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Everyone is a Bunburyist in their own unique way. Some are more professional than others, some merely treat their Bunbury 's as a convinces of life, but in one way or another every person has a Bunbury. Like actors, the characters in oscar Wilde 's The Importance of Being Ernest search for personal liberty from their own unique circumstances by role play to fulfill their shallow desires. Algernon pursues personal liberty and amusement through Bunbury, Jack pursues the same through Ernest, and Cecily pursues personal liberty and affection through her self-scripted love life. Surrounded by the suppressions of social class and city life, Algernon, or Algy, frequently frees himself from the overbearing societal queen, his Aunt Bracknell, by introducing …show more content…
Though circumstantially different from his friend, Algernon, Jack still struggles under a heavy burden responsibility, but his duty is to his young and beautiful ward Cecily. Presented with these conditions, jack develops the alias of a troublesome younger brother named Ernest, who lives for the pursuit of pleasure. Under this alias, Jack enjoy the shallow pleasures in life, without taking responsibility for he actions of his “brother Ernest” (28), and easier than taking a train back to the country, Jack can return to the role of responsible guardian. In the words of Algernon to Jack, “you have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to town as often as you like” (6). Jack 's reason 's for Bunburying are quite in alignment with Algy 's. When Algy asks him what brings him to town, Jack cavalierly replies, “Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring anyone anywhere?” followed by, “When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring” (2). Thought they share the same reasons, Jack 's Bunbury is not “a dreadful invalid” (9), it is an Ernest. Assuming the Alias of a younger brother named …show more content…
In a way, Cecily too has an alias, her Banbury is her Romantic self. In her diary she creates an alternate version of herself, one who suffers the blissful pains of first love, engagement, heartbreak, and remorse. Her strong desire for romantic affection is blatantly obvious, and for this reason she too creates her own characters and follow her own script, and is in her own way an even more professional Bunburyist than either Jack or Algy. A girl of shallow desires, she places great value in the superfluous, such as physical appearance and wonton drama, making statements frequently like, “I know perfectly well that I look quite plain after my german lesson” (21), and “I don 't like novels that end happily. They depress me so much,” (22), and “I have never met any real wicked person before. I am so afraid he will look just like everyone else” (24), and “Oh I don 't think I would care to catch a sensible man. I shouldn 't know what to talk to him about,” (25). Similarly, when she finally sees Ernest, who is in actuality Algernon Bunburying as Jack 's little brother, she immediately falls in love, but her reasons for falling in love are just as superfluous as her fetish desires. In
Alyss concludes, “This marriage would please her mother, for her family’s sake” (Beddor 171). Alyss acts as a people pleaser when she accepts Leopold’s proposal. She doesn’t love Leopold, but accepts his proposal only to make her mother happy. Alyss has decided to no longer stand out and become like “every women” (Beddor 191). Alyss desires to conform and submit to ideas of society. She becomes normal and no longer stands out like odd Alyss. Mrs. Liddell exclaims “ The dress she had purchased months before, but which Alyss had always refused to wear it because she feared it would make her look normal”, Alyss now wears it ( Beddor 151). Alyss starts to dress like everyone in England. She no longer looks like a former Wonderlander, but becomes by all appearances a proper young
Throughout the book Alyce proves to be a very empathetic and caring young girl. One of the times Alyce shows her empathy, the Midwife was trying to help a woman give birth, but the lady was having some trouble and Jane tried so much that in the end she just gave up to go help someone else she knew would pay her more, deciding to abandon the woman who was in need of help. Alyce decided that it wasn’t fair, and that a lady shouldn’t be left like that when she needed help, “The memory of the proud, frightened, Joan of a moment ago kept her there. And she asked herself, What would the midwife so if she were here? … Alyce took a deep breath and returned to Joan’s side” (59), so she decided to help Joan even though the midwife was too selfish to do so. Alyce also respects the people who don’t respect her, so when the village boys that had recently stopped teasing her were doing something that would have definitely gotten them in trouble if the midwife had seen them, she knew they’d have been in trouble so she went up to the midwife and talked to her to hold her off so the boys could get away. Alyce likes helping people that need help when no one else will help them, for example when she’s found a job at an inn after she’s given up her career as a midwife’s apprentice and a few people ride to the inn asking for help because they claim the lord’s wife is being eaten by a stomach worm but Alyce immediately realizes the lady is pregnant and decides to help her even though she’s a bit uncertain at first because of her recent failure.
In the beginning of the novel, Alyss is characterized as dependent, loving, and imaginative. Throughout the story these traits mature and Alyss becomes more adult like but still is a little childish in certain scenes. One can say that the maturity that Alyss goes through affects herself later on in the story. During the story the
Dignity is not found in a person’s position, but in the way their actions reflect upon them. The novel
Each person, whether they realize it or not, has been shaped by their relationships with others. The effects that piers or family members can have on someone are limitless and often times profound. In many instances, people do not even know that they are being influenced by others. Even if it is in the most subtle manner, all characters in novels are directly influenced by other figures. Authors use rhetorical strategies to demonstrate the different ways in which relationships affect and shape character’s identities.
