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The importance of being Earnest

            
             (A Trivial Comedy for Serious People).
             Oscar Wilde said "We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality." This essay investigates how far "The Importance of Being Earnest" reflects this view on life. Oscar Wilde subtitled his play "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People". The play is a comedy of manners satirising the attitudes and behaviour of the upper classes. The humour in the play makes social status, marriage and money as a measure of personal worth look spurious and nonsensical. The implication is that things such as social status, marriage and money have no real worth and should therefore be mocked. Throughout the play Wilde uses witty dialogue to satirise the hypocrisy of society. The plot is based around the desires of two young upper class men to marry two young upper class ladies, who in turn desire only to marry men named Ernest.
             The play is one of dual meanings throughout. Earnest of the title is an adjective describing seriousness. Jack and Algernon are characters who lie in order to be Ernest, but in doing so they are not being earnest. Jack and Algernon have a dual identity. Jack pretends to be Ernest in the city and Algernon goes "Bunburying" in the country. To escape their responsibilities and fulfil their own needs Jack and Algernon have to lie and deceive. The suggestion here is that Jack and Algernon find the society they live in restrictive. Jack sums it up from his point of view.
             "When one is in the town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring."(Act 1 page 7).
             Algernon and Jack take the business of having a dual identity very seriously, as it is their escape from the reality of the society in which they live. Wilde himself was forced to lead a double life because of his homosexuality. Cecily sums up the main theme in the play when she says to Algernon: .


Essays Related to The importance of being Earnest

1. Importance of Being Earnest

The Importance of Being Earnest The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde, is a comedic play that is set in the Victorian Age at around the 1890s. This book takes place in London England. The Importance of Being Earnest has many major characters. Jack Worthing is a friend of Algernon; he loves Gwendolen and believes his name is Earnest. Algernon Moncrieff is a good friend of Jack and a nephew of Lady Bracknell; he also falls in love with Cecily. Gwendolen Fairfax is the daughter of Lady ... they live happily ever after. One major theme in The Importance of Being Earnest is the use of sa...

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2. Presentation of Conflict in the plays Hedda Gabler and Medea

... "The Importance of Being Earnest", on the one hand, are very superficial and are not meant to be far reaching, because they should amuse the reader. Due to this the characters in "The Importance of Being Earnest" are not developed very deep, because there are no deep conflicts. Most of the comic in "The Importance of Being Earnest" even is produced by the conflicts. They are even absurd. The conflicts in both plays had to be so different, because in the case of "The Importance of Being Earnest" Oscar ... Wilde tried to criticize the people from the society, which mainly was watching his...

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3. Importance of being earnest

... romantic about a definite proposal... If ever I get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact." Algernon is being completely illogical about marriage. To be married to someone is a life altering commitment that can't just be forgotten. The play, The Importance of Being Earnest, uses epigrams, satire, and irony to convey the absurdity of the Victorian Aristocrats. Through the play he shows how the high society feels about minor and major issues in life ... . The minor issues have a large influence while the major issues seem to not factor in at all. Oscar Wilde was definitely brillia...

  • Word Count: 627
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4. Importance of being earnest

... they live happily ever after. One major theme in The Importance of Being Earnest is the use of satire. Throughout the play, the word earnest serves a double meaning. It's used as a male name and also to be serious or honest. The characters lied to be earnest, but in fact, they weren't lying at all because in the end, they were earnest (honest). By not being earnest, the characters were going after what they wanted and were rewarded ... proposing. The use of epigrams seems to keep the flow of the play moving swiftly. I would recommend this play to readers who enjoy comedy. To get the ful...

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5. The Importance Of Being Earnest - A Great Text

... daughter from marrying "Ernest". The Importance of Being Ernest was a watermark for its time, as it undermined the consensus of upper class society. The Importance of Being Earnest is a play of nonsense, and childish playfulness, and demands not to be taken seriously. Ironically, the play was a hit with London's upper classes, even though it sought to destroy all the old, stagnant social expressions of the period. It is this fact that makes The Importance of Being Earnest such a great text: it ... rejected all the mundane conventions of its day. With this play, Wilde attempted to spread...

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6. The Importance of Being Earnes

... not mastered the art of irony. Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest may be the biggest example of a comedy that has mastered irony. Irony blends the play between humor and social commentary amazingly. Almost every key idea in the play could be interpreted to be some form of irony. Wilde depicts his ironic tone mostly through his many obscure, yet thoughtful, characters. The characters in The Importance of Being Earnest truly define irony, and the irony in ... this play truly defines the characters. Primarily are the two main characters of the play, Jack and Algernon. Both ...

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7. The Importance of being Earnest

The importance of being Earnest is a satire by Oscar Wilde where being earnest simply means having the name Earnest. The film dramatization of Wilde's renowned play is a comedy of manners and what is quite comic is the way it is structured. It is a series of verbal fencing matches where all the characters are trying to make their own respective points. The story takes place in both London and the English Country Side. It all starts in Algernon's apartment ... Jack, who for reasons embodying the farcical nature of the play adopts an identity "Earnest", wants to marry his cousin Gwendolen. Jack...

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8. Importance

... society struck Wilde as dry, stern, conservative, and so "earnestly" concerned with the maintenance of social norms and the status quo that it had become almost inhuman. In the figure of Lady Bracknell in particular, The Importance of Being Earnest lightly shows the limitations and unhappiness produced by such a way of life. The play mocks this earnestness; it is the characters who do not act earnestly who are rewarded with love, and who are ... proven not to have been acting dishonestly at all. With this, The Importance of Being Earnest makes a tentative further claim: that perhaps Alg...

  • Word Count: 946
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9. Marriage in The Importance of Being Earnest

... non-exist identities to cheat both themselves and others. Although everything happens accidently the same as they plan in the end, they learn that it is always important to be earnest. The whole play is full of great humor, and Wilde tries to express the importance of being earnest through different ways in the play. In this essay, I try to explore what different attitude each character ... holds and how it changes with plot development. The first two characters are Gwendolen and Cecily. In the beginning, their attitude towards marriage is ... fashionable lady. Now she lives with happi...

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10. Earnest

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