The Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde

An aesthete himself, Oscar Wilde created characters who embodied the values of the Aesthetic Movement in his play "The Importance of Being Earnest". The comedy in this title comes with the double meaning in the word "Earnest", both being the name of one of the characters and the virtue none of them seem to exhibit. Making a jab at the sensibilities of the Victorian elite, Wilde uses his characters' obsession with the way things look, the way people act, and the way they live to explain just how much emphasis was put on appearances at the time.

Whether or not something is aesthetically pleasing is of utmost importance to these characters. The play begins in a "luxuriously and artistically furnished" apartment where Algernon, a wealthy young

When Gwendolen and Cecily get into an argument about which one of them is engaged to Ernest, they attempt to remain as civil and polite as possible. Hurling insults so subtle as Cecily's, "flowers are common here, Miss Fairfax, as people are in London" (Wilde 37), the passive aggressive nature of this conflict shows that these women were determined to maintain the image of being prim and proper young ladies despite how enraged they truly were. While Gwendolen and Cecily hid their feelings for the sake of appearances, Lady Bracknell speaks her mind when told Algernon's friend Bunbury is sick again. Annoyed with how he has disrupted her dinner plans, Lady Bracknell says, "I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd" (Wilde 9). Without a touch of sympathy for his poor state of health, Lady Bracknell focuses on how Bunbury's illness is not in line with her aesthetic ideals and expectations. In both of these instances, the desire to maintain a certain appearance dominates the conversation. In an extremely outrageous situation, Gwendolen and Cecily refuse to express any unsavory emotions. Instead of showing concern for Bunbury's health, Lady Bracknell only shows concern for his appearance. Again, aesthetic and appearance take center

The pressure of maintaining a certain image is so stressful that both Algernon and Jack have created second identities for themselves. While Algernon's reasons for "Bunburying" are likely to be more selfish, Jack believes that he needs to his country life and his town life separate for the sake of Cecily. As Jack is a guardian to Cecily, he feels like it is his responsibility to "adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects" (Wilde 6), and therefore would like to keep his possibly immoral affairs in the town a secret. Obviously dedicated to the maintenance of his appearance, he now has two to deal with. The practice of creating second identities must not be uncommon, as Cecily has her on version of "Bunburying". Bored with her studies in the country, Cecily keeps a diary that, "chronicles the things that have never happened, and couldn't possibly have happened" (Wilde 22). Seeing as her life is rather uneventful, she has written more exciting and even scandalous "memories" in her diary, including her engagement to Ernest. The Aesthetic Movement was about beauty, and often times, beauty is pain. Beauty is exhausting and restricting, and these young people were searching for an escape. They get tired of the dinner parties meant to make them seem sociable or the German lessons meant to make them seem sophisticated. Though the expectation is unrealistic and possibly unhealthy, these