Algernon Moncrieff

Algernon Moncrieff

1. Attitudes

   • Women, love and marriage
     • "All women become their mothers. That is their tragedy" P22
     • "The only way to behave to a women is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain." P23
       • Sexist to modern reader, Victorian context reflects A's focus on aesthetics
   • Social hierarchy
     • First interaction with Lane- "if the lower orders don't set us a good example what on earth is the use of them? They seems as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility."P5
       • Shortsighted outlook of the aristocratic class, more concerned with behaviour of others, rather than their own
       • It is a rather aristocratic name. Half the chaps who get into the bankruptcy court are called Algernon'. P43
     • His epigrams demonstrate a disrespect for the society he will inherit as an upperclass male
       • Highlights to repressive elements of this society
     • His social class bases importance on respectability and being Ernest (link to title of the play), Algernon makes himself the least Ernest person in the play, this attitude and characterisation allows Wild to criticise and satirise society.
       • 'My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures in the smallest degree.'P39
   • Etiquette and propriety
     • Algernon lives life of deceit, shapes ideas of etiquette to justify actions
       • "If it were my business I wouldn't talks about it. It is very vulgar to talk about one's business. Only people like stockbrokers do that...' p53
         • Has least respect for upperclass society but is given the greatest understanding of it, better allows for satirical comments
         • Exploits the word play and double meaning of 'one's business' to satires the uppercases dislike towards business, seen as vulgar to talk about having to make your own living. By contrast despite moral values gossip highly present because little else to talk about.
           • 'It is awfully hard work doing nothing" p24, idleness
   • Truth
     • "The truth is rarely plain and never simple" P10
       • Proclaims some of his epigrams as "a great truth", almost biblical language, equates women not marrying men they flirt with to fundamental "great truths" of philosophy p7
     • 'I don't play accurately- anyone can play accurately- but I play with wonderful expression."P4
       • Metaphor for his life- link to aestheticism, 'Sin helps assert individuality and avoid the monotony of conformity
       • About surface appearance, link quote about his own dialogue being 'perfectly phrased'P22, often periphrastic (serving no function and expressing no information, for effect) Aestheticism argues nothing wrong with this, things allowed to exists without fulfilling a higher purpose.
   • Education
     • See's Miss Prism (symbol for education) as 'a short-sighted old lady'. P32
     • 'More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read' P8, suggesting restrictive base of society means culture actually based more on what is forbidden than what is embraced.
       • 'Oh! it is absurd to have a hard-and-fast rule about what one should read...' P8
         • Link to themes of etiquette, 'hard-and-fast rules' of etiquette what is being satirised throughout play
     • "You should leave that (literary criticism) to people who haven't been to university." P10

2. How he fits key motifs

   • Town and country
     • Strangely hypocritical- 'What on earth do you do there? ( the countryside) p5
       • Yet invents Bunbury in order to escape to the countryside, 'I have invented a permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order I may be able to go down into the countryside whenever I choose.'
         • Functions to explore desire and repression, escape anywhere
       • Conveys shock- stereotypes of the time about town and country, country little happening socially or culturally
   • Truth and fiction
     • Bunbury
       • "You can put up my dress clothes, my smoking jackets and the Bunbury suits.' p26
         • Blurs the lines between fact and fiction to create humour, 'You can hardly have forgotten that someone very closely connected with you was very nearly carried off this week in Paris with a severe chill.' p55
     • Also linked to his idea of scrapes
       • Jack:.. 'Your friend Bunbury will get you into a serious scrape one day.' A: I love scrapes. They are the only things that are never serious.' p26
         • Finds escapism in fiction of 'scrapes',
           • 'a perfectly wonderful Bunbury it is. The most wonderful Bunbury I have ever had in my life.' 52
   • Food
     • "I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them." p12
     • Algernon the main character tied to this theme
     • You can't possibly ask me to go without having some dinner. It's absurd." p54
       • Allows Wilde to explore themes of greed in a physical presence on stage
   • Satire
     • "Well, one must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life" p52
       • Link to the subtitle of the play, 'a serious comedy for trivial people.'
         • Seriousness to be avoided, commit yourself only to the trivial, and try to shape life as art, this concept should be serious but little else.
           • Algernon: 'What on earth you are serious about I haven't the remotest idea. About everything I should fancy. You have such a trivial nature' p53
             • Idea of aestheticism and something existing for its own sake and beauty/effect. To judge everything and make moral judgements is shallow. Link to Wilde, who within this play, encourages lack of judgement, Algernon and all other characters exist free from this creating a largely amoral world, which Algernon embodies the most.
     • Algernon is the Dandy- often the subject of satire
       • Here Wilde makes him his representative, often conveys the greatest truths through satirising wider society not the individual.

