Wilde, Society, And Society Drama

8/11/2019 Wilde, Society, And Society Drama

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This essay was prepared for the production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnestat

People's Light & Theatre Company, Malvern, P, in !une, "##$% arious parts of the essay wereused y the artistic staff and company, in program notes, in teachers' manuals, and in press

pac(ets%)

Wilde, Society, and Society Drama

Cary M. Mazer

On *eruary "+-t% alentine's .ay"/#0, London was cho(ed with a ma1or snow storm% 2ut

this could not prevent the opening night of The Importance of Being Earnest, at the -t% !ames's

Theatre, from eing a ma1or social event% This was in part due to the stunning popularity of OscarWilde in the theatre3 The Importance of Being Earnestwas Wilde's fourth popular West 4nd play

in only three years, andAn Ideal Husbandhad only opened a month efore and was still playing

to pac(ed house at the 5aymar(et Theatre a few loc(s away% *ashionale London was out inforce, in their most elegant clothes% s a triute to Wilde's dandified aestheticism, women wore

sprays of lilies as corsages6 and many young men wore lilies of the valley in the uttonholes oflapels of their tailcoats% Wilde spent most of the performance ac(stage, ut he was neverthelessdressed in what one iography called 7the depth of fashion73 7his coat had a lac( velvet collar6

he carried white gloves6 a green scara ring adorned one of his fingers6 a large unch of seals on

a lac( moir rion watch chain hung from his white waistcoat6 and, li(e the young men in thestalls, he wore lilies of the valley in his uttonhole%7

udiences came dressed in evening formal to opening nights then6 in fact, you hadto wear

evening formal dress anynight if you wanted to sit in the stalls 8what we call the orchestra9 or the

dress circle 8the first alcony9% nd this was true not only at the -t% !ames's Theatre utthroughout 7Theatreland,7 the entertainment district in the West 4nd of metropolitan London% *or

theatregoing was more than an entertainment medium or an art form3 it was ma1or leisure activityfor people of all social classes, part of a networ( of uran activities that included private clus,

restaurants, pus, cafes, hotels, and casinos%

:n the "/#;s, there were over fifty theatres in greater London, most of the them in the West 4nd, a

half do


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designed y the pre@aphaelite artist -ir 4dward 2urne!ones and incidental music y -ir rthur

-ullivan6 :rving would 1oin their ran(s when he received a (nighthoodthe first actor to e thushonoredlater that year9% Aou could see melodrama at the delphi Theatre, operetta at the -avoy

8where the ?ilert and -ullivan collaorations had received their premieres9, and musical

comedies at the ?aiety 8An Artist's Model, one of a series of musicals with wor(ingclass

heroines, had 1ust opened there in *eruary, "/#09% ariety entertainment of all sorts could eseen in the Music 5alls, either in smo(efilled taverns in wor(ing class neighorhoods, in chic

cosmopolitan halls tuc(ed away in the West 4nd, or in glittering theatres li(e the 4mpire on

Leicester -Buare, which offered picturesBue allete>travaganander at the -t% !ames'sspecialiual 7doule standard7 and the 7prolem7 of the 7fallen woman%7

One such play, The Second Mrs Tanquerayy rthur Wing Pinero, had een presented y ?eorge

le>ander at the -t% !ames's Theatre two years earlier, with the fiery and e>otic actress Mrs%Patric( Campell ecoming an instant star as the former (eptwoman trying to fit into the

respectale world of her upperclass husand% We hear a parodic echo of plays li(e The Second

Mrs Tanqueraywhen !ac( Worthing 8played y le>ander9, in the final act of The Importance of

Being Earnest, says of Miss Prism 8who he mista(enly elieves to e his longlost and unmarried

mother9, 7who has the right to cast a stone against one who has suffered Cannot repentance wipe

out an act of folly Why should there e one law for men, and another for women7 2ut for all of

their epigramatic wit and parado>ical attitudes towards life, Oscar Wilde's other "/#;s societycomedies 8ady !indermere's "an,A !oman of #o Importance, andAn Ideal Husband9 are all

serious 7prolem7 dramas aout the intractaility of se>ual doulestandards and the personal

costs of respectaility, precisely those issues that Wilde appears 8at least9 to e satiri


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whole was a mirror in which fashionale audiences could see fashionale images of their own

fashionale world of athomes, dinner parties, and countryhouse wee(ends6 a world in whichgentlemen with hyphenated surnames, dressed in carefullycreased trousers and elegant cravats,

made small tal( with titled ladies dressed a la mode, and flirted, for a moment only, with the

dreaded possiilities of adultery and interclass marriage6 a world in which one could pause for a

moment to consider what to do with the women of doutful reputation in one's midst, ut whereone would not hesitate to anish these 7fallen7 women ac( to their declasseworld of Parisian

oarding houses and secondrate continental resort towns%

With regard to clothing, -ociety .rama at the fashionale theatres was a mirror literally as well

as figuratively% ctors employed y ?eorge le>ander at the -t% !ames's were contractuallyreBuired to dress appropriately 7offstage as well as on,7 and could e fired if spotted wal(ing in

