Oscar Wilde S The Importance of Being Earnest A Critical Analysis by Qaisar Iqbal Janjua

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either and modern literature a complete impossibility. Algernon, (Act I)
By Qaisar Iqbal Janjua from Lahore, Pakistan. Contact (92) 300 8494678 qaisarjanjua@hotmail, qaisarjanjua@gmail, qaisarjanjoa@yahoo.com
LIFE AND WORKS OF OSCAR WILDE Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 to William Wilde and Lady Jane Francesca Wilde, prominent intellectuals in Dublin, Ireland. Though not of the aristocracy, the Wildes were nonetheless well off and sent Oscar to the finest schools as he grew up. Oscar seems especially influenced by his mother, a brilliantly witty raconteur, and he was frequently invited while still a child to participate in their intellectual circle of friends. Wilde entered Trinity College Dublin in 1871 and enjoyed an accomplished career, garnering awards and studying the classics as well as theories of aestheticism. In 1874, he transferred to Oxford in England and studied under the divergent tutorials of John Ruskin (a Renaissance man of many scholarly talents) and Walter Pater (an influential proponent of the new school of aestheticism). Wilde negotiated their conflicting philosophies while he experimented with flashy clothing and discovered his homosexual tendencies. Upon graduating from Oxford, Wilde had a brief flirtation with Catholicism, even meeting with the Pope, but his independent ideas prevented his exclusive attachment to religion. In 1881, he published his first volume of verse (Poems), and was a well-known enough entity to be satirized by a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera. He moved to the avantgarde neighbourhood of Chelsea in London, but his fathers death and the familys snowballing debts forced him to embark on a lecture tour of the United States in 1882. Upon arriving at customs, Wilde boldly made his now-famous statement: I have nothing to declare except my genius. On tour, he dressed up as a dandy and advocated the philosophy of the Aesthetic, the idea that art should exist solely for arts sake or, as he wrote elsewhere, it should be useless. While on tour, Wilde also produced his first, unsuccessful play in New York, Vera. In 1884, Wilde married a shy and rich Irishwoman, Constance Lloyd, and the two moved in to a posh London house. Wilde briefly edited Womans World magazine while he wrote a collection of fairy tales and more essays championing the Aesthetic movement. In the 1890s, he exploded on to the literary scene with his masterpiece novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, a Faustian tale about beauty and youth, and a string of highly successful plays, including Lady Windermeres Fan (1892), Salome (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), and An Ideal Husband (1895). His last play, The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), is also considered his greatest
2 By Qaisar Iqbal Janjua from Lahore, Pakistan. Contact (92) 300 8494678 qaisarjanjua@hotmail, qaisarjanjua@gmail, qaisarjanjoa@yahoo.com
and the modern paragon of the comedy of manners. By this time, Wildes flamboyant appearance, refined wit, and melodious speaking voice made him one of Londons most sought-after dinner-party guests. However, by now Wilde was infatuated with the younger, beautiful poet Lord Alfred Douglas (known as Bosie), and he was not shy about flaunting their sexual relationship. Douglass father, the Marquess of Queensbury, accused Wilde of sodomy. Wilde, never one to back down from a fight, charged Queensbury with libel. However, Queensbury located several of Wildes letters to Bosie as well as other incriminating evidence. Alongside the provocative material in Wildes work, the writer was found guilty of homosexuality in a second trial and sentenced to two years of hard labour. In 1897, while in prison, Wilde wrote De Profundis, an examination of his newfound spirituality. After his release, he moved to France under an assumed name. He wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol in 1898 and published two letters on the poor conditions of prison; one of the letters helped reform a law to prevent children from imprisonment. His new life in France, however, was lonely, impoverished, and humiliating. Wilde died in 1900 in a Paris hotel room. Nevertheless, he retained his epigrammatic wit until his last breath; he is rumoured to have said in the drab hotel room, My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has to go. Critical and popular attention to Wilde has experienced a great resurgence; numerous films based on his plays and life have delighted audiences, while his writings remain a wellspring of witty and subtle thought on aestheticism, morality, and society. WILDE THE ARTIST In the Victorian Age, which encompassed the last quarter of the nineteenth century, England was at its highest point. The British Empire extended all over the world, prompting the phrase, The sun never sets in the British Empire. The era saw the flourishing of the English aristocracy, but much like the contemporaneous Gilded Age in America, the rise of the elite created a huge wealth disparity between the very rich and the very poor. This gap became fertile ground for many artists, particularly Charles Dickens, who made a career of examining the social conditions on the lower rungs of English society. The period also played host to a rise of new ideas, most importantly the revolutionary ideas of Darwin, whose work on evolution became
extremely influential in the last part of the nineteenth century. The Victorian novelist Thomas Hardy adopted a fatalist philosophy along Darwinian lines, in which now removed from his privileged place at the centre of the world, man was viewed as moving within forces beyond his control. Oscar Wilde, rather than focusing on the lower classes or social conditions, chose to satirize the life of the English aristocracy, a world with which he was personally familiar. His characters are typical Victorian snobs; they are often arrogant, overly proper, formal, and concerned with money. Lady Bracknell in particular embodies the stereotype of the Victorian English aristocrat. Wilde focuses on the easy life of the wealthy, none of who seem to work at all. Indeed, the main concern of all the characters in the play is something that Wilde viewed as rather trivial: marriage. In basing his work on the problems and trials of marriage, Wilde deliberately adds a Victorian-era interpretation to the age-old English formula of the marriage plot. The works of Jane Austen and George Eliot alone provide multiple examples of the genre. Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, which is distinctly Victorian in tone, dialogue and characterization, adapts this traditional theme to a contemporary vision. Of course, Wilde pokes fun at the institution of marriage, which he saw as a practice surrounded by hypocrisy and absurdity. Although the play ends happily, The Importance of Being Earnest nevertheless leaves the audience under the impression that marriage and social values are often tied together in destructive ways. Ultimