Earnest Gender Roles

The Importance of Being Earnest is one of Oscar Wilde’s many masterpieces. The famed comedic play is about Jack Worthing and his friend Algernon Moncrieff, who create double identities and are eventually caught in their lie. When analyzing this play the author made it easy for the reader to identify the different gender roles & gender specific stereotypes he uses in order to criticize the Victorian values.

Throughout the play, there are many different references to the Victorian Era of England. The Victorian Era was during the time of Queen Victoria. It began in early 1837, the year Queen Victoria became monarch of England and ended with her death in 1901. The Victorian period is generally described as having developed it own lifestyle, rules,

Both the girls are convinced that they could not marry someone who's name was not earnest. In Act I, Gwendolen tells Jack „I have known serval Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain. The only really safe name is Ernest“ ( Wilde 20). In Act III Cecily also mentions a similar standpoint while talking to Algernon „you must not laugh at me, darling,but it had always been a girlish dream of mine to love someone whose name was Ernest. There is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence. (Wilde 61). Both the girls were not really attracted to the name Ernest. but rather the stigma attached to the name back then and how society made it look. Gwendolen and Cecily rather cared of what society would think of them. „Men and woman searched for an ideal relationship based on the expectations of a demanding society, the opposite sex may have dismissed the person as an unsuitable mate (Appell). Also, both of them take some control of their lives by accepting Jack and Algernon’s marriage proposals without discussing it with their parents first. Another example of this role reversal would be when Algernon proposed to Cecily, and she responds with „we have been engaged for the last three months“ before continuing to take control of the conversation by explaining the fake love affair she was having with him, without informing him (32). After Cecily

The Author also manages to keep the male characters, Algernon and Jack in a position of power by making the girls, Cecily and Gwendolyn the affected ones in Algernons and Jacks lie. The female Characters are hereby portrayed as being obedient to the male characters. By putting both the girls in a position of looking for their „Prince Charming“, the author supports the idea that woman need a man in order to be happy in life. The naivety of both, Gwendolyn and Cecily come to show even more later in the play. Once Jack and Algernon informed them about their lie and told them the truth, Gwendolyn and Cecily decide to look past it. After making it seem as almost being obsessed with the name Ernest, they easily changed their minds once learning of the truth. This portrays woman as extremely naive and unable to stick with their standpoints. Besides this, the Author is also causing the reader to not take the female characters opinions as