The Institutions of Marriage
'The legal union of a man and woman as husband and wife.' (American Heritage
Dictionaries, Editors of the American Heritage Diction, 2000). Marriage can be
easily defined as simple as that without any other inappropriate elements like
wealth, succession or pregnancy etc included. When it applies to the characters
in both The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde and Who's Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? By Edward Albee, nevertheless, it does not seem quite suitable.
As we read these two plays, we can find how the characters think of marriage
only as a tool to achieve their own wishes or other purposes from both the
Victorian Age and the twentieth century. From the protagonists like George,
Martha and Lady Bracknell to the other minor characters like Lane, Martha's
father and Nick do not take marriage seriously that they marry for money and
their own purposes. In this essay, I shall discuss how the characters think of
the institution of marriage.
'Women were often married because girls' parents would often search for a man
who would be wealthy, have a title and could advance their social status' (Moore
2002). This can be proved in the conversations between Lady Bracknell and Jack
Worthing in the First Act of The Importance of Being Earnest, we can see why she
has a 'list of eligible young men' that ¡¥a really affectionate mother requires'
since wealth and title are the main concerns in a marriage. As Jack Worthing
answers Lady Bracknell about his income, she asks further if 'between seven and
eight thousand a year' is 'in land, or in investments' while she makes a note in
her book. She even surprises to know Jack Worthing owning a country house that
she asks for more details like the 'number in Belgrave Square'. In the Third Act
of the same play, as Lady Bracknell leaves after meeting Cecily Cardew, she
returns again after knowing that Cecily Cardew has 'about a hundred and thirty
thousand pounds in the Funds'. Women like Lady Bracknell in the Victorian Age
tend to marry for money.
It is believed that marriages of daughters were used to secure business deals,
increase wealth or raise status etc in the Victorian Age (Moore, 2002). 'They
did not want to risk being shunned from their families by not marrying someone
in a higher class. If a woman were to get engaged and break it off she would
risk living the rest of her life as spinsters. This was the ultimate way to lose
social position' (Moore, 2002). This can be seen in the First Act of The
Importance of Being Earnest that why Lady Bracknell declines to give the consent
to the marriage of her daughter, Gwendolen Fairfax and Jack Worthing who is an
infant 'born and bred in a hand-bag'. 'The great end and aim of almost every
young female is to be united in marriage to a deserving man' (Montgomery Creek
Publishing, Inc, 2001). As Lady Bracknell says about 'you can hardly imagine
that I and Lord Backnell would dream of allowing our only daughter ¡V a girl
brought up with the utmost care ¡V to marry into a cloak-room, and form an
alliance with a parcel', it is reasonable that Jack Worthing cannot marry
Gwendolen Fairfax since he is not a solid character with both an established
position in society and a comfortable income that parents and young ladies in
Victorian Age look for (Victorian Lace, 2004).
Not only does marrying for money apply in The Importance of Being Earnest, it
also applies in the Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which is a play written
about the 1960s. The invisible character in the play, Martha's father marries to
his wife for money. It is spilled out when George and Nick talk about the
fathers of Martha and Honey in 'Walpurgisnacht' that '¡K Martha¡¦s father's second
wife¡Knot Martha's mother, but after Martha's mother died¡Kwas a very old lady
with warts who was very rich'. Also, when George plays the 'Get the Guests' in
the same act, he says that Nick marries Honey because 'she was a money baggage
amongst other things...Godly money ripped from the golden teeth of the
unfaithful, a pragmatic extension of the big dream¡K' Answering 'Yes' after a
pause to what George says about 'I'll bet she has money, too!' earlier proves
that Nick marries Honey for money too. It believes that the reasons why Martha's
father marries to Martha's step-mother after the death of his first wife and
other factors of Nick and Honey getting married are because of money.
'In the 1960's, the sexual revolution was a time when women began to exert their
power and freedoms more publicly. At this point in history, women were beginning
to marry for happiness and not as a result of coercion' (Moore, 2002) Even so,
it does not quite suit the cases in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Martha's
first marriage with a sophomore year at Miss Muff¡¦s Academy for Young Ladies
college is quickly annulled by her father. Martha's marriage with George, also,
is still seen as based on succession. Martha always listens to her 'Daddy' who
is dominant to her. In 'Fun and Games', Martha even tells why she marries
George, 'Daddy had a sense of¡Khistory¡Kof¡Kcontinuation' that he had always had it
in the back of his mind to 'groom someone to take over¡Ksome time, when he quit.
A succession¡¦ that she 'was sort of on the lookout, for¡Kprospects with the new
men. An heir-apparent'. Although the marriage is not arranged by parents because
of social and financial reasons like those in Victorian Age, Martha still has
her father¡¦s idea in the back of her head. The marriage of George and Martha is
still on purpose as Martha admitted that 'I married the S.O.B., and I had it all
planned out¡KHe was the groom¡Khe was going to be groomed. He'd take over some
day¡Kfirst, he'd take over the History Department, and then, when Daddy retired,
he'd take over the college¡K' whereas George even mentions in 'Walpurgisnacht'
that 'they are always compensating factors'.
