Who through in the monkey wrench?

After reading The Importance of Being Earnest I didn’t want it to stop. I wish it could have been a little longer and more in depth. Now as to what I thought of the story itself, just simply that it was a mockery of love and laughs at society. If this story were true you would truly have to think that Eros was involved in this crazy scene. I couldn’t believe it when Cecily told Algernon “Ernest” that, even though she had never met him before, she was completely in love with him and willing to marry him. In fact, according to her they had already been engaged, split, and then got back together. Some how this all managed to happen before they had even met. I can completely envision Eros hiding in a cloud shooting multiple arrows at poor Cecily. How blind could love be? Algernon knows nothing of love, just pure selfishness. His Aunt Augusta is the same way.

Even though all of the relationships seem impossible it is as if something keeps them going. Take Miss Prism and Chasuble for instance. You can feel the struggle of emotions that is happening between them. Chasuble is held his religion and Miss Prism to her position, but there is this chemistry that seems to keep them connected. If it is how the characters in Plato’s Symposium say and we were split in two by the gods and it is Eros whom is trying to help us find our other half I’m now inclined to think that maybe he is a little blind. That or bringing together two separate parts is far more difficult than it seems.

It is laughable how Oscar Wilde portrays his crazy characters as they run around in their crazy schemes. Just like what Maurice had to go through in his story, society is constantly pressing the issue of marrying, but marrying within your kind. Never below or it would be seen as completely outrageous just as the Greeks felt about the same issue. Humans are so hard pressed to follow what society tells them is ok. It’s kind of nice to see Eros completely putting a wrench in the whole matter.