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
Oscar Wilde, the writer of The Importance of Being Earnest, celebrated the Victorian Era society while criticizing it in his play. Through his play, he utilized the humorous literary techniques of pun, irony, and satire to comment on the impact of Victorian Era society left on the characters themselves. These comedic literary devices also help to show how the members of this society in the Victorian Era live by a set of unspoken rules that determine politeness, as well as proper etiquette to live by. Wilde uses a pun in the title of the work, as well as in the character personalities. Different types of irony appear in many scenes in the play, to flout the rules of society, as well as mock the intelligence of the upper-class characters, compared to the lower-class characters. Wilde satirizes the rules of the upper-class society of the Victorian Era through the dialogue of the characters. The time period in which these characters live, impacts their daily lives, and their personalities.
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 Importance of Being Earnest, a trivial Comedy is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on February 14 1895, it is a comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious identities to escape demanding social obligations. Throughout the play,
Oscar Wilde’s treatment of high society and manners are explored in the play “The Importance of Being Earnest”. Here, members of the upper class display a great deal of pride and pretense, feeling that they are inherently entitled to their wealth and higher social position. An example is Lady Bracknell, who is preoccupied with maintaining the status quo that she quickly squashes any signs of rebellion. Characters from higher societies/classes are mainly concerned about their reputation and respectability. Thus, expectations of the upper class for both men and women include being upstanding, rich and come from a wealthy family. Wilde’s criticism on high society and manners are explored through the characteristics of Lady Bracknell; the dialogue between Gwendolen and Cecily; and the characteristics of Jack in the country.
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.
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
Throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde plays around with the standard expectations along with the absence of compassion of a Victorian society in the 1890’s, he demonstrates this through several genres of comedy such as Melodrama, Comedy of Manners, Farce, dark humour and Irony, as well as portraying the themes, death and illness, in this play in a brilliance of unusual amount of references.
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.
Lady Bracknell embodies the Victorian matron role with her domineering, snobbish, and lack of compassion characteristics (Orlich 373). Wilde tends to use Lady Bracknell as a stereotype of the upper class where she didn’t care about the type of person one was as long as they appeared to be of importance to society. This is a theme that we see reoccurring in the personality of Gwendoline, backing up the statement Alge made about women always becoming like their mothers in the end. Lady Bracknell’s shallow character is made more clear during the conversation she had with Jack about his childhood and telling him that he need to provide some sense of belonging before she would even consider letting her daughter marry him, completely disregarding the fact that he was lost in a train station
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.
The play contains a constant exchange of verbal banter between the characters. Wilde does this in a comical way, while still using the witty remarks as a way to satirize the absurdities and excesses in the character’s lives. Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen’s mother, is a lady of high society, and she bases her life on the standards and morals that the Victorian society proposes. The film replaces the verbal banter with physical humor which ultimately loses the satire and wit the characters have in the play. In Act I of the play, Lady Bracknell questions Jack about his life in order to approve her daughter’s engagement to him. Her questions are based on what the society deems important, instead of what she, as a mother, should care about. Lady Bracknell says, “Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes … What is your income?” (Act I. 1435). Obviously, the verbal banter between Lady Bracknell and Jack is quite comical, but more importantly it satirizes the things that Lady Bracknell and the Victorians value essential. The film modifies this scene into a more visual one for a modern audience. Lady Bracknell and Jack still have their witty conversation; however, Wilde’s intended effect of the verbal banter is lost. The director modified the verbal banter because a modern audience most likely would not comprehend Wilde’s intentions. The visual aspect of this scene is the director’s way of expressing the satires of the Victorian morals in a way that the modern audience will understand. In the film, this scene is made visual as Jack enters Lady Bracknell’s home. Large pillars, expensive paintings, and grandiose doors create the mood. She sits ...
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 satiric piece usually has a didactic side to it. In this case, Lady Bracknell learns that the same person she was criticising is actually her own flesh and blood.
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.
One major theme of The Importance of Being Earnest is the nature of marriage. Throughout the entire play, marriage and morality serve as the catalyst for the play, inspiring the plot and raising speculation about the moral character of each person. Throughout the entire play, the characters are constantly worried about who they are going to marry and why they would marry them. This theme is the most prevalent theme throughout the entire play and shows what impact marriage had on a Victorian society. This essay will prove that marriage is the theme of this play.
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...