Revision of "Notes on 'Notes on Love and Marriage'"

Notes on “Notes on Love and Marriage”

An Analysis 

By

Hans Freiwald

Revision

Aug. 4, 2012

This blog will be a revision of my blog-post entitled "Notes on 'Notes on Love and Marriage.'"  The Revision will be based on comments posted by Raheem on July 16, 2012.

In this blog I will discuss the web article “Notes on Love and Marriage” by Michael Vance.  In his article Michael Vance dissects “The Importance of Being Earnest” by first comparing it to its author, Oscar Wilde, which he refers to as someone “for whom the regular rules for society don’t apply” (“Notes on Love and Marriage”).  Vance’s main point in stating this is that, it’s not hard for someone living outside of the societal norms to then see the absurdity in them.  Vance often refers to “The Importance of Being Earnest” as a satire, which he states “can be compared to a caricature in its ability to point up flaws and distinctive features by enlarging and expanding upon them to the point where they dominate the portrait and give it a distinctly comic dimension” (Vance).  Here Vance is just expounding on what he believes satire to be, which will help the reader to understand Wilde’s use of it in this particular play.  Once, Vance has given us this idea of Wilde as a satirist or “caricaturist,” we must then understand what his subject may be.  The answer I believe can be read in the title of Vance’s article, “Love and Marriage.”  This can also be seen by looking to the play directly.

Now, lets examine some specific examples of satire; directly from Wilde’s play and Vance’s article.  Already, in the first scene of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Wilde begins to analyze the institution of marriage in Algernon’s discussion with his manservant Lane.  Wilde writes:

Algernon: Why is it that at a bachelor’s establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne?  I ask merely for information.

Lane: I attribute it to the superior quality of the wine, sir.  I have often observed that in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand” (“The Importance of Being Earnest” 6).

Essentially what Wilde is saying is that after marriage the romantic love no longer exists.  Why purchase cheap champagne?  Because you no longer posses the desire to impart upon your partner the “finer” things in life (and of course this would also imply that through the loss of love for the other, you’ve also stopped loving yourself- you also now drink cheap champagne). Vance looks at another instance directly in his article.  Vance references Lady Bracknell’s visit to a woman who was recently widowed, and how she looked “altered.”  We then read on to find out that “altered” in this instance refers to looking better and even appearing younger.  So Wilde is satirizing marriage by stating that without it we can actually posses more youth and virility.  Again, we see this idea of marriage and it’s youth-defacing ability; first in the mind of the married by making cheaper, “more responsible” decisions (like buying cheap wine), and an actual physical change in outward appearance (the Bracknell statement). Finally, Wilde makes satire from the mere idea of proposing marriage.  Vance states that “for both women, marriage to anyone with another name would have been inconceivable even though they freely professed great love for the men who had asked them for their hands” (“Notes on Love and Marriage”).  With this I believe Wilde was showing the flaws in what society deemed were important factors in choosing whom one should Marry, and Vance is pointing out that this was Wilde’s intent.  As a final reiteration, I believe that there are multiple instances in Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” of satire towards “love and marriage” (which I only referenced three), and that at least may lean one towards the argument that it’s a major thread to be followed throughout the play.

Works Cited

Vance, Michael.  “Notes on Love and Marriage: Perspectives from Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest an analysis.”  May 2000. Web. 3 July 2012.

Wilde, Oscar.  “The Importance of Being Earnest.” New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2006. Print.