In the beginning of the novel, Alyss is characterized as bratty, imaginative, and a little too playful. She said to Bibwit Harte, “I won’t need any lessons” (Beddor 25). She thinks she is too smart for Bibwit and already knows everything. Alyss
Here, Alyss learned that she would need to live up to the real world responsibilities that people have to live up to everyday. Once in England, she was staying with a family that constantly tormented her about her claims of living in Wonderland, which caused her to lose faith in the place where she grew up and had to treat her beliefs and childhood as if they did not exist in order to live a normal life. Alyss even said, “Yes, it was a solution… Become just like everyone else.” (148) She began to accept the life of a normal girl and took on responsibilities like getting married. “If she’d had time to think about it, Alice might have stopped herself, considering the idea too whimsical. But the words had a force of their own, and only after she said them aloud did she realize just how appropriate the idea was. ‘Let’s have a masquerade.’” (172) At this point in time, Alyss Heart, or Alice Liddell, had just begun to take on the responsibility that any young adult would take at her
In JD Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, Franny Glass undergoes a mental and physical collapse, followed by a spiritual crisis. Every one of the Glass children is considerably precocious and deep thinking, and Franny and Zooey are no exception. With her fluctuating self-worth and perception, Franny begins to break down without any conscious awareness of why, which ultimately leaves her curled up on her mother’s couch in a state of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual crisis. This is why there is a need for urgent and vigorous “therapy” for Franny, and Zooey, having shared the elder Glass’ spiritual instruction, is the only character capable of providing any support for Franny.
At an early age of five, Amory was already his mother’s companion; they set off to see the country in his father’s car up to he reached the age of ten. The life Beatrice and Amory were living, was not quite conventional, they are separate from most people, but unique and quite distinct from the other wealthy people around them. Beatrice was a sophisticated and well educated woman and who ensured Amory grew up the same. These are things which set him apart from his peers.
Oscar Wildes ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’’ is believed by many to be his most genius work and certainly has withstood the test of time. The play is set in London during the 1890’s in which time frame aristocracy and upper class held the majority of the countries wealth. Many of the comical aspects question the morals of the upper class in which he satirises throughout the play. One method of this, for instance is through one of the main protagonist, Algernon Moncrieff. Algernon is an upper class individual who is oblivious to the world around him in such an exaggerated manner that it makes his character comically adjusted for Wildes own views. Many aspects of the time period are made a mockery through puns and witty remarks from the main protagonists, most if not all are portrayed in a sense that makes them undoubtedly a laughing stock. Wildes methods are not discrete; nor are they obvious, many of the comical comments made are by none other than the protagonists themselves. This furthermore enforces the corrupted morals of the time periods prestigious upper class by showing their sheer inability to acknowledge hypocrisy. For example, in act one; Algernon states “ Lane's views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.” This is especially amusing as Algernon believes that the lower class have a duty to set an example when in reality the matter of fact was quite the contrary. Algernon states that he believes the lower class are lacking in morals, he being arguably one of the most morally distorted characters Wilde created makes the double standards more prominent.
Gwendolen and Cecily act like air-heads and are easily won over by the men they plan to marry. Gwendolen simply wants to marry a man named Earnest. She tells Jack “my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest” (I.381-82). The mere idea of marrying a man for his name shows how easily Gwendolen can attach herself to a man. Marriage is the most serious of all relationships and Gwendolen is foolish to deter...
Jack, thinking he might have been that very baby, retrieves the bag he was found in as an infant in which Ms. Prism identifies by some distinguishing marks to have been her own. Jack realized the woman that had been teaching his niece was his mother. But then Lady Bracknell explained that she was not, but Lady Bracknell’s poor sister Mrs. Moncrieff was. The irony continues to explain how Jack and Algernon were biological brothers. They were pretending to be earlier to play out their game of Bunburyism.
...ngagement, their re-engagement. Cecily is not the natural country girl. She possesses the self-assurance of the experienced woman. Without being cynical she makes her desires clear. And when Gwendolen and Cecily discover that their Earnests are impostors whose names are Jack and Algernon they decide that love can be restored only if Jack and Algy christen themselves Earnest.
She had ironically died of a fever "the only warmth, I believe, that ever came to that woman's body" (14). Now alone because his daughter is away at a nunnery, he's found someone that can add a little life to his elite, high class existence; a little someone, we learn, that has a past that doesn't quite fit in with the rest of his friends. The problems begin in Act One, the exposition, on the night before Aubery's wedding to an unknown individual. Aubery has drinks and dinner with his three closest friends, Cayley Drummel, a bachelor, Doctor Gordon Jayne, and Frank Misquith, Q.C., M.P.
In conclusion, The Importance of Being Earnest strongly focuses on those of the upper class society and the vanity of the aristocrats who place emphasis on trivial matters concerning marriage. Both Algernon and Jack assume the identity of "Ernest" yet ironically, they both are beginning their marital lives based on deception and lies. Lady Bracknell represents the archetypal aristocrat who forces the concept of a marriage based on wealth or status rather than love. Through farce and exaggeration, Wilde satirically reveals the foolish and trivial matters that the upper class society looks upon as being important. As said earlier, a satirical piece usually has a didactic side to it.