specimens, the clichéd love triangle of drama French and English marriage. The convergence of art and life in the epigram is for Wilde a pillar which bases his observations on two grounds, the aesthetic and the natural, and adds contemporaneity for his Victorian audience while maintaining universality for future performance. What must be a relatively universal puzzle to members of the audience is Algernon's bigoted language to Jack: "Besides, now that I know you are a confirmed Bunburyist, I naturally want to tell you about Bunburying. I want to tell you the rules” (1633). These "rules", one assumes, are the unwritten codes of homosexuality, and since Algernon never gives the game away by explaining what they are, Wilde explodes another duality in the theater: which members of the audience “understand” and which ones are left in the dark. While Algernon and Jack codify Bunburying in defiance of the modest audience, Wilde deploys another character/audience duality: the comically dissonant effect of emphasizing the female characters' ignorance of a situation over their knowledge of the situation. truth by the public. The meeting of Gwendolen and Cecily is an excellent example of such farcical confusion, from which Wilde extracts elements of the mercurial nature of female emotion. Gwendolen's opening lines foreshadow their problematic relationship, born of misinformation about name and appearance, which plays against the public's superior position: “Cecily Cardew? What a very sweet name! Something tells me we're going to become great friends. I already love you more than I can say. My first impressions of people are never wrong” (1653). Her blindness to circumstances is made physical through the use of a play on words: “Cecily, mother, whose views on education are remarkably strict, raised me to be extremely short-sighted; it is part of his system; So does it bother you that I look at you through my glasses? (1653) His dim understanding of the situation provokes more laughter, especially when it banishes any doubt of foul play: “Ernest has a strong upright nature. He is the very soul of truth and honor. Disloyalty would be as impossible for him as deception” (1654). Although deception is the most egregious offense, the word disloyalty recalls his Bunbury promiscuity and brings us back to the binary of sexuality. Once the women are officially at odds, Wilde is able to criticize the Victorian politeness that often hides ill will. In the absence of witnesses, a merciless fight takes place: “CÉCILY. Now is not the time to wear the superficial mask of good manners. When I see a cat, I call it a cat. GWENDOLEN. [satirically] I'm happy to say I've never seen a cat. It is obvious that our social spheres have been very different” (1655). In class-conscious England, this is a devastating insult and, interestingly, it is "the presence of servants [that] exerts a restraining influence, under.