Paper 104: Performing Truths, Fabricating Selves: Queer Subjectivity, Negotiated Masculinities, and the Commodification of Identity in Oscar Wilde’s The ‘Importance of Being Earnest’ and Contemporary Society
Assignment of Paper 104: Literature of the Victorians
Performing Truths, Fabricating Selves: Queer Subjectivity, Negotiated Masculinities, and the Commodification of Identity in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Contemporary Society
Academic Details:
- Name: Chetna J. Bhaliya
- Roll No.: 03
- Enrollment No.: 5108250003
- Sem.: 1
- Batch: 2025-27
- E-mail: bhaliyachetna4112@gmail.com
Assignment Details:
- Paper Name: Literature of the Victorians
- Paper No.: 104
- Paper Code: 22395
- Unit: 2
- Topic: Affective Algorithms: Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and
- Prejudice’, Feminist Ethics, and the Digital Reproduction of Desire
- Submitted To: Smt. Gardi, Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
- Submitted Date: 10-11-2025
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- Sentences: 186
- Reading time: 12m 55s
Abstract
This paper examines Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest through the lens of identity performance, negotiated masculinity, queer subjectivity, and the commodification of self. It argues that Wilde’s literary and personal strategies exemplify the performative, socially mediated, and historically contingent nature of identity. Drawing on textual analysis, queer theory, and performance studies, the study demonstrates how Wilde’s characters employ wit, aesthetic display, and strategic duplicity to navigate social hierarchies, erotic desire, and cultural norms. The paper situates Wilde within both Victorian and contemporary contexts, highlighting parallels between his strategies of self-fashioning and modern digital identity economies, social media curation, and visibility management. By integrating historical, sociological, and aesthetic perspectives, the analysis elucidates the ethical, cultural, and performative dimensions of identity, offering a framework for understanding fluidity, multiplicity, and negotiation in both historical and contemporary identity practices.
Keywords
Oscar Wilde; The Importance of Being Earnest; identity performance; negotiated masculinity; queer subjectivity; aestheticism; self-fashioning; commodification of identity; Victorian social norms; performative strategies; digital identity economies; visibility and ethics; contemporary resonances; trickster figures; homoerotic subtext.
Research Questions
How does Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest construct and negotiate identity through the performance of masculinity, queer subjectivity, and aesthetic self-fashioning and in what ways do these strategies anticipate contemporary practices of digital identity, visibility, and commodification?
Hypothesis
In The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde constructs identity—including masculinity, queer subjectivity, and social visibility—as a performative and negotiable practice, mediated through humor, aesthetic display, and strategic deception; this dynamic not only critiques Victorian social norms but also anticipates contemporary frameworks of digital self-fashioning, demonstrating that identity operates simultaneously as ethical, social, and commodified performance across historical contexts.
1.Introduction: Contextualizing Wilde and Identity Performance
1.1 Wilde’s Literary and Cultural Position
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) occupies a singular space in Victorian literature, distinguished not only by his incisive literary output but also by his carefully cultivated public persona. Wilde’s life and works exemplify the intricate interplay between performance, social critique, and aesthetic sensibility. His literary production is inseparable from his persona as a public figure; his flamboyance, wit, and aesthetic sophistication were not mere affectations but deliberate instruments for interrogating the rigidity of Victorian social norms. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde demonstrates his mastery of comedic devices to subvert social and moral rigidity, where the construction of dual identities, playful deceit, and epigrammatic wit reveal the performativity inherent in everyday social life (Flanagan). These performances of identity are not solely literary devices; they mirror the complex negotiations Wilde undertook in his personal life as he confronted the constraints of gender, sexuality, and societal expectation.
Wilde’s engagement with aestheticism, a movement that foregrounded style, beauty, and self-fashioning, positions him as a pivotal figure for understanding identity as both artistic creation and cultural commentary (Schaffer). His sartorial choices, social behavior, and public lectures demonstrate that identity in Victorian society was neither natural nor fixed but a field of social negotiation, particularly for those whose gender or sexual orientation diverged from normative ideals. By examining Wilde’s strategies of self-presentation, one observes a deliberate tension between conformity and subversion, where every gesture, word, and appearance operates as a performance that simultaneously critiques and exploits social expectation.
