The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde

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In The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde revealed that animalistic traits can tint a character’s intellectual attributes. All of the characters possess an overwhelming desire which seems to diminish their morality. Wilde uses Jack Worthing’s animalistic behaviors to reveal that his animal self is damaging his intellectual self. The play is presented to show that the characters retain an exaggerated pleasure with food, which shows their pleasures in inanimate objects. Every character in the play is drawn into lustful relationships, thus mutilating their psychological self. By embracing their animalistic traits the characters in The Importance of Being Earnest begin to blemish their intellectual character which inhibits their overall persona.

Jack Worthing’s, the main character, animalism impairs his prestigious morality. Jack creates a fictional character called Ernest Worthing, to act as a rowdy brother that is portrayed as a burdensome sibling. However, he created this fictional personage so he could be as frivolous as he pleased without his ward Cecily knowing of his obstreperous ways. Jack’s acquaintance, Algernon Moncrieff, establishes that Jack’s brother does not actuality exist, and his thoughts are reaffirmed when he finds a cigarette case. He asks “This cigarette case is a present from some one of the name of Cecily, and you said you didn't know any one of that name…” Jack stutters “Well, if you want to know, Cecily happens to be my aunt…” (Wilde 4). Jack’s reasoning has become so tainted that his animalism seems to counterpoise his intellectual character. However, to no avail Algernon still inquires unremittingly “But why does she call herself little Cecily if she is your aunt and lives at Tunbridge Wells? [Readi...

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... personages in The Importance of Being Earnest possess a carnal feature which seems to disfigure their cerebral self. Jack Worthing grasped the idea of being an “animal.” He lies and he pleases himself which maims his sophisticated persona. The characters that Wilde has

created maintain an overly pleasurable relation with food. This passion for food proves how if one accepts their hidden desires, their psychological self may soon be tinted. The lustful relationships presented to us shows how beloved characters may soon be damaged by their obsessive corporeal traits. This theme enormously important to the play, for it proves Wilde’s intention that if people begin to accept animalism instead of appeasing it, their cerebral persona will soon be tinted.

Works Cited

Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest. New York: Dover Publications, 1990. Print.

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