COMEDY

COMIC IDENTITY 55depends on what one shouldn’t read’, he says (Wilde, 1980:1.131–132).His friend Jack Worthing enjoys land, income, and position as a Justiceof the Peace, but lacks a family history and therefore ‘an assured basisfor a recognized position in good society’ (Wilde, 1980:1.579–580). Atthe heart of the play is the plasticity of identity: Jack is ‘Ernest in townand Jack in the country’ (Wilde, 1980:1.168), while Algy is anenthusiastic ‘Bunburyist’, an author of fictional persons, who becomesErnest in the country. In the twice-invented Ernest we have the perfectemblem of identity in Wilde’s world, all surface and no content.Embodied twice in Jack and Algy, Ernest is simultaneously two peopleand no one at all. The Importance of Being Earnest is therefore a playabout the multiplication of a central identity that is notable because ofits absence. At face value, its anxieties concern the expectations of highsociety and the importance of conforming to them. From the manner inwhich the criteria are filled, however, changing names, adopting falseidentities, the fortunate coincidence of Miss Prism’s retrospectivelylegitimizing narrative, reminiscent of the recognition scene of NewComedy, it is clear that authenticity is secondary to the maintenance ofappearances and contorting oneself to fit the bill. While the title insistson the importance of honesty, the play itself resounds with inconsistentand contradictory pronouncements for the purposes of stylish effect.Gwendolen and Cecily’s resolve to be scandalized, for example, is aperformance of being scandalized, rather than the thing itself:GWENDOLEN. Let us preserve a dignified silence.CECILY. Certainly. It’s the only thing to do now.Enter JACK followed by ALGERNON. They whistlesome dreadful popular air from a British Opera.GWENDOLEN. This dignified silence seems to produce an unpleasanteffect.CECILY. A most distasteful one.GWENDOLEN. But we will not be the first to speak.CECILY. Certainly not.GWENDOLEN. Mr Worthing, I have something very particular to askyou…(Wilde, 1980:3.12–17)The Importance of Being Earnest fits exactly the criteria for what theinfluential American cultural critic Susan Sontag has described as‘Camp’. ‘Camp’, she says, ‘is a certain mode of aestheticism. It is one