Moreover, Wilde’s life illuminates the ethical and political stakes of identity performance. While aesthetic and social performances allowed him creative freedom and social visibility, they also exposed him to public scrutiny, scandal, and legal persecution. His literary and personal strategies reveal how subversion of cultural norms could yield both acclaim and censure, highlighting the precarious balance between social acceptability and authentic self-expression. This duality is central to understanding Wilde’s enduring significance: his work and persona exemplify the negotiation of identity within constraints, revealing the social, ethical, and performative dimensions of human life. By analyzing Wilde’s aesthetic, comedic, and personal strategies, this study seeks to demonstrate how performance mediates power, desire, and visibility, emphasizing the ongoing tension between societal expectation and individual agency.
1.2 Paper Focus: Identity, Masculinity, and Queer Subjectivity
This study interrogates three interrelated dimensions of Wilde’s work: the performance of masculinity, the negotiation of queer subjectivity, and the commodification of identity. These aspects collectively illuminate the mechanisms by which Wilde’s characters—and Wilde himself engage in self-fashioning and social negotiation. Masculinity in Wilde’s comedies is not a fixed or innate attribute; rather, it is strategically performed. Characters employ wit, elegance, and narrative invention to navigate rigid social hierarchies while pursuing both social and erotic goals (Snider). Such performances reveal masculinity as a flexible tool, used to negotiate desire, reputation, and authority in socially sanctioned and clandestine ways.
Queer subjectivity operates through subtle, coded forms of desire that confront and navigate the moral and social strictures of Victorian society (Cohen). In Wilde’s comedies, homoerotic desire is often veiled in wit, paradox, and subtext, functioning as both a narrative device and a reflection of the constraints faced by queer individuals in a repressive culture. Characters’ fluid negotiations of desire reveal the contingency of identity: it is historically and socially situated, constructed through both self-fashioning and interaction with broader cultural norms.
The commodification of identity, encompassing aesthetic self-presentation, public persona, and social visibility, further complicates this picture. Wilde anticipates contemporary discussions of digital performativity and identity economies (Novak). Just as contemporary individuals curate social media personas to achieve cultural, social, or economic capital, Wilde’s characters manipulate appearances, manners, and speech to enhance their social and aesthetic value. By examining the intersection of masculinity, queer subjectivity, and commodification, this paper provides a comprehensive understanding of identity as performative, socially mediated, and historically contingent, while drawing illuminating parallels between Victorian and contemporary contexts.
1.3 Justification of Sources
The selected sources provide an interdisciplinary lens through which Wilde’s work can be examined:
- Flanagan (2014) and Snider (2005) analyze the comedic and structural mechanisms through which Wilde constructs identity and negotiates social power, offering insight into the performativity of social roles.
- Schaffer (2000) situates aesthetic and sartorial choices as forms of cultural capital, emphasizing the material and symbolic dimensions of identity performance.
- Adut (2005) and Schulz (1996) contextualize Wilde’s trials and public reception, highlighting the ethical and social consequences of identity performance in a culture preoccupied with propriety and scandal.
- Ertman (2000) theorizes Wilde as a post-identity figure, bridging historical and contemporary discussions of fluidity and multiplicity.
- Cohen (1987) explores coded expressions of homoerotic desire, demonstrating the performative mechanisms through which queer subjectivity is negotiated.
- Novak (2012) establishes connections between Victorian identity performance and contemporary digital practices, emphasizing the persistence of social and aesthetic strategies across historical contexts.
Collectively, these sources enable a multi-dimensional analysis that encompasses textual, aesthetic, historical, and sociological perspectives, providing the conceptual tools necessary for a nuanced understanding of Wildean performance.
1.4 Scope and Methodology
This study employs textual analysis, queer theory, and performance studies, integrating historical and sociological perspectives to examine the multifaceted nature of identity in Wilde’s work. Dialogue, characterization, comedic strategies, and aesthetic codes in The Importance of Being Earnest are analyzed to elucidate how identity is performed, negotiated, and commodified. In addition, the study draws parallels with contemporary identity practices, including social media and digital branding, demonstrating the continuing relevance of Wilde’s insights into self-fashioning, visibility, and audience engagement. This interdisciplinary methodology allows for a holistic examination of identity as simultaneously textual, performative, and socio-cultural.
2. Negotiated Masculinities: Subversion and Performance
2.1 Victorian Masculinity under Satire
Victorian masculinity was characterized by restraint, moral fortitude, and adherence to rigid social hierarchies. Emotional expression, flamboyance, and subversive wit were often coded as deviant or effeminate. Wilde’s comedies subvert these conventions by portraying male characters whose outward propriety masks strategic duplicity, fluidity, and performative manipulation (Flanagan). Jack’s invention of “Ernest” exemplifies the duality of social identity: through a fictive persona, he navigates social, romantic, and moral constraints. This dual identity reveals masculinity as contingent, socially mediated, and performative rather than biologically inherent.
