The Importance of Being earnest is easily regarded as Wilde’s wittiest play. It is filled with Victorian sayings and the different uses of the word Earnest. The characteristics that come with the word earnest tells the story of Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff. Jack uses the name Ernest to create an imaginary brother and he uses that name so that he can travel to city more often. Jack also used the imaginary brother to escape his country character jack and fit in the urban society. Algernon used the same technique known as with an invalid friend known as Bunbury. The methods used by Jack and Algernon only got them as far as dating relationships bus unfortunately did not bring occupations. The use of the Victorian culture by Oscar Wilde …show more content…
Although in this play Jack uses the name Ernest for his own deceptive ends. Like Algernon says “…I have always suspected you of being a confirmed and secretive bunburist and I’m quite sure of it now…” (Wilde 7) Jack immediately tries to explain why he used the name Ernest and it turns out Jack did not only use the name Ernest because Gwendolen’s “…ideal has been to be in love with someone of the name Ernest…” (Wilde13). Jack also revealed to Algernon that “…When one is placed in a position of guardian, one has to adopt very high moral tone on all subjects…in order to get up town, I have always pretended I have a younger brother named Ernest…” (Wilde 8). The witticism used by Wilde in this case is that Jack used the name Ernest because of its high moral tone it occupies. On the other hand, Gwendolen only wanted to love someone with the name Ernest and not what the name …show more content…
For example, the way Algernon used the word Bunbury as a name of an invalid friend who lived in the country. Algernon used his fictious friend’s illness as an excuse to avoid social engagement’s. Algernon later picked up the name Ernest for himself and decided to kill the name Bunbury to charm Cecil. Now the name Ernest is being used as a double identity name by two people yet there is no initial character named Ernest in the play. Algernon changed his name to Ernest because Cecil as wanted to marry someone of the name Ernest. As she says “… it had been always my girlish dream of mine to love someone whose name was Ernest…” (Gladden 131). Algernon was stunned to know that Cecil would not get married to him if his name was not Ernest. This shows that to Cecil and Gwendolen it was not important the them for someone to be Earnest but just to have the name Ernest, which in this case may confuse the
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.
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.
Similarly, in “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Jack and Algernon both begin their marital lives based on deception and lies. As a matter of fact, Gwendolen and Algernon both know Jack as Ernest. When Jack proposes to Gwendolen, she becomes overly attached to the idea of marrying someone called Ernest. Gwendolen exclaims: “My ideal has always been to love someone of the name Ernest/There is something in that name that inspires absolute confidence/It is a divine name/It has a music of its own/It produces vibrations” (Wilde 106), and Cecily is of the same opinion “it had always been a girlish dream of mine to love someone whose name was Ernest/I pity any poor married woman whose husband is not called Ernest” (Wilde 116). Jack and Algernon never admits to Gwendolen and Cecily that they are living a double life, their relationships are based on lies. They are more occupied with the name Ernest than the fact of actually being earnest. In spite of leading a deceptive and double life, both men
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.
Gwendolen confesses to Jack, or his confidante Ernest, “The moment Algernon first mentioned to me that he had a friend called Ernest, I knew I was destined to love you” (10). That quote proved that Gwendolen’s drive to marry “Ernest” for him having the name Ernest, rather than marrying him for his character. Cecily also confesses something along the same lines as Gwendolen to Algernon, that even though she had never met him before she fell in love with him: “Well, ever since dear Uncle Jack first confessed to us that he had a younger brother who was very wicked and bad, you of course have formed the chief topic of conversation…a man who is much talked about is always very attractive…I daresay it was foolish of me, but I fell in love with you, Ernest” (32). She is led to believe that Algernon’s real name is Ernest. Cecily and Gwendolen are attracted to Jack and “Ernest” because of their histories. Gwendolen was excited to find o...
That is how the story progresses and builds up. Names can also perfectly describe a relationship between people. A relationship can be constituted of a number of feelings like love and hatred etc. You call someone a particular nickname because they like or it might annoy the people you dislike. For eg, Bailey called Margueritte ‘Maya’ because he could not say it and Margueritte liked it.
Though Cecily and Gwendolen both love two different men, they show a deep obsession over the name “Ernest.” The first relationship introduced in the play is of Jack and Gwendolen, as he asks “Gwendolen, will you marry me?” (Wilde 307). At first the play seems straight forward and simple, as Jack gets the women he desires and only needs to change his name to Ernest to cover up his lies. However, things begin to get complicated and the love triangle begins to form when Algernon involves himself in Jack’s “game.”
Gwendolen and Cecily act like air-heads and are easily won over by the men they plan to marry. Gwendolen simply wants to marry a man named Earnest. She tells Jack “my ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest” (I.381-82). The mere idea of marrying a man for his name shows how easily Gwendolen can attach herself to a man. Marriage is the most serious of all relationships and Gwendolen is foolish to deter...
The The surprising thing is that they both understand each other! In addition, both Jack and Algernon have made false statements. Jack has "invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest" Algernon has "invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunberry. According to Jack, his name is not suitable for both the town and the country. The. Algenon and Jack, therefore, live as they please, through.
That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet” (Shakespeare). Aname holds so much uniqueness and so many connotations whether positive or negative. Your name is one of the big factors that makes a person an individual as well as very self confident. Unfortunately as i’ve said before women were stripped of their names which played a huge part in losing a part of who they were. A quote that displays personality is when offred gets in the car that Saturday morning in September and she says “My name isn’t Offred, I have another name, which nobody ever uses now because it is forbidden. I tell myself it doesn’t matter, your name is like your telephone number, useful only to others; but what I tell myself is wrong, it does matter” (Atwood, 84). This shows a different personality because of the role that she has in society her name was changed to represent property to Fred. This displays a different personality because she doesn't like her name and struggles with Emotional Labor, she has to subside her emotions and feelings of wanting to be addressed and use her real name but has to be obedient and follow the rules of society but referring back to Shakespeare and the quote, when Offred is called anything other than what her real name she knows that it’s not the “Real” her rather it is the person who society enforced a role upon and molded her to be society expects her to
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.
nevertheless she still has the name Arden. Just to show about how important her family name is,
The irony continues to explain how Jack and Algernon were biological brothers. They were pretending to be earlier to play out their game of Bunburyism. Jack had told everybody he had a brother in which was he used as his justification to leave his home in the country and visit his "brother" in the city. Algernon pretends to be Jack brother "Earnest" in order to win over Jack beautiful "niece" Cecily.
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.
The Victorians think of the concept of love and marriage as a game, an idea that is silly and unimportant. Algernon is in the midst of ridiculing jack on his decision to marry Gwendolen, then proceeds to tell him the only way to behave with women, ¨… make love to her, if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.¨ 137. having no interest in marriage whatsoever Algernon takes every opportunity to mock Jack's decision to his engagement. Not only does he contempt marriage, but he euphemistically states that the only relations anyone should have with women are that of sex. While in the middle of proposing Gwendolen interrupts, ¨… I am