Gwendolyn and Cecily are women that break rules
Breaking gender rules
Gwendolyn and Cecily were not common women for their time. The play is portrayed in the late 1880’s, making quotes to the Victorian Period. On that period women used to be elegant fashion and sophisticated. They were worried about silly and trivial things (as we could notice on the play). Women also were under the husband’s power and always obeyed their husbands.
That is the reason for Gwendolyn and Cecily do not belong to the period. They were women who broke gender rules because they “manipulated” Jack and Algernon. These men did whatever the girls wanted and the girls just wanted to be married. Despite of this, Gwendolyn and Cecily were very decided and determinate. Gwendolyn did not allow her mother to arrange her marriage. She herself was the one who chose her husband and she went on her decision. Cecily was very similar to Gwendolyn and, I think, even worse than the first girl. She created a story to herself with on her diary that she was married to a man (Jack’s younger brother) named Earnest.
Despite all the exaggeration on the play the girls break rules because women were not allowed to do what they did during the period of the play. Many stereotypes are broken in the figure of Gwendolyn and Cecily. Since that period women (until nowadays) were (and some are) raised to obey men (father, brother, husband…) but these two characters did not do what was supposed to be done. That is the reason of being women that break gender rules.