By exaggerating and satirizing rigid gender expectations, Wilde illuminates their arbitrary and often absurd nature. The satirical lens reveals the performative labor inherent in gender itself: masculinity is enacted, rehearsed, and deployed strategically. For instance, Jack and Algernon’s playful duplicity exposes the performative underpinnings of respectability, illustrating that masculine identity can be both a tool and a site of subversion. Wilde’s satire thus positions masculinity not as a natural attribute but as a socially negotiated performance, contingent upon context, audience, and social ambition.
2.2 Trickster Figures and Identity Play
Jack and Algernon function as trickster figures, embodying strategies of deception, charm, and narrative invention to navigate restrictive social norms. Snider (2005) highlights how these trickster strategies reveal the adaptability of identity, where performance becomes a tool for both social maneuvering and personal gratification. Through the trickster ethos, Wilde dramatizes the fluidity of masculinity: characters shift between personas, manipulate appearances, and exploit social codes to achieve both erotic and social objectives.
This trickster logic underscores the performance and contingent nature of identity. Wilde’s male characters demonstrate that strategic self-fashioning can serve as both resistance and accommodation: while adhering to certain social norms, they simultaneously undermine them through wit, deception, and subversive behavior. Such strategies resonate with contemporary discussions of identity fluidity, where self-presentation is increasingly performative, strategic, and audience aware.
2.3 The Role of Wit in Masculinity Performance
Wit functions as a key mechanism of masculine performance. Epigrams, repartee, and paradoxical statements are not merely comedic devices but tools for negotiating social hierarchies and asserting autonomy (Flanagan). Wilde’s characters wield language to manipulate perception, assert authority, and achieve personal or social advantage. Through wit, masculinity is both performed and valorized, demonstrating that linguistic skill constitutes a form of social and cultural capital.
Moreover, wit enables ethical negotiation of desire and propriety. By framing social transgression as humor, Wilde’s characters navigate the delicate balance between public expectation and private intention. This dynamic illustrates how intellectual and aesthetic faculties operate as extensions of masculine performance, highlighting the interplay between social cognition, ethical awareness, and performative strategy.
2.4 Aesthetic Masculinity and Sartorial Codes
Sartorial display in Wilde’s work is a semiotic system through which masculinity is communicated, curated, and commodified. Schaffer (2000) emphasizes the performative power of clothing and adornment, showing how Wilde’s characters manipulate appearance to signal class, taste, and desirability. This aesthetic performance intertwines personal expression with social strategy, revealing how material culture and identity intersect.
Sartorial codes in Wilde’s work anticipate contemporary modes of identity curation. Just as social media influencers strategically craft visual identities for social and commercial capital, Wilde’s characters deploy clothing, style, and behavior as markers of cultural literacy, aesthetic sensibility, and social dexterity. Aesthetic masculinity thus becomes a form of social negotiation, where appearance functions as both message and medium.
2.5 Intersections of Performance and Desire
Masculinity in Wilde’s play is inseparable from desire. Humor, sartorial display, and narrative invention become tools for negotiating both social legitimacy and erotic agency (Snider)(Schaffer). Jack and Algernon’s performances are simultaneously ethical, strategic, and playful: they navigate social expectations while pursuing personal and erotic objectives.
The intersection of performance and desire demonstrates that identity is relational and context-dependent. Masculinity is enacted not in isolation but in response to audience, cultural norms, and relational dynamics. Wilde illustrates that identity is a site of continuous negotiation, where desire, social capital, and ethical strategy intersect to produce multi-layered and historically situated subjectivities.
3. Queer Subjectivity and the Fabrication of Self
3.1 Homoerotic Subtext and Queer Desire
Cohen (1987) identifies subtle cues of homoerotic desire in Wilde’s dialogue and narrative strategies. These cues, often veiled in paradox, epigram, and performative humor, navigate Victorian moral strictures while signaling subversive desire. Queer subjectivity in Wilde’s work is thus performative, mediated through social codes, aesthetic sensibility, and strategic ambiguity.
The careful construction of subtext allows for the negotiation of desire within socially sanctioned constraints. Wilde’s coded expressions highlight the historical contingency of queer identity: it is neither fully private nor fully public, existing in a liminal space shaped by social reception, moral regulation, and self-fashioning.
