The Importance of Being Ernest

                                       

In The Importance of Being Earnest, play-write Oscar Wilde expresses his criticism of the views and ideals during the Victorian Era. During this era people placed more importance on trivial things, such as outward appearance or social status, than the more pressing issues at hand. This allowed the people of this time to escape the stress and pressure of serious issues simply by prioritizing silly things over serious things. Much to this effect, the characters that Wilde creates escape from their problems by moving from the country to the city and living there for days at a time assuming alter egos.

As Jack Worthing and his best friend Algernon Moncrieff nobly cater to the needs of their fictional brother and friend, they are, in reality, using these characters to escape the monotony of their everyday lives. Their desire to avoid serious topics and issues is also evident as they quickly change the topic to meaningless things, such as cucumber sandwiches or the proper way to eat muffins, whenever faced with potentially difficult or unpleasant situations. An important scene where this is evident is in the very beginning of the play, where Algernon is getting prepared for his aunt, Lady Bracknell, to come to visit. As Jack enters the scene the topic is quickly changed to cucumber sandwiches. It is definitely more important that Lady Bracknell is coming to visit, however Jack and Algernon are too caught up in fighting about cucumber sandwiches to finish the preparation for her visit.  

During the Victorian Era, there was a tremendous amount of importance put on superficial ideals such as social status, wealth, appearance, etiquette, and manners. This was exaggerated by Wilde as his characters were more focused on the proper way to eat muffins than dealing with working out their relationships with Gwendolen and Cecily in the city. Their recreated selves, first used as an escape from reality, now create a more serious and complex issue when they fall in love with Gwendolen and Cecily. As the girls realize that they have been lied to about the true identities of their fiances, the men come close to losing their future wives. At a time when they should be thinking of ways to fix this problem, they instead quibble about how one should not eat muffins in an agitated manner, for one might get butter on his cuff. This change in topic and shallow argument show their tendency to avoid their problems, much like how they escape to the city in the first place. Had they not used this physical separation as an escape, this web of issues would never have occurred.

Perhaps if society, during this period, was not so rigid and obsessed with outward appearances, then the characters of Jack and Algernon would not have felt the need to escape by physically moving themselves from one location to another. The strict rules and ideals of this time period were the reason why the characters felt this overwhelming need to escape, not only emotionally but physically as well.

In this comical play, Wilde ridicules the attitude of society during the Victorian Era by creating humorous characters that use relocation and avoidance as a means of not dealing with the more serious issues, or facing the monotony of their lives. As a result, their lives become even more complicated and bigger problems arise. This shows that the attitude and views of the Victorian Era were flawed, and therefore Wilde scoffs at people of this era.

                          
WARNING: Do not eat muffins in an agitated manner, you may get butter on your cuff!

Poem Analysis

Introduction to Poetry-Page88

Introduction to Poetry, by Billy Collins, uses vivid imagery and diverse metaphores in order to portray the thought that poetry needs to be experienced instead of viciously pulled apart and analyzed in order to obtain the full meaning and impact of it. The narrator is trying to teach naive, and most likely younger, pupils how to properly read and find the true meaning of poetry. He uses metaphores such as "drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out" in order to show that poetry has depth to it, and should be looked at on more than one level. A poem should not be viewed just as words on a peice of paper that if you squint hard enough, will magically form some wonderful lesson or meaning that will change your view of the world. Instead it should be explored and looked at from different angles. The structure and diction are not all that make up a poem, not all that contain the meaning of the work as a whole, though they can be helpful. A poem should be viewed as an experience to be had, "or walk inside of the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch." When the lights are out, eyes cannot see words on paper, so instead other senses must be used to explore the unfamiliar setting and search for the purpose of this 'room.' The narrator also describes how poems should be felt on various levels for all that they are truely worth, "water-ski across the surface of a poem," the answers lying hidden below the surface. "But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means." As students taught to analyze literature by structure, diction, word choice, and tone, his students often go straight to trying to rip the lines apart without first experiencing the way the poem makes them feel. They neglect to notice the way that the narrator feels as she/he pours out feelings on a certain subject or event that has happened or is expected in the future, either awaited with anxiety or fear. The eloquent imagery also supports the fact that poems have complicated inner workings that cannot be looked at from only the outside, "or press an ear against its hive." The image of a bee hive is one of organized structure and purpose hidden within the thick walls of the nest. Every bee has its purpose, just like every word in a poem. However also like a poem, the jobs are not displayed out in the open. Only by peering into an opening in the structure can the true purpose of the bees that fly around a garden be seen. Beating the structure with a hose will surely crack it open, but it will likely also disrupt the process that is going on within, and therefore may cause a peice of its meaning to become lost or overlooked. Though the structure and words are important to a poem, when searching for a meaning it is sometimes best to sit back and let the meaning come out from hiding in the deep workings of the poem, rather than to try to rip apart its hiding space and drag it out by its toes.