3. Language

   • In repartee often repeats phrases or syntax of another but increases to emotive power of the language in order to upstage,humorous as the audience sees the emotional depth and intelligence equally void.
     • Jack: 'I wanted to be engaged to Gwendolen, that is all. I love her.' Algernon: Well, I simply wanted to be engaged to Cecily. I adore her' p53
       • Also shows the social and characterised similarities in him and Jack, are interchangeable along with Cecily and Gwendolen to highlight the emotional immaturity of this society, and its impact on relationships.
       • Uses flamboyantly expressive and lavish adjective throughout to dramatise speech, 'terrible disappointment' 'dreadful invalid' 'incompatible beauty'
   • Epigrams use inversion, taking a common statement and forces us to rethink it to reveal new truth
     • For example: 'Divorces are made in Heaven'p7, marriage seen as morally upright, therefore to see divorce through images of light and religious goodness highlights the double standard, society pushes marriages as holy and correct things yet consequences of this seen as corrupted and vulgar. Suggests the idea two people must stay married at all cost whatever circumstances of marriage are, is not healthy or the best way to live.
       • Algernon's epigrams work not only to keep high paced, comedic atmosphere but also to highlight how common saying are often taken as 'great truths (quote from Algernon- link to Aestheticism and absence of absolute truth)', they demonstrate the danger of over simplifying life of human nature.
   • Articulation most pronounced of all characters, waver though in moments of emotion of pressure (from LB)
     • When reciting love to Cecily coughs and losses semantic control as convention takes over, 'I have loved you... hopelessly', he is engaged to her. P41
     • P59 Stutters, when LB present and questioning him about Bunbury in Act 3
     • Algernon able to use repartee most effectively (except LB) to establish power dynamics over Jack

4. Interactions with other characters

   • Jack
     • Characterised as very similar and almost interchangeable, link to the being brothers, are given personality in Wilde's signature style, personalities not character, giving appearance and surfaces for effects, not deep or developed.
       • Personality derives from the latin persona, meaning mask or disguise
         • Aestheticism- Wilde believed the mask (personality) was more important than the face (character)
       • Interchangeability of four main leader satirises society, brings into question views about romantic love
       • reflected in repeated line and syntactical structure and stage directions, (Jack and Algy both move together like Siamese twins in every movement.)
       • Algernon more distinct than Jack as given superior wit and flamboyance, whereas Jack has pseudo-moralisic views, 'My dear Algy, i don't know whether you will be able to understand my real motives. Your are hardly serious enough.' p10
         • "I certainly wouldn't let Jack buy my outfit. He has not taste in neckties at all."p31
           • "I never saw anybody take so long to dress, and with such little result." p39
         • Both however have same result,Bunburying, marriage
   • Cecily
     • Apprecaites her for aesthetic beauty, play encourages no judgement for this, functions to satirise the sentimentalist notions of Victorian society: "A sentimentalist", Oscar Wilde wrote, "is one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it."
       • When first hears about her wants to 'see' her rather than meet her p23
       • "Because you are like a pink rose, Cousin Cecily" p32
   • Aunt Augusta
     • Works as moral obstacle in the play's plot, Algernon works against her but still bows to her authority
       • LB: 'I hope you are behaving well" A: "I am feeling very well Aunt Augusta" LB: That's not quite the same thing. In fact the two things rarely go together." p12
         • A: 'And I don't care twopence about social possibilities.' LB: 'Never speak disrespectfully of Society Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do that.'p61
       • Repetition of 'Thank you Aunt Augusta' in final Act
       • Because Algernon male given more freedom from LB than Cecily- 'Algernon of course can choose for himself' p64
     • Contrasting to how she is viewed in private
       • 'I love hearing my relations abused... Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live...' p22
   • Gwendolen
     • Very few interactions
       • Algernon viewed by G with same moralistic view as her mother, "You always adopt a strictly immoral attitude towards life." p24
         • "Strictly immoral" an inversion blending of the semantic fields Victorian society's propriety. Links closely to Algernon's character, inversion through him being an upper class victorian male at centre of society, yet complete lack of respect for it
     • Algernon uses position as her cousin to annoy Jack- have to link to Victorian context and permission to marry- Marriage agreement complication key elements of the genre of the comedy of manners. Here Algernon almost aware of genre as he denies simply to add drama to his own life.
       • In reality has no power in decision, up to LB, Wilde uses elements of genre to move plot forward, threat of consent introduced Cecily
         • 'My dear fellow, Gwendolen is my first cousin. And before I allow her to marry her, you will have to clear up the whole question of Cecily' p7