Not only does marrying for purpose apply in the marriage of George and Martha in
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, it also applies in the marriage of Nick and
Honey in the same play. 'There are today large numbers of men and women to whom
marriage is naught but a farce' (Goldman, 1969) which surely speaks of the
marriage of Nick and Honey. Unlike George and Martha, Nick and Honey get marry
not because of succession but pregnancy. Although Nick finally realizes that 'it
was a hysterical pregnancy', he still does not deny that 'I married her because
she was pregnant' during the conversation he has with George in 'Walpurgisnacht'.
Nick even says 'there were other things' about the marriage of him and Honey
that he tells the story of meeting each other at the very young age. What Nick
says about their marriage is 'always taken for granted' by their families and
them is quite alike to the marriages in the Victorian Age.
Even in The Importance of Being Earnest which marriage plays the main theme, the
nature of marriage is still a speculation throughout the whole play. The
different characters in the play have different interpretations of marriage.
Cecily Cardew thinks 'it would be hardly have been a really serious engagement
if it hadn't been broken off at least once' which can be seen as too abandoned
in the Victorian Age. 'Statistically, women who didn't marry early in life might
not be able to marry at all' (Victorian Lace, 2004). It gives the reason why
Cecily Cardew states positively that she cannot wait till she is thirty-five to
marry Algernon Moncrieff since marrying at the early age of a girl is a need in
the Victorian Age. Gwendolen Fairfax, also, believes men have many experiences
in how to propose and often propose for practice and forgives Jack Worthing when
he apologizes for 'all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth' that
he will change shows her own view of the nature of men and marriage which seems
to be too cynical. What Gwendolen Fairfax says about 'although she may prevent
us from becoming man and wife, and I may marry someone else, and marry often¡K'
after knowing her mother's reaction to her marriage can also be seen as
abandoned in the Victorian Age. 'An engagement should come on a young girl as a
surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be' which is interpreted by
Lady Bracknell states how much marriage means to young girls in Victorian Age.
Indeed, marriage is seen as a necessary to women, and importance to men as well
(Victorian Lace, 2004). Both Algernon Moncrieff and his manservant, Lane, in The
Importance of Being Earnest give marriage an absurd interpretation which quite
shows the general thinking of the men from the upper class in the Victorian Age.
Algernon Moncrieff calls proposal as 'business' not 'pleasure¡¦ that he really
does not see any romance in it. During the conversation between Algernon
Moncrieff and Jack Worthing in the First Act, he says 'if ever I get married,
I'll certainly try to forget the fact'. He also says 'marriage is made in
heaven' which can be seen as a relentless cynic on marriage. Algernon Moncrieff
even refutes Jack Worthing that 'you don't seem to realize, that in married life
three is company and two is none' Lane, as well, gives a weird interpretation as
he converses with Algernon Moncrieff in the same act that he thinks 'marriage
was in consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person'
while answeres 'it is a very pleasant state' to Algernon Moncrieff's question on
whether marriage is so demoralizing which Algernon Moncreiff comments it as
'somewhat lax'. Jack Worthing, on the contrary, is the only character with a
romantic interest for marrying that he does speak in the voice of the true
romance that he says in the First Act that 'if I marry a charming girl like
Gwendolen, and she is the only girl I ever saw in my life that I would marry, I
certainly won¡¦t want to know Bunbury'.
Marrying for money or the own purposes does not only appear in the Victorian Age
but in the twentieth century too. For whatever reasons, marriage is not supposed
to be used as a tool as well as censoring which may conflict the nature of
marriage. The marriage of George and Martha, therefore, is remarkable. Despite
of the George and Martha's arguments are shown, they mean to hurt each other,
Martha still declares that George is the only man in her life who has ever made
her happy and satisfies her that they both need each other. These positive
aspects in their marriage are maintained to make them trying to rebuild the
shattered marriage. The institutions of marriage in these two coming of age
plays, truly give people who marry on inappropriate purposes other than a love
alliance a chance to re-think the proper purpose and meaning of marriage, the
divorced an opportunity to self-reflect what marriage is supposed to be.
Bibliography
Print sources
Wilde, Oscar (1994) The Importance of Being Earnest London: Penguin Popular
Classics
Albee, Edward (1965) Who¡¦s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? London: Penguin Popular
Classics
American Heritage Dictionaries, Editors of the American Heritage Diction (2000)
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Boston:
Houghton Mifflin
Goldman, Emma (1969) Anarchism and Other Essays Boston: Dover Publications
Internet sources
Victorian Lace (2004) Victorian Lace ~ Victorian Lifestyles: The Victorian Era
http://www.oocities.org/victorianlace10/ accessed December 2004
Moore, Melissa (2002) Women¡¦s History Then & Now ¡V Marriage http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/
accessed December 2004
Montgomery Creek Publishing, Inc. (2001) The Victorian Era http://www.romanceeverafter.com/
accessed December 2004