I believe that this poem is very accurate. As naive students, we often try to focus on the structure and word choice of a poem for its literal meaning, and will stare at it for hours trying to have the meaning jump out at us, instead of simply reading and letting the meaning show itself. I do not mean to say that word choice and structure are not important; but instead, the way we usually go about discovering their importance is usually not correct. A red room is never just a red room, however staring at the walls does not magically make black words show themselves to explain why the walls are red. However, turning out the lights forces us to use our other senses and feel the meaning from other words in the poem, which can then be backed up by structure and word choice. I think that when analyzing poetry, one should take the time to explore every level and experience everything that the poem has to offer. In doing so, the meaning will reveal itself to you. What the person sitting next to you gets out of it does not matter, because you have discovered what the poem means to you and how it makes you feel. If you can back it up with evidence from the text, I don't think that a person grading your paper or AP exam will mind a new insight into the poem that perhaps they themselves had missed.


Poem Analysis

Reapers-Page 65

 

 

Reapers, by Jean Toomer, discusses the repercussions of going through life quickly and carelessly using a bold overstatement mixed with unpleasant, but effective, metaphores. As the first group of reapers prepares for the day, they are depicted sharpening their tools.The weeds, their obsticles of the day, stand before them; however they are smart, and know how to go about cutting each one down to size respectively. They "place the hones In their hip-pockets And start their swinging one by one." The other person uses black horses to "drive a mower though the weeds," quickly rushing though their work and carelessly kills a scared field rat. This field rat is a missed opportunity that was overlooked by the person driving the horses. Because they moved quickly and easily though life, using other things to overcome the obsticles, they ran the mower right through the field rat, that a more careful person would have noticed. The rat could also represent another, smaller person in life that can either be noticed and appreciated or ignored. The person with the team of horses not only goes through life alone, for it only takes one person to drive horses through a field, but also steps on others to quickly get ahead, "And there, a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds, His belly close to ground. I see the blade, Blood-stained, continue cutting weeds and shade." The driver not only killed the field mouse, but felt no remorse becasue he was not aware of his actions. Reaping, on the other hand, is usually done in groups and is much more careful and noticing of field rats. Doing this task by hand, also allows the reapers to grow throughout life becasue it is much more challenging and requires much more effort than using a machine. The narrator uses this overstatement of missed opportunities, or people not noticed throughout life as carelessly murdering field rats in order to show that going through life quickly can have some serious consequences. These consequences could range from a wonderful opportunity that was overlooked or a person that could have enriched the life of another or helped another, but instead could not spare the time or effort to even notice their existence. 

 

I agree with this poem, that life should not be sped through for the simple act of just getting through it. One should notice the things around them, whether it be opportunities, people, or simply a chance to smile at a picture or laugh at a joke. What is the point of life if you only focus on how to get ahead instead of enjoying yourself? I believe that people should go through life trying to capture every opportunity and make every moment count, becasue when it's over, it's over, and you do not get a chance to go back and fix things that you wish you could, or do things that you wish you had. I believe that people should not carelessly kill field rats, not only is it bad for the rats, but each one could have been the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to change a person's life, or a chance for someone else to change yours.