Student Question
In Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, what is Algernon referring to in this quote?
"Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow. Don't try it. You should leave that to people who haven't been at a University. They do it so well in the daily papers."
Quick answer:
In "The Importance of Being Earnest," Algernon sarcastically suggests that literary criticism should be left to those who haven't attended university, implying that educated individuals lack practicality and understanding of reality. He further mocks the quality of criticism in daily newspapers, indicating that neither the educated nor the press truly capture the essence of literature or life. Algernon's remarks reflect Wilde's critique of societal norms and the superficiality of both the upper and lower classes.
In the first act of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Algernon and Jack are speaking about their secret lives when Algernon mentions that the “truth is rarely pure and never simple” in modern life or modern literature. Jack responds that it would not be such a bad thing if modern literature was “a complete impossibility.” This is this narrative context for the quote in question. Let's look at the deeper meaning behind what Algernon says.
Algernon is being sarcastic here. Literary criticism, according to him, should be left only to those who have not been to the University. This might surprise us, for we would think that it might be the other way around, as educated people should know about literature and be able to comment on it. Yet Algernon asserts that this is not so. Rather, literary criticism is done well “in the daily papers.”
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Algernon is being sarcastic here. Literary criticism, according to him, should be left only to those who have not been to the University. This might surprise us, for we would think that it might be the other way around, as educated people should know about literature and be able to comment on it. Yet Algernon asserts that this is not so. Rather, literary criticism is done well “in the daily papers.”
Literary criticism here stands for commentary about life in general, for the two men are not really talking all that much about literature but rather about their lives. Those who go to University, Algernon suggests, do not always have a very good grasp on reality. They have high ideas but not always a good sense of the commonplace. Therefore, they are not authorities in the realms of literary criticism or life.
Too, Algernon suggests that the commentary of the daily papers are successful and valuable. Again, he is being sarcastic. Algernon has a tendency in that direction. Indeed, when he praises the daily papers, he actually means the opposite. The daily papers likely do not capture the meaning of literature or real life all the well either.
Most people who attended University during Wilde's life were upper-class men. Algernon, in criticizing those who do go to University, is certainly commenting about them. Yet, he also notes that the lower-class people who write the daily papers are not much better. People are simply people no matter their class status, and they often do not have a very good grasp on reality.