In Oscar Wilde’s play, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” is an early Victorian melodramatic play. This play is very honest and frank. It is a satire, comedy of errors, and an intellectual farce. There are two main characters, Algernon and Jack. Jack Worthing, is known by Jack when he is living at his own country estate, but when he goes into city, London; he creates a fictional character called ‘Earnest.’ Algernon has created a fictional character named ‘Bunbury.’ Algernon uses Bunbury to get him out of prior engagements. This helps him get out of the house and clear his head whenever he wants. Although their both the characters situations are different, both created an “alter-ego” to help them get away from their own lives and also to live another life. They are best friends; both have the same social background, class and taste. Between Jack and Algernon, Jack is more serious about his life; he creates a fictional character to help him keep his image of being humble and respectable intact but in truth is vain. On the other hand, Algernon is truthful about himself and he goes against the Victorian values. But society loves him anyway as he accepts that he is not formal or conservative, or proper and he is rough around the edges but he’s funny, witty and smart. Although Wilde creates two characters in Jack and Algernon who are similar in social class, age, tastes, etc., he also carefully creates subtle character differences between them that create conflict and humor in the play.
Algernon falls in love with Cecily, Jack’s niece and Jack is in love with Gwendolen, Algernon’s cousin. Algernon and Jack on the surface seem to be very similar, they have some of the same ideologies, love for their romantic partners and same reaction wh...
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...her. Jack and Algernon seem similar and some cases are, but there are some differences that make the play humorous and climatic. Jack, even though he portrays it turns out to be immoral and hypocritical and Algernon turns out to be immoral and honest. One of the moral paradoxes that “The Importance of Being Earnest” seems to express is the idea that the perfectly moral man is the man who professes to be immoral, who speaks truly by virtue of the fact that he admits to being essentially a liar. Both Jack and Algernon want to be “Ernest” but in truth, it is a pun on the word. The women love the name because they think the men are earnest! The main conflict in the play is hypocrisy, and whole notion of Jack and Algernon going against the normal conventions of being a hypocrite. Algernon’s ideologies about marriage, food, women and love are what bring humor to the play.
Algernon, disagrees with the marriage after Jack fails her test of
The plot of the importance of being Earnest starts off with Jack and Algernon as wealthy bachelors, with Jack at the beginning of the play is known to Algernon as Ernest lives a very good life in the country providing
Though circumstantially different from his friend, Algernon, Jack still struggles under a heavy burden responsibility, but his duty is to his young and beautiful ward Cecily. Presented with these conditions, jack develops the alias of a troublesome younger brother named Ernest, who lives for the pursuit of pleasure. Under this alias, Jack enjoy the shallow pleasures in life, without taking responsibility for he actions of his “brother Ernest” (28), and easier than taking a train back to the country, Jack can return to the role of responsible guardian. In the words of Algernon to Jack, “you have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to town as often as you like” (6). Jack 's reason 's for Bunburying are quite in alignment with Algy 's. When Algy asks him what brings him to town, Jack cavalierly replies, “Oh, pleasure, pleasure! What else should bring anyone anywhere?” followed by, “When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring” (2). Thought they share the same reasons, Jack 's Bunbury is not “a dreadful invalid” (9), it is an Ernest. Assuming the Alias of a younger brother named
When deciding what element a play should contain, one must look at a large variety of options. These options can alter how the audience depicts the play and change their overall opinions. Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a play set around 1895 where the protagonist, Jack Worthing, takes on two identities in order to avoid social obligations. This play’s era affects how the characters are dressed and how their households appear.
Irony in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde The play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde is full of irony. Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, the protagonists in the play, get themselves into a complicated situation called Bunburyism (as Algernon refers to it). They pretend to be someone that they are not to escape their daily lives. They lie to the women they admire, and eventually the truth is revealed.
In conclusion, The Importance of Being Earnest strongly focuses on those of the upper class society and the vanity of the aristocrats who place emphasis on trivial matters concerning marriage. Both Algernon and Jack assume the identity of "Ernest" yet ironically, they both are beginning their marital lives based on deception and lies. Lady Bracknell represents the archetypal aristocrat who forces the concept of a marriage based on wealth or status rather than love. Through farce and exaggeration, Wilde satirically reveals the foolish and trivial matters that the upper class society looks upon as being important. As said earlier, a satirical piece usually has a didactic side to it.
Two adolescent women who incorrectly consider the men’s names to be Ernest, and who are passionate about the men for this very reason think highly of both Jack and Algernon. In relating the story of mix-ups and mistaken identities, the ideals and manners of the Victorian society are satirized in a comedy where the characters "treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality"(Wilde, Oscar). Oscar Wilde’s amusing scenes often take their source in societal satire and unconventional (Baselga 15). All the way through his play, The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde satirizes education, women, and morality.
The Importance of Being Earnest, written by Oscar Wilde, is a novel about two friends who lead double lives. Throughout the novel, the reader sees both sides of John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff’s personalities. Both characters exhibit a serious upper class personality in one setting but also have a completely different personality that allows them to be more carefree and pleasure-seeking. Ultimately Worthing & Moncrieff’s double lives allow them to express different sides of themselves and in turn discover their true selves.
