Contrasts in TIOBE

Contrasts in TIOBE

1. Country and City

   • Wilde uses the contrast between country and city to provide a way for the Jack to have a 'dual personality'
     • This is represented by the dual nature of 'Jack' and 'Ernest'.
   • CONTEXT: In the countryside, people would lead a much calmer life than in the city. They would spend time looking after their estates and visiting local friends.
     • There would be entertainment at people's houses, but there would not be the same level of things to do in leisure time as in the city.
     • Jack tells us that he does not enjoy life in the country because it is too boring, because he is expected to provide entertainment for other people, whilst when in the city he is only required to entertain himself. This would have been a sentiment many Victorian men would have shared.
       • JACK: "When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people."
       • Gwendolen also voices this opinion
         • GWENDOLEN: "Personally I cannot understand how anybody manages to exist in the country... The country always bores me to death."
   • CONTEXT: Aristocratic people would usually have a house in the city/rooms in the city, and an estate in the country. They would move between the two at will, but would stay in the city for 'The Season.'
   • CONTEXT: In the city, young people would be able to go to plays, parties and banquets. During the season young girls would be 'presented' at court and everyone would scrabble for invitations to the best parties, to show their status in society.
   • Cecily and Gwendolen use the contrast between the City and the Country in their argument.
     • Gwendolen uses her experience of city life to patronise Cecily and to imply that she is of a higher status.
       • GWENDOLEN: "Cake is rarely seen in the best houses nowadays."
     • Cecily makes cutting statements about the city and the country, showing a preoccupation with class
       • CECILY: "Oh flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London."
   • The City and etiquette
     • Lady Bracknell tells us that there are particular places in the city that are more appropriate & fashionable
       • LADY BRACKNELL: "The unfashionable side. I thought there was something."

2. Role of Men & Women

   • In this play the tradition trope of the man being more forward and the woman being more timid and reserved is reversed.
     • This can be seen both with Gwendolen&Jack and Algernon&Cecily.
       • CECILY: "You dear romantic boy. (he kisses her, she puts her fingers through his hair.)
       • GWENDOLEN: ... I think it only fair to tell you quite frankly beforehand that I am fully determined to accept you.
   • CONTEXT: In the Victorian times, society was overprotective of women owing to the fact they prized virginity. This means it would not have been acceptable for unmarried men and women to be in the same room.
     • this is often inverted in the play to shock the audience and to invert expectiations
       • Lady Bracknell and Algernon go into the music room, Gwendolen remains behind
   • Wilde also subverts power associated with gender- normally it would be assumed the father would have all the power, but Lady Bracknell wields influence over Algernon & Gwendolen, and Lord Bracknell is barely mentioned.
     • LADY BRACKNELL: Mr Worthing! Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture!
     • LADY BRACKNELL: It would put my table completely out. Your uncle would have to dine upstairs. Fortunately he is used to that.
   • Wilde uses many inversions which play on traditional notions of gender.
     • GWENDOLEN: The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for the man. And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not?
   • Wilde both reinforces and subverts traditional ideas of gender by his unexpected lines/characterisation of his characters, but also by his expected characterisation of his characters (especially the women)
     • Reinforcement of gender roles can be seen in the catfight between Gwendolen and Cecily. Women catfighting is a trope that often appears when women disagree in literature.
       • Wilde also reinforces traditional ideas about women by presenting Gwendolen and Cecily as caring to an extreme extent about their marriages.
         • CECILY: You silly boy! Of course. Why, we have been engaged for the last three months.

3. Youth & Age

   • JACK
     • In the city, Jack seems younger because he does not have the responsibility of looking after Cecily. He enjoys his leisure more and appears more irresponsible.
       • In the country, Jack seems more staid and formal because he has the responsibility of looking after Cecily.
         • CECILY: "Dear Uncle Jack is so very serious! Sometimes he is so serious that I think he cannot be quite well."
       • ALGERNON: "What brings you up to town?" JACK: "Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere?"
   • Lady Bracknell wields power because of her age- she is respected, feared and revered by those around her.
     • She fits the trope of controlling and elderly aunts which appears a lot in VictorianEdwardian literature
       • See- Aunt Agatha in Jeeves & Wooster novels by P.G. Woodhouse and Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.
   • CONTEXT- the boys are typical 'men of leisure', who don't have jobs and whose only role is to have fun and perhaps look after an estate.
     • This explains why they are living for pleasure and they seem to have a lot of time on their hands to concoct tricks and schemes to secure the women they are interested in.
       • JACK: "Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring one anywhere?"