Picadilly during the day in anything less than a welltailored morning coat% Dew -ociety .ramas

would often premier at the eginning of the London 7season,7 and women would wait until theysaw the fashions worn y the female characters in the play efore they ordered their new gowns

and hats% nd woulde highfashion couturiers with assumed *rench names would design

theatrical costumes for -ociety .ramas and then, their reputations estalished, ecame highsociety dress designers in the 7real7 world instead%

2ut if theatre is a mirror, it is a flattering mirror that lets the viewer see only what he or she wants

to see% nd the mirrorimage relationship etween the audience and the play in lateictorian

-ociety .rama is more notale for what the theatre chose to leave out than what it mirrored% *orthe world of high society and high fashion was more porous than anyone in society cared to

admit6 and the theatre, as it often does, emodied y its very theatrical nature the instaility of the

4nglish class system%

This was certainly true of the theatre auditorium% udiences in even the most fashionale theatresincluded memers of every class, from aristocrats and financiers, to usinessmen and

professionals, to shop(eepers, cler(s, and artisans, to servants and laorers% The lower classes had

their own seating areas, with their own entrances, loies, ars, and athrooms in the theatre% 2ut,in the more e>pensive parts of the house, the auditorium was y no means as segregated as

memers of 7society7 might wish% fter all, not everyone could e admitted to a fashionale

drawingroom6 ut anyone who could afford the higherpriced tic(et and had the right clothingcould sit in the stalls or the dress circle%

The actors on stage emodied these social amiguities% Towards the end of the century, as the

theatrical profession ecame more respectale, acting was no longer the e>clusive province of

theatrical families, social outcasts, and women of loose moralsthe class of people that centuriesefore had een legally classified as 7rogues and vagaonds76 and respectale, educated people

from the middle classes could now enter the profession without too much social stigma% 2ut even

then, actors were certainly not, in their social origins, the aristocrats and ladies and gentlemen

they successfully pretended to e on stage in -ociety .rama% ?eorge le>ander was typical of hisgeneration of actors3 his father was in dry goods, and he dropped out of school when he was

fifteen to e a cler( in a London office, 1oined a parttime amateur dramatic society, and then

went into acting professionally% Do wonder le>ander insisted that his actors dress well onstageand off3 only y their aility to wear perfectlytailored clothes and a perfectlychosen uttonhole

could actors convince audiences that they were, in manners, the gentlemen they pretended to


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play% One of le>ander's most popular rolesin a dramati% We can guess why !ac( 8under his assumed name9 and hisfriend lgernon Montcrieff go to the 4mpire% nd we can only imagine where lgernon goes on

his 72unurying7 e>peditions once he's gotten out of his dinner engagement with his unt, Lady

2rac(nell% We can certainly see why Lady 2rac(nell is so concerned aout her daughter's

prospective fiance's Bualifications for marrying into the family, and whether Worthing's fatherwas orn in the 7purple of commerce,7 or whether he rose 7from the ran(s of the aristocracy%7

nd we can see why Worthing's 7contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life7 reminds

Lady 2rac(nell 7of the worst e>cesses of the *rench @evolution % % % and : presume you (nowwhat that unfortunate movement led to7 The Importance of Being Earnestdepicts a world in

which the est (ept secrets are the ones that everyone (nows6 a world in which everyone (nows

very well that their world is not as stale, as e>clusive, or as moral as it pretends to e6 and aworld in which everyone appreciates the vital importance of maintaining at all cost what they

(now to e the fictions of everyday life%


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Which rinngs us ac( to the opening night of The Importance of Being Earnestat the -t% !ames's

Theatre on alentine's .ay, "/#0, and the lily of the valley in Oscar Wilde's lapel% Two yearsefore, at the opening ofady !indermere's "anat the same theatre, Wilde, along with one of

the characters in the play, had worn a green carnation, an open ac(nowledgement of the

homose>ual suculture to which Wilde and many of his friends elonged% :n "/#0, while The

Importance of Being Earnestwas in rehearsal, Wilde was in the middle of his trouled ut longterm relationship with Lord lfred .ouglas, and was eing pursued y .ouglas's father, the

pugnacious and homophoic MarBuis of Fueensury 8author of 7Fueensury rules7 of o>ing9%

Fueensury had ought a tic(et to the opening night of The Importance of Being Ernest, planningto disrupt the play with a demonstration% policemen met Fueensury at the door and prevented

his admission% Two wee(s later, Fueensury left a calling card in Wilde's mailo> at the

lemarle clu, with a note written on it3 7To Oscar Wilde, posing as a -omdomite%7 The spellingerror 8he no dout meant 7sodomite79 and the cautious reference to Wilde's 7pose7

notwithstanding, Wilde decided to ta(e legal action and sued Fueensury for liel% Wilde lost the

case6 he was arrested for sodomy immediately after, tried, convicted, and sentenced to two years

hard laor%

.uring the height of the controversy, le>ander withdrew The Importance of Being Earnestfrom

performance% 5e revived it in "#;G, without the disgraced author's name on the program% Only in

a revival in "#;# did le>ander return Wilde's name to the ill, and the play had the long andcommercially successful theatrical run that it deserved%

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Wilde, Society, And Society Drama