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 …show more content…
Lane, for example, the lowly butler of Algernon, is used to give an unfamiliar perspective to the social class problem: the neglected lower class is finally given a voice (Wilde 7). Reality in this period was that the lower class virtually never got to state their opinions or defend themselves, so Wilde used the character of Lane for people to visualize their treatment of the lower classes and be held accountable for their distasteful actions against them (Victorian). Furthermore, Lady Bracknell represents yet another perspective: the posh, frivolous lifestyle of the upper class and how backwards their thinking was. At one point in the play, Jack and Gwendolen are discussing their plans of marriage to Lady Bracknell. After interrogating Jack about his familial ties and his past life, she disapproves of their engagement (Wilde 69). Her reasoning was clear: she did not want Gwendolen to have even the slightest chance of marrying into a poor family, even if that was what made her happiest. Bracknell's eternal craving for more wealth and reverence is exactly what Wilde wanted readers to frown upon and take out of their own
In Oscar Wilde’s drama The Importance of Being Earnest, he uses light-hearted tones and humor to poke fun at British high society while handling the serious theme of truth and the true identity of who is really “Earnest.” Truth as theme is most significantly portrayed through the women characters, Gwendolen and Cecily but to present serious themes comically, Wilde portrays women to be the weaker sex of society, despite the seriousness of the subject—the identity of the men they want to marry.
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 unveiled.
Oscar Wildes ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’’ is believed by many to be his most genius work and certainly has withstood the test of time. The play is set in London during the 1890’s in which time frame aristocracy and upper class held the majority of the countries wealth. Many of the comical aspects question the morals of the upper class in which he satirises throughout the play. One method of this, for instance is through one of the main protagonist, Algernon Moncrieff. Algernon is an upper class individual who is oblivious to the world around him in such an exaggerated manner that it makes his character comically adjusted for Wildes own views. Many aspects of the time period are made a mockery through puns and witty remarks from the main protagonists, most if not all are portrayed in a sense that makes them undoubtedly a laughing stock. Wildes methods are not discrete; nor are they obvious, many of the comical comments made are by none other than the protagonists themselves. This furthermore enforces the corrupted morals of the time periods prestigious upper class by showing their sheer inability to acknowledge hypocrisy. For example, in act one; Algernon states “ Lane's views on marriage seem somewhat lax. Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.” This is especially amusing as Algernon believes that the lower class have a duty to set an example when in reality the matter of fact was quite the contrary. Algernon states that he believes the lower class are lacking in morals, he being arguably one of the most morally distorted characters Wilde created makes the double standards more prominent.
The Importance of Being Earnest is regarded as one of the most successful plays written by Oscar Wilde, a great 19th century playwright. Oscar Wilde deals with something unique about his contemporary age in this drama. It addresses Victorian social issues, French theatre, farce, social drama and melodrama. All these factors influenced the structure of the play in a large scale. This play is basically a Victorian satirical drama showcasing the social, political, economic and religious structural changes that affected 18th century England. It was the time when British Empire had captured most part of the world including Oscar Wilde’s homeland, Ireland. The aristocrats of England had become dominant over the middle and poor class people and Wilde wrote plays with the motivation to encourage people to think against the English aristocracy and artificiality.
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.
Although Algernon showed little signs of wanting to settle down with a wife at the beginning of the play: his love for Cecily swept him off his feat. This quick and sudden falling in love is very characteristic for lovers in Comedy of Manners plays. Although he may have been draw to Cecily with the rake quality of being a womanizer, he soon found true romantic love thus becoming a young male lover. Moreover, The director of The Importance of Being Earnest chose to show Algernon as a knight in shining armor coming to rescue Cecily. This choice on the director's part was definitely meant to highlight Algernon’s young male lover
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.
The novel, Persuasion, and the play, The Importance of Being Earnest, both have similar features in them. The conflict of both stories deals with social status, criticizing social mobility, and marriage within the same and different social classes. The authors Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde both draw the reader’s attention by telling how people were like in the 19th century Victorian era, then having the characters of their respective stories breaks those stereotypes.
In essence, this comedy of manners does have traces of movement from distress to happiness as all the characters within the play were either involved in ‘good’ or ‘bad’ affairs. But despite this, in the resolution Jack learnt from his mistakes which resulted in happiness for him and Gwendolyn as she got married to a person named Earnest. Similarly, Cecily also got married which resulted in celebration, but as Algernon didn’t tell her the truth about his name he hadn’t reformed in the process which indicates that he did stay ‘bad’. Likewise, Lady Bracknell also stayed distressed when she was not part of any comic resolution. As this is the case, ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ does conform to this model, but this movement from ‘good’ to ‘bad’ is dependent on the different characters that Wilde has constructed and the situations that they went through.
Lady Bracknell represents the typical aristocrat who focuses the idea of marriage on social and economic status. She believes that if the men trying to marry these girls are not of proper background, there is no engagement. Through this major exaggeration, Wilde satirically reveals the irrational and insignificant matters that the upper class society uses to view marriage.
After the whole play wanting to be Ernest, Jack’s name is actually Ernest and he says, “I always told you, Gwendolen, my name was Ernest, didn't I? Well, it is Ernest after all. I mean it naturally is Ernest” (Wilde III.170). This is an example of situational irony since an unexpected outcome occurred. The whole play, The Importance of Being Earnest is based around irony since every event that happens is opposite of what is expected.
In the play, Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde ridicules and identifies the negative aspects of Victorian society through comedic dialogue. He uses characters with ridiculous personalities to demonstrate his idea of Victorian life. By making absurd scenes with foolish characters, it is his way of mocking the Victorian lifestyle passive aggressively.
The film, The Importance of Being Earnest, is a comical and dramatized adaptation of the play version written by Oscar Wilde. Although it included things that were not introduced in the play, it only made it more humorous. The film, although with extra-add ins for humor, was a well-planned and thought out interpretation of the play version. With the extra add-ins, it better explains what is going on so viewers won’t have to refer to the play to understand. Watching the film never failed to have me cracking up and wanting more.
Although our present-day social class system is more flexible than it was in the 1700s, members of the elite, especially celebrities, are still more apt to marry other upper-class citizens, rather than their social inferiors. For example, it is expected by society, and usually veritable that rock stars, actors and models tend to pursue partners from a comparable social class. Similarly, a marriage between Fitzwilliam Darcy and Anne de Bourgh, daughter of the distinguished Lady Catherine de Bourgh, is expected because both parties are of equally notable lineage and hail from the same prestigious family. The union between the two aristocrats was planned “ ‘[w]hile in their cradles’ ” , according to Lady de Bourgh, who makes a trip to Longbourn to see Elizabeth after hearing that she is engaged to Anne’s “future husband” (Chapter 56). Lady Catherine is aghast that the anticipated matrimony may “ ‘be prevented by a young woman of inferior birth, of no importance in the world, and wholly unallied to the family’ ” and makes every effort to prevent any chance of an engagement between Elizabeth and Darcy (Chapter 56). During this confrontation, Lady de Bourgh’s behavior towards Elizabeth is quite comical and can be compared to Mrs. Bennet’s often-embarrassing comportment; had Lady de Bourgh not had such stately ancestry, she may have lowered her social status with her ridiculous conduct. Lady Catherine’s ludicrous demeanor is presumably derived from her lofty ego, which society has helped create by exalting the upper class. A mere connection with Lady Catherine, whom Mr. Collins conside...