How does Wilde create humour at the expense of his characters Gwendolyn and Cecily?

How does Wilde create humour at the expense of his characters Gwendolyn and Cecily?

In my opinion Wilde uses humour in the play evolving around Cecily and Gwendolyn to represent the status of women in the Victorian society. Women were generally seen as properties of men and they had to obey them, men were the superior role. I think Wilde uses humour to show that women (Gwendolyn and Cecily) were typical women of the Victorian society as they believed anything and fell into the traps of Earnest.

In the beginning of act 2 Algernon praises Cecily and she replies to him

“Cecily: I think your frankness does you great credit, Ernest. If you will allow me, I will copy your remarks into my diary. [Goes over to table and begins writing in diary]”. This shows the mere stupidity of Cecily as she has only met Algernon a few hours ago and she is already concerned about what he says. It shows that she was desperate for remarks about herself or that she was very vain and loved hearing praises about her; this creates humour by the bluntness of Cecily.

Again in the same point Wilde uses a rhetorical question to represent Humour in the form of Cecily. . If you will allow me, I will copy your remarks into my diary. [Goes over to table and begins writing in diary]”. This implies humour as Cecily did not even wait for a reply but she went and wrote in her diary which is shown to us in stage directions.

Similarly Wilde uses Gwendolyn to create humour by the usage of euphemism “‘I hate crowds’” Gwendolyn is clearly contradicting herself here and is being a hypocrite, as she lives in town where it’s always crowded. This shows that she was nervous and obviously annoyed at Cecily. Wilde uses this in his play to mock women and amuses his audience as they already know that Gwendolyn lives in town which is far more crowded than the country. It also creates humour as Gwendolyn could have come up with something harsher then that but came out with something sounding so silly. It’s as if they were kids fighting over whose better.

Yet again we are shown Humour through Cecily who as a woman has to go to lengths to pursue a romantic life. It shows that she is desperate and it highlights the inequality of the sexes at the time. She goes to the extent of creating a fictional character that she writes letters to and even replies back her, without even meeting him. “You need hardly remind me of that, Ernest. I remember only too well that I was forced to write your letters for you. I wrote always three times a week, and sometimes oftener.” This shows that the girl was desperate and this represents humour in the status of women. She was so desperate that she imagined him and wrote letters to him and wrote letters back to herself from him. She has nothing better to do then to write letters to herself. It shows that women had a lot of spare time on their hands and that they were very insecure.
Wilde uses dramatic irony to create humour when Gwendolyn says, ‘Disloyalty would be as impossible to him (Jack) as deception’. This creates humour as the audience of course knows that Jack is deceiving the other characters with the story about his brother and so find this funny. It also shows humour as she doesn’t know what she is saying is completely the opposite. She seems to be so sure and this creates humour as the audience knows she is wrong and laugh at her for believing jack. This represents the foolishness of women in the Victorian era. They believed anything.

To conclude Wilde uses the characters Gwendolyn and Cecily to represent humour by the difference in the genders. He represents women as foolish, gullible people who let they fall into traps easily. The purpose of this could have been to please the men in the audience and to warn women. He uses it carefully to side with both genders. Overall the use of humour at the expense of the two female characters is no doubt funny and very ironic.