The Importance of Being Earnest appears to be a conventional 19th century farce. False identities, prohibited engagements, domineering mothers, lost children are typical of almost every farce. However, this is only on the surface in Wilde's play. His parody works at two levels- on the one hand he ridicules the manners of the high society and on the other he satirises the human condition in general. The characters in The Importance of Being Earnest assume false identities in order to achieve their goals but do not interfere with the others' lives. The double life led by Algernon, Jack, and Cecily (through her diary) is simply another means by which they liberate themselves from the repressive norms of society. They have the freedom to create themselves and use their double identities to give themselves the opportunity to show opposite sides of their characters. They mock every custom of the society and challenge its values. This creates not only the comic effect of the play but also makes the audience think of the serious things of life.
It has been said that ‘Comedy, beginning in turmoil but ending in harmony, celebrates life.’ and this is the general idea with ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ Wilde proves that this comedy of manners does conform to this model. As Lady Bracknell tries to prolong the resolution and tries to prevent the marriage between Jack and Gwendolyn, she can be seen as a ‘gorgon’ because she refuses to let Gwendolyn marry Jack. Despite this, She may be seen as a heroine because she is a strong, commanding woman who isn’t passive like traditional Victorian women as she makes decisions which indicates that she has power within the play. Furthermore, Wilde has constructed her in such a way that she dominates the company wherever she is present and judges people according to their wealth even though she is from a non-aristocratic background. Therefore, Lady Bracknell may be viewed as a character that stays ‘bad’. Despite the obstacles surrounding Lady Bracknell, there are some aspects throughout the play which do conform to this model. For instance, Jack faces problems during the play which are then resolved through his actions and are consequently followed by happiness in the resolution when he finds out ‘the vital Importance of Being Earnest’ . Similarly, the same can be said for Algernon who lies to please the women that he desires to achieve happiness in Act 3. Therefore, depending on each character and their actions beforehand, they either face happiness or distress which indicates that comedy does have some elements of movement from distress to happiness and from ‘bad’ to ‘good’.
Throughout the late nineteenth century, Oscar Wilde wrote plays such as Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest- his most famous play. Earnest is a comedic work that focuses on a pair of wealthy men. They have been leading double lives so that they can go off for periods of time and enjoy living without responsibility while still maintaining their aristocratic reputation. Because of Wilde’s invlovement in the aesthetic movement, it is not uncommon (or unfair) to believe that his work, Earnest included, is nothing more than fluff. That being said, it is also fair to argue that this particular play does have meaning in it. Wilde wrote The Importance of Being Earnest as a commentary on the hypocrisy of the ideal Victorian character. Earnestness is sincerity- which most Victorians believed themselves to be- and so Wilde uses the word ironically. In his eyes, people who considered themselves sincere were actually smug, self-righteous, and pompous. He expresses these opinions clearly through the play’s over-the-top and frustrating characters.
Both jack and Algernon are very complex in their own way. Jack creates an alternate identity so that can be confusing in itself. He says so himself by saying "I have always pretended I have a younger brother of the name of Earnest" he uses this 'younger brother as another identity, which also shows he is not earnest at all. However Algernon is a confusing way of thinking of thing such as the line "the truth is rarely pure and never simple." However unlike Jack from what we know Algernon is earnest as he is very suspicious of jack when he thinks jack stole the cigarette case. This makes us believe that Algernon is trustworthy or
Oscar Wilde’s, “The Importance of Being Earnest”, play carefully uses satire as a didactic tool to mask the underlying social commentary with the help of comedy through characters theme and dialogue. Wilde uses satire to ridicule class and wealth, marriage and the ignorance of the Victorian Age. Audiences are continually amused by Wilde’s use of linguistic and comic devices such as double entendre, puns, paradox and epigrams, especially in the case of social commentary and didactic lessons. Characters portrayed in the play such as Jack, Cecily, Algernon and Lady Bracknell, allow Wilde to express his opinions on the social problems during the Victorian Age.
Throughout, The Importance of Being Ernest, Oscar Wilde uses aphorisms to convey truths about society. A good example of the above aphorism’s reference to society is in the form of “bunburying”. Algy suspects Jack of being a “Bunburyist”, someone who has a fake story to get out of certain situations. After some pressuring Jack says, “in order [for me] to get up to town I have always pretended to have a younger brother by the name of Ernest, who lives in the Albany, and gets into the most dreadful scrapes. That, my dear Algy,
Characters play a crucial role in The Importance of Being Earnest. Jack and Algernon, the main characters of the story, establish themes such as the double life while addressing social issues of the Victorian era (Spark). At certain points in the play, they each establish a separate persona called "Ernest," which they use for their own benefit. Jack, for example, uses his "Ernest" as a means of escaping from his life in the country, where he is held in high esteem; on the other hand, Algernon follows Jack's example and creates his own "Ernest" for the sole purpose of meeting Cecily (Wilde 36). Who, then, is the protagonist of the story? From one perspective, Jack is seen as the morally "better" of the two, since Algernon is more often seen