Literature and the role of a writer have always been the subjects of heated discussions. In her essay “Witness: The Inward Testimony,” Nadine Gordimer addresses the ability of a writer to reflect on reality and presents the concept of witness literature. According to the author, writers constantly elaborate on the transformation of events into novels, stories, and poems. Literature witnesses global disasters, conflicts, and the lives of men, women, and children from different historical periods to reflect them. Using his exquisite sense of imagination, the writer is responsible for endowment, the realization of happened events, and the transformation of emotions, actions, and motives reactions from their immediacy into meaningful, long-lasting significance (Gordimer). It is possible to say that with the help of metaphors, fiction, as witness literature, helps readers see the truth.
At the same time, writers interpret reality frequently addressing highly essential issues related to described events and people. They may reflect the reality through the introduction of characters, people who have never existed, and related actions – however, it will be the reality anyway presented through the prism of the writer’s perception. As a result, according to Gordimer, literature helps people rediscover themselves when they see themselves in it or see other people and apply their situations to the present day, reflecting on eternal themes, morality, and their life purpose.
An example of this reflection of reality by literature is The Importance of Being Earnest, a farcical comedy written by Oscar Wilde. The two protagonists, Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing maintain fictitious personae and have secret lives to escape social obligations (Wilde 4). Even though the author focuses on irony and farce and regards serious social conventions and institutions as trivial to raise essential issues, he reflects the realities of the Victorian age, for instance, the attitude of aristocrats to duty, appearance, and respectability.
From the work, it is clear to readers that noble Victorians put these concepts above all. Their code of conduct was determined by earnestness, a determined desire to do socially approved and correct things. Appearance and style were more important than people’s nature, needs, and desires. The main protagonist, Jack Worthing, calls himself two different names in the city and the country (Wilde 13). In turn, Algernon Moncrieff invented a permanently sick and invalid friend he called Bunbury and uses visits to this friend as an excuse when he does not want to attend dinner and follow other social obligations (Wilde 14). The stories of these characters align with the realities of the Victorian time when people may have a secret life, affairs within marriage, and illegitimate children, however, society did not pay attention until the appropriate appearance was maintained.
In his play, Wilde raises an important question of the importance of trivial concerns. In other words, he makes viewers think whether social attributes and rituals are more important than people’s actual desires, intentions, and needs. In addition, he helps people rediscover themselves as the issues of seeming respectability and fake appearance are actual in the present day. Due to social media, people received an opportunity to present a socially approved image of themselves and leave socially approved comments. However, with the help of literature, they may reflect on the expediency of these tendencies.
Works Cited
Gordimer, Nadine. “Witness: The Inward Testimony.” Burn this Book, Toni Morrison (ed.). New York: Harper, 2009.
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. New York: Samuel French Inc., 1956.