Love in The Importance of Being Earnest
Love is perhaps the most actively sought moral objective of one's life. And though marriage is often thought to be the logical consequence of love, it is Oscar Wilde's contention in his satire, The Importance of Being Earnest, that love begets bliss and marriage thwarts this course of bliss. Algernon Moncrieff spends very little time falling in love and the rest of the time striving toward engagement. Wilde demonstrates through him that once one becomes intent upon achieving a goal, the individual's motivation becomes a matter of action rather than truth. Algernon is no longer driven by a moral objective; instead, he becomes intent upon achieving a societal standard. "The truth is rarely pure, and never simple" (35). Love is truth. Marriage results in the systematic complication of love. Algernon becomes disillusioned in the process of seeking truth. In defining Algernon's preconceived notion of marriage and then describing the subsequent earnest pursuit of engagement, Wilde achieves a consequential climax that satirizes marriage.
Algernon is a pompous man of seemingly strong, albeit unconventional, convictions. Wilde uses him for the sole purpose of mocking the sanctimonious institution of marriage. In the beginning of the play, Algernon considers Jack's intent to propose to Gwendolen to be "business," not "pleasure" (30). Yet eventually Algernon also resolves to propose to Cicely, discrediting his own established belief: "I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is un...
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...man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth" (108). Though Algernon, by the play's close, does not realize this, it is the inevitable that he will eventually realize that the truth is no longer with him. For, Algernon initially speaks nothing but the truth. Yet on his path toward achieving his moral objective, he becomes so intent upon the actions that he loses the truth; Algernon is so set on becoming engaged that he forgets that divorces, not marriages, "are made in heaven" (30). Wilde's initial intention is for Algernon to appear to be the antithesis to society's spokesperson. As Algernon, contrary to expectation, abandons his own truth, and the play ends happily ever after, Wilde reveals to the reader his view that marriage is ridiculous.
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the importance of being earnest -- oscar wilde
Theme of Love in Beloved and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest In the book, Beloved, by Toni Morrison and the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, featuring Jack Nickolson, both share a common theme of love and loving oneself. Morrison’s character, Baby Suggs, is the source of love for her people. Similarly, Jack Nicholson’s character McMurphy tries to give the men confidence, so that they can love themselves.
...erpreted as dark and significant to the period. The comedy Wilde achieves is at the expense of the characters who are seemingly intelligent adding to the ironic structure that much of the comedy is based on. Many of the comic elements of the play are shown through human reactions to Victorian repression and the effect it has on the men and women of the time. Love seems to be nonexistent within the finds of the fierce and brutal Aristocracy when so many of the qualities they value are not based on human qualities but that of the class’s social norms. Wildes Characters are at often times not subtle about their distaste in marriage and love, Algernon is no exception to this “In aried lie, three is company, two is none” showing that they all have distorted views on many of the social practices that make them morally sound, thus adding to the satire elements of the play.
Wilde’s play demonstrates how idealism influences individual’s potentiality to make fate-determining decisions. He does so through the character development of Robert and Gertrude Chiltern. The Chilterns’ idealistic attitudes regarding fiscal, social, and matrimonial issues play large roles in steering the plot to it’s exultant conclusion. For Robert, staying true to his ideals earned him a happy ending. For Gertrude, being gracious and flexible in her ideals led to her to a jubilant outcome. The two married characters bring balance as well as a genuineness to the nature of idealism. Whether an individual is persisting in their convictions or modifying their standards, idealism leads to characters determining their own destinies.
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
yet never means to wed where he hath wooed" (act 3 Scene 2 Lines 15-17).... ... middle of paper ... ... In this play, as any other, Shakespeare proves to be a visionary.
the play is not solely about love but also a lot of hatred is involved
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.
Everything Algernon has in the living room is there simply because it looks good and makes Algernon look good too. The fact that he has an expensive grand piano even though he cannot play it properly shows he is rich, as he has a lot of money to spend on unnecessary luxuries, but also it reflects Oscar Wilde's belief in aesthetics, as Algernon has the piano purely because it looks nice and makes him seem like an intellectual. I would have also place a mini bar on the stage to show he likes drinking and therefore is an easy-going, happy and laid-back person, but also that he is rich as he can afford to have one.
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.
It is well known that Shakespeare’s comedies contain many marriages, some arranged, some spontaneous. During Queen Elizabeth's time, it was considered foolish to marry for love. However, in Shakespeare’s plays, people often marry for love. With a closer look into two of his most famous plays As You Like It and Twelfth Night or What You Will, I found that while marriages are defined and approached differently in these two plays, Shakespeare’s attitudes toward love in both plays share similarities. The marriages in As You Like It’s conform to social expectation, while the marriages are more rebellious in Twelfth Night. Love, in both plays, was defined as
Marriage is a powerful union between two people who vow under oath to love each other for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. This sacred bond is a complicated union; one that can culminate in absolute joy or in utter disarray. One factor that can differentiate between a journey of harmony or calamity is one’s motives. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is a novel of manners, where Elizabeth Bennet and her aristocratic suitor Mr. Darcy’s love unfolds as her prejudice and his pride abate. Anton Chekhov’s “Anna on the Neck” explores class distinction, as an impecunious young woman marries a wealthy man. Both Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Anton Chekhov’s “Anna on the Neck” utilize
Irony in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 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 revealed.
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.
Both Algernon and Jack assume the identity of "Ernest" yet ironically, they both plan on starting their married life with a lie. Lady Bracknell represents the typical aristocrat who focuses the idea of marriage on social and economic status. She believes that if the men trying to marry these girls are not of proper background, there is to be no engagement. Through this major exaggeration, Wilde satirically reveals the irrational and insignificant matters that the upper class society uses to view
Love however, is the source of much confusion and complication in another of Shakespeare’s comedies, Twelfth Night. Men and women were seen as very different from each other at the time the play was written, they were therefore also treated in very different ways. Because of this Viola conceals her identity and adopts the role of a man, in order to better her safety whilst being alone on the island, and to get a job at Count Orsino’s court. In the play Shakespeare uses the gender confusion he has created from obscuring characters identities to explore the limits of female power and control within courtship, and their dominance within society. Violas frustration surrounding her inability to express her feelings to the Count because she is a woman is an example of the limiting rules of courtship which were upheld at the time. (Aside) ‘yet, a barful strife! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife.’ Here she is already expressing her anxiety and emotion at being a woman, and having to keep her emotions hidden from those around her. She longs to be able to express her love as a man could, and in her disguise as Cesario she finds an opportunity to vent her feelings for the Count, but concealed as his words and towards Olivia. Viola is unaware of how her words may sound to Olivia because she is aware of their gender boundaries however Olivia isn’t and soon falls for Cesario. Because Olivia is a Lady and head of the household, and especially how she lacks a father figure, she has a lot more freedom in courtship. Duisinberre comments on this saying, ‘...Viola and Beatrice are women set free from their fathers, and their voice is that of the adult world.’ This is seen when Olivia immediately takes the dominant role in her and Cesarios relat...