Victorian mores, class distinction & Wilde’s ‘anarcho-cynicalism’ (cont.) Cours 4

A reminder of Gagnier’s argument (reading Wilde as a Victorian ‘modernist’) Progress as a moral & political category , (as well as a technological or economic one) 3 pursuits : Bread (material well-being) Freedom (of thought) Knowledge (& education) … to be incl. in WIT

Views on marriage (cont.) Opprobrium on the adulterous &/or ‘fallen’ woman farcical version with Jack’s misunderstanding (wrongly assuming Miss Prism is his mother) Unmarried! I do not deny this is a serious blow. But after all, who has the right to cast a stone against one who has suffered? Cannot repentance wipe out an act of folly? Why should there be one law for men, and another for women? Mother, I forgive you. (Jack, Act 3, 57) Violence at home The General was essentially a man of peace, except in his domestic life. (Lady B. , Act 3, 58)

Gender How absurd to talk about the equality of the sexes! Where questions of self- sacrifice are concerned, men are infinitely beyond us.” (Gwendolen, Act 3, 48) The home seems to me the perfect sphere for the man. And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties, he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not ? And I don’t like that. It makes men so very attractive. (Gwendolen, Act 2, 39)

Organisation / plan 1. Classes & Masses 2. ‘Keeping up Appearances’ 3. Duplication & Duplicity

Key-words Codes Rules Law / Name Manners / fashion /style Conformity Re-presentation Repetition Simulacrum

1. Classes (& masses) Mr Worthing ! Rise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture. It is most indecorous. (Lady B., Act1, 16) The chin a little higher, dear, style largely depends the way he chin is worn. (Lady B., Act3, 51) - J. : …the late Mr. Thomas Cardew of 149 Belgrave Square, S.W.; Gervase Park, Dorking, Surrey; and the Sporran, Fifeshire, N.B. - Lady.B. : That sounds not unsatisfactory. Three addresses always inspire confidence, even in tradesmen. (Act 3, 50)

Either/or // Us & Them / town & country 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 (Algernon, Act 1, 6) Never speak disrecpectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that. (Lady B., Act 3, 51) You have a town house, I hope? A girl with a simple, unspoiled nature, like Gwendolen, could hardly be expected to reside in the country. (Lady B, Act 1, 18)

Of spades Cecily : …When I see a spade I call it a spade. Gwendolen : I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our socialspheres have been widely different. (Act 3, 41) --- “Everyone calling a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.”

distinctions Who was your father ? He was evidently a man of some wealth. Was he born in what the Radical papers call the purple of commerce, or did he rise from the ranks of the aristocracy ? (Lady B., Act 1, 18)

2. Appearances & propriety If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated. (Algernon, Act 2, 34) People always seem to think that they are improper and either look shocked, which is vulgar, or laugh, which is worse. (Lady B., Act 1, 14)

Private/ public I hope you will always look at me like that, especially when there are other people present (Gwendolen, Act 1, 16) (Cecily is about to retort. The presence of the servants exercise a restraining influence, under which both girls chafe) (Act 2, 41)

Conformity … a recognized position in society (Lady B. Act1, 19) to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent before the season is over. (Lady B, Act 1, 20) …. To marry into a cloak-room and form an alliance with a parcel (id.) In families of high position strange coincidences are not supposed to occur. (Lady B., Act 3, 56)

Words: indiscretion vs style and surface A cloak-room at a railway station might serve to conceal a social indiscretion (Lady B, Act 1, 19) In matters of grave importance, style not sincerity, is the vital thing (Gwendolen, Act 3, 47) We live in an age of surfaces (Lady B., Act 3, 51)

Looking vs being I am so afraid he will look just like everyone else. I have never met any really wicked person before. I feel rather frightened. I am so afraid he will look just like everyone else. […] I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy. (Cecily, Act 2, 27)