3.2 Scandal, Visibility, and Social Negotiation
Wilde’s trials and the scrutiny surrounding his personal life underscore identity as contingent upon social perception (Adut) (Schulz). Scandal transforms private desire into public spectacle, revealing the social and ethical stakes of visibility. Queer subjectivity, therefore, involves continuous negotiation: individuals must navigate societal norms, manage impression, and modulate self-presentation to achieve agency and safety.
Visibility, in this context, is both empowering and dangerous. Wilde’s experience illustrates that the public dimension of identity is performative, shaped by audience, media, and cultural expectations. The interplay between visibility and social negotiation exemplifies the ethical and practical dimensions of identity in restrictive societies, where self-expression is contingent upon reception and risk.
3.3 Post-Identity and Paradoxical Persona
Ertman (2000) conceptualizes Wilde as a post-identity figure, simultaneously hyper-visible and subversively fluid. Wilde’s persona embodies paradox: publicly celebrated yet socially marginalized, flamboyant yet strategically disciplined. This post-identity framework challenges essentialist notions of gender and sexuality, anticipating contemporary post-structuralist understandings of fluid and multiple selves.
Wilde’s characters operate similarly: they enact multiple identities, oscillate between personas, and strategically navigate social and erotic landscapes. Such multiplicity illustrates the performative and negotiated dimensions of selfhood, highlighting that identity is contingent, relational, and temporally situated.
3.4 Queer Temporality and Social Context
The temporal context of Wilde’s work illuminates the historical contingency of identity norms. Characters negotiate desire and social expectation across temporal and cultural constraints, demonstrating that queer subjectivity is historically constructed and socially mediated (Cohen) (Ertman). Wilde’s attention to temporal and cultural specificity underscores the necessity of situating identity within context: both social reception and historical conditions shape the performance and recognition of queer subjectivity.
These insights resonate with contemporary digital cultures, where online queer identities often exist in temporally fluid, context-dependent spaces. Just as Victorian subtext allowed negotiation of desire, digital anonymity, and curated visibility enable contemporary users to navigate norms, audience reception, and risk.
3.5 Ethics and the Performance of Desire
Wilde’s work highlights the ethical dimension of identity performance. Negotiating desire involves balancing social propriety, personal authenticity, and relational responsibility (Snider)(Schulz). Humor, deception, and aesthetic curation are not merely playful strategies but ethical mechanisms for managing social interaction and desire
Through this lens, performance is an ethical as well as aesthetic practice: identity is enacted responsibly, strategically, and reflexively. Wilde demonstrates that negotiation of selfhood entails ethical deliberation, where the performative construction of desire and identity involves consideration of both personal authenticity and social consequence.
4. Commodification of Identity: From Aestheticism to Contemporary Society
4.1 The Marketable Aesthetic Self
Schaffer (2000) illustrates how aestheticism transforms personal identity into a form of social and economic capital. Style, manners, and public presence are commodified, enabling individuals to leverage appearance and behavior for social advantage. Characters manipulate appearance strategically, aligning personal expression with socially valuable qualities.
In contemporary terms, this anticipates digital identity economies, where self-presentation, branding, and curated aesthetics operate as marketable assets. Wilde’s insights into the commodification of identity remain remarkably prescient, revealing the historical continuity of performative and market-mediated self-fashioning.
4.2 Performance as Spectacle
Novak (2012) and Schulz (1996) argue that Wilde’s public persona demonstrates identity as mediated spectacle. Private expression becomes publicly consumed, highlighting the entanglement of aesthetics, social evaluation, and cultural performance. The theatricality of Wilde’s life mirrors the performative strategies of his characters, emphasizing that identity is both lived and observed, constructed and consumed.
Spectacle transforms selfhood into a cultural object: desire, propriety, and aesthetic judgment intersect, revealing the social and economic dimensions of identity performance. Wilde anticipates contemporary influencer culture, where visibility, audience engagement, and curated selfhood converge to produce socially and commercially valuable identities.
4.3 Contemporary Resonances: Digital Identity Economies
The strategies of self-fashioning in Wilde’s work anticipate digital performativity, including social media curation, influencer branding, and online identity markets (Novak). Wildean performance emphasizes strategic visibility, audience management, and commodified self-presentation. Just as Wilde’s characters negotiate attention, desire, and reputation, contemporary users navigate likes, followers, and algorithmic visibility to construct socially legible and economically valuable identities.
Digital identity economies amplify the dynamics Wilde explored: aesthetic, ethical, and social strategies converge in highly mediated, commodified spaces. Wilde’s insights thus provide a critical lens for understanding contemporary self-fashioning as a complex interplay of performance, desire, and social negotiation.
4.4 Negotiating Authenticity and Market Demands
Identity performance involves balancing authenticity and marketability. Wilde’s characters exemplify this tension: humor, sartorial elegance, and social dexterity function as tools for negotiating social approval while maintaining personal desire and ethical agency (Novak) (Schaffer).
In contemporary digital culture, this tension is magnified: authenticity is mediated by audience perception, economic incentives, and algorithmic valuation. Wilde’s strategies illuminate how individuals navigate the dual demands of social recognition and self-expression, highlighting the ethical, aesthetic, and strategic dimensions of identity performance across time and media.
5. Synthesis and Critical Discussion
5.1 Interconnections: Queer Subjectivity, Masculinity, and Performance
Wilde’s comedy demonstrates the deep interrelation of masculinity, desire, and social negotiation. Identity emerges as performative, socially constructed, and historically contingent (Flanagan)(Snider). By weaving together humor, sartorial display, and strategic duplicity, Wilde creates characters whose identities are complex, relational, and adaptive. The negotiation of gender roles, erotic desire, and aesthetic expression reveals identity as an ongoing, socially mediated process.
5.2 Identity as Performance and Commodity
Aesthetic and sartorial strategies function simultaneously as markers of identity and commodities, demonstrating the inseparability of self-expression and social evaluation (Schaffer) (Novak). Wilde’s work anticipates contemporary identity economies, illustrating that visibility, desire, and social value are mutually constitutive. Performance is both personal and economic, ethical and strategic, demonstrating the multi-dimensional nature of identity construction.
5.3 Contemporary Implications
Digital culture amplifies Wildean strategies of curated performance, visibility management, and identity commodification. Social media, influencer culture, and online branding demonstrate the enduring relevance of Wilde’s insights, where identity is strategically constructed, socially mediated, and commercially leveraged. Wilde’s work provides a framework for understanding how historical strategies of self-fashioning resonate in contemporary digital practices.
5.4 Theoretical Contributions
The analysis contributes to queer theory, masculinity studies, and cultural sociology, providing a robust framework for understanding identity as fluid, performative, and historically mediated (Ertman)(Cohen). Wilde illustrates that identity negotiation operates across temporal, social, and digital contexts, demonstrating both the historical specificity and conceptual generality of performative strategies.
5.5 Limitations and Critical Reflection
While Wilde’s Victorian context differs from contemporary society, the principles of performance, negotiation, and commodification retain relevance. Historical specificity constrains direct comparison, yet Wilde’s plays offer conceptual tools for analyzing fluid identity, ethical self-fashioning, and socially mediated desire. The enduring appeal of Wildean strategies lies in their adaptability: lessons from his aesthetics, humor, and performativity illuminate contemporary debates about identity in both offline and online contexts.
6. Conclusion: Enduring Relevance of Wildean Performance
6.1 Summary of Core Arguments
Wilde’s comedy exemplifies the intersection of queer subjectivity, negotiated masculinity, and aesthetic performance, revealing identity as performative, socially mediated, and historically contingent. Characters navigate desire, visibility, and social expectation through humor, sartorial expression, and strategic deception, demonstrating the ethical and practical stakes of identity negotiation.
6.2 Contemporary Significance
The insights of Wilde’s work resonate in digital culture, social media, and identity economies, where visibility, authenticity, and commodification are central. Wilde’s strategies illuminate the ethical, social, and aesthetic dimensions of modern identity performance, highlighting the historical continuity of self-fashioning practices.
6.3 Future Research Directions
Future research could explore Wilde’s relevance in global digital identity economies, cross-cultural performances of masculinity and desire, and post-structuralist queer frameworks. His work offers a rich conceptual and methodological toolkit for examining fluidity, performance, and negotiation in both historical and contemporary contexts, bridging literary analysis, cultural theory, and digital sociology.
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Cohen, Ed. “Writing Gone Wilde: Homoerotic Desire in the Closet of Representation.” PMLA, vol. 102, no. 5, 1987, pp. 801–13. JSTOR,https://www.jstor.org/stable/462309 . Accessed 7 Nov. 2025.
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