Theme Of Women In The Importance Of Being Earnest

In The Importance of being Earnest the author claims that women are superficial and he portrays his opinion throughout the book. There are many pieces of evidence, and incidents in this book where women are looked at to be shallow, and only care about themselves. These pieces of evidence prove how the author feels about women. Oscar Wilde, the author of The Importance of being Earnest, expresses his opinion towards women through the female characters in his book, Cecily and Gwendolen.

Cecily is more concerned with all the parts in a man being just like she pictures her perfect fairytale, than the actual man she is with. Instead of Cecily taking the time to get to know Algernon, She focuses more on morphing him into the man she wants to be with. Cecily writes letters and says they are from Algernon, “And this is the box in which I keep all your dear letters” (Wilde 32). In reality Algernon never wrote these letters “My letters! But my own sweet Cecily, I have never written you any letters” (Wilde 32). Cecily just made this up and it is part of her fantasy. Cecily also makes up that she has cut off their engagement previously. “To-day I broke off my engagement with Ernest. I feel it is better to do so. The weather sill continues charming” (Wilde 33). She believes that a relationship “would hardly have been a really serious engagement if it hadn’t

The author is trying to teach his readers that women can be superficial and shallow, and men typically fall for these traits. He feels that women are selfish, and superficial, and think about material things more than what really matters. He used Gwendolen and Cecily as characters to help him portray this. He made them both care more about their name or their dream man than anything else. Therefore, Oscar Wilde, uses the female characters in his book to show his true feelings toward them in