(For Dhor, by request.)
Even though Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest's main characters are men, the drama offers an insightful overview of the lives of young women of the age. Through portraying a few female characters of different age and upbringing, it shows the ways they used to go about their daily life but also gives an insight into their minds, their thinking, emotions, and actions. Women of the upper-class, especially the young ones, having little, if anything, to do from day to day, had to find different activities with which they would fill their days. It is no surprise then that they would resort to some unusual ones from time to time, such as writing fictional diaries, thus creating a life for themselves in a world they could control.
Women of the upper-class of the Victorian age spent their days with a lot of time on their hands: «The ladies spent their time promenading on the sea front, visiting reading-rooms and libraries, shopping, enjoying rural carriage-rides, holding "At Homes", musical soirées and dinner parties.» (Wojtczak) Visiting their friends and relatives is usually the central part of their day, so much that a lot of thought is put into what is to be served to visitors. It is of utmost importance to treat them with their favourite food and drinks, mostly because women with little on their minds can put a lot of thought into it. Therefore, it was not unusual for a woman to be «devoted to bread and butter» as Gwendolen is, especially since they had servants who took care of having their desires fulfilled: «The wealthy usually had a set of live-in servants and sometimes day-servants too.» (Wojtczak)
In between visiting each other at various parties and get-togethers, they still had enough time to read and often write themselves. It was not an unusual thing for a woman to keep a diary in which she would write of her experiences and emotions. Cecily, a young girl of the age of eighteen, does so: «I keep a diary in order to enter the wonderful secrets of my life. If I didn’t write them down, I should probably forget all about them.» (Wilde 1682) The irony of these lines subtly mocks the uneventful life of a young woman, but later on all subtlety is dropped when Cecily admits she often makes up the events about which she writes as it «usually chronicles the things that have never happened, and couldn’t possibly have happened.» (Wilde 1682) One of her ambitions is to have her diary published some day, it is «consequently meant for publication.» (Wilde 1690) Writing fiction novels as a way of entertaining themselves was also rather common and socially acceptable, so much that even older women such as Miss Prism do not hesitate to admit they had written them: «I wrote one myself in earlier days.» (Wilde 1682).
Resorting to a fictional inner life was a way for a young woman to take control of the world she lived in. The marriages were arranged by a girl's parents:
LADY BRACKNELL: Pardon me, you are not engaged to any one. When you do become engaged to some one, I, or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact. An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be. It is hardly a matter that she could be allowed to arrange for herself... (Wilde 1674)
It is perfectly acceptable for a young woman to have ideals and dreams of who she might marry but the final decision depends on her parents or guardians. She is irrevocably destined to lead the same uneventful life as every other woman of the Victorian age. There is an indisputable truth to be found in Algernon's words: «All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy.» (Wilde1678) Every girl is to have a life that is exactly the same as the next one's. They all know it and all they can do is form alliances with each other when they recognize themselves in one another as Gwendolen and Cecily do: «Something tells me that we are going to be great friends. I like you already more than I can say.» (Wilde 1693) Sooner or later they will be caught in the same unbreakable loop of days that are all alike.
Young women of the Victorian age, as presented in Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, led rather empty lives. Their days repeated themselves and they had to come up with ways of entertaining themselves to their best abilities. Turning to fiction for the thrills they were missing in their reality was the only thing they could do. That is not something they should be judged for. If anything, they should be admired for it for they have found a way to rebel, even if it was only in their minds.
