Hello learners,
Today i want to discuss about character sketch of Cecily Cardew of the play "The Importance of Being Earnest". "The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People" is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations. Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways. Some contemporary reviews praised the play's humour and the culmination of Wilde's artistic career, while others were cautious about its lack of social messages. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most enduringly popular play.
Here I'm going to share some v points about character of CECILY CARDEW. There are four female character in this play :
Lady Augusta Bracknell,
Gwendolen Fairfax,
Cecily Cardew,
Miss Prism
The female character which is the most attractive to me among this all is Cecily Cardew. Because she is portrayed as realistic character among all the women in "The Importance of Being Earnest".
She is of a very nice age; she is 18. She has a governess Miss Prism who tutors her for a long time. She is a very romantic, imaginative, kind, sensitive girl who feels the repression of Prism's rules. Cecily is a little bit silly and naïve girl, and we understand it after she declares that she wants to meet a "wicked man." Also, she is described as less sophisticated than Gwendolen.
◆Dreaming Lady:-
She is known as “dreaming lady” for the reason that she always remains in dreams. “Earnest” is unknown to her yet she is engaged to him. She even writes him letters. She deeply in love with the name of Ernest, the younger brother of uncle jack ( in reality there isn't any character name Ernest, it's imaginative character by her uncle jack ). But she don't know about that. Even she once tell to uncle jack that she wants to meet his younger brother Ernest. If we think about today's generation some of us are living in dream world, they aren't think what is real, but they were like to live in that dreamy world. And sometimes they are fail to accept the reality which can hurt them a lot.
◆Habit of Writing Diary:-
She writes a diary on regular basis with the logic that she would forget everything if she does not write a diary. Furthermore, she is a keen observer. This is very good habit to write diary, if we forgot anything so we can see in it and take it advantage. If we see it with today's perspective we find that in day to day life we forget many things which is important for us. In ancient time people write diarys for their to remember. Some people still uses diary for their better convenient, but many of us uses mobile phone for saving and writing anything which is important and useful. The blog is one of the part of them. Cecily is clever and cunning with her exchanges with Gwendolen.
◆Satire through Cecily :-
It is also matter of fact that most of the satirical dialogues are uttered from the mouth of Cecily Cardew. It seems that Oscar Wilde has created her for the purpose of satire. As compared to other characters of “The Importance of Being Earnest”, she is sensible. We find many examples of satire through Cecily. Let's see some of them:
CECILY: Algy, would you wait for me till I was thirty-five? ALGERNON: Of course I could, Cecily. You know I could.
CECILY: Yes, I felt it instinctively, but I couldn’t wait all that time. I hate waiting even five minutes for anybody. It always makes me rather cross. I am not punctual, myself, I know, but I do like punctuality in others, and waiting, even to be married, is quite out of the question. ALGERNON: Then what is to be done, Cecily?
CECILY: I don’t know, Mr. Moncrieff.
---●Cecily consults Algernon about the new requirement set down by her guardian, Jack: She can’t be married without Jack’s permission until she reaches the age of thirty-five. Algernon’s willingness to wait years confirms Cecily’s suspicion of his ambivalence about marriage. Here we see dominance of parents are upon to their children and children have to be performed like them. Here I'm sharing one video of the original play for understand the real conversation and dialogue.
* Video of Original Play :-
Gwendolen and Cecily meet in Act II of The Importance of Being Ernest. Gwendolen has traveled to Jack's country house to surprise him, but he is out when she arrives, so she meets Cecily. When the women first meet, Gwendolen finds out that Cecily is Jack's ward and feels somewhat threatened by Cecily's good looks. She says to her:
''. . .I wish that you were fully forty-two, and more than usually plain for your age. Ernest has a strong upright nature. He is the very soul of truth and honour. Disloyalty would be as impossible to him as deception. But even men of the noblest possible moral character are extremely susceptible to the influence of the physical charm of others.''
---●Here we can see the jealously between two womens. They think that they both are fall in love with same person named Ernest.
Cecily may be younger, less fashionable, and less sophisticated than Gwendolen, but she can give as good as she gets. We can see it in this conversation:
Gwendolen: Are there many interesting walks in the vicinity, Miss Cardew?
Cecily: Oh! yes! a great many. From the top of one of the hills quite close one can see five counties.
Gwendolen: Five counties! I don't think I should like that; I hate crowds.
Cecily: [Sweetly] I suppose that is why you live in town? [Gwendolen bites her lip, and beats her foot nervously with her parasol.]
Gwendolen: [Looking round] Quite a well-kept garden this is, Miss Cardew.
Cecily: So glad you like it, Miss Fairfax.
Gwendolen: I had no idea there were any flowers in the country.
Cecily: Oh, flowers are as common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London.
---● Here we can see that Cecily is gives an answer to Gwendolen. Here she makes satire on this.
◆Realistic Character :-
She is the most realistic character of the play “The Importance of Being Earnest”. Crcily is second most realistic character after jack. As we know that all characters are living double life for their benefits, like Jack (who make story of his elder brother Ernest) but jack is very reasonable man. He never do bad thing with the help of his imaginative character, and Algernon (who make story of his friend Banbury) moreover he become Ernest for Cecily. Thus we talk about the female characters we can see that lady Bracknell who is firstly won't agree with the engagement of Algernon and Cecily but after knowing the wealthiness of Cecily Cardew she agreed with the engagement of Algernon and Cecily. How selfish she is ! Cecily won't wear any mask for her personal ambition and desire. She speaks truth despite its bitter.
If we talk about present time,
"Real are Rare"
People live multiple lifes. They have lots of masks for hiding their truth, reality and relations.
◆Jolly Nature:-
Like other characters of “Importance of Being Earnest”, Cecily has a good sense of humor but her nature is “jolly”. She does not like Uncle Jack’s seriousness. She has very good level of understanding. Furthermore, she is a keen observer. She knows that Dr. Chasuble is in love with Miss Prism. She develops link between them. If go through the play we can see that Cecily is very beautiful.
◆The Country Girl :-
Part of what makes Cecily attractive to Algernon is her seeming simplicity. She’s not intellectual like Gwendolen, who very early on scolds Jack, "Ah! that is clearly a metaphysical speculation, and like most metaphysical speculations has very little reference at all to the actual facts of real life, as we know them".
We can’t really imagine Cecily talking about metaphysics or facts, for that matter. Cecily does everything she can to vigorously avoid Miss Prism’s attempts to educate her. She’s innocent Gwendolen might say ignorant. She waters the plants, writes in her diary, and waits for the day that Ernest will come and propose.
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. Cecily and Gwendolyn are one type of women who loves the name ERNEST without knowing anything about him. 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 satiric piece usually has a didactic side to it. In this case, Lady Bracknell learns that the same person she was criticising is actually her own flesh and blood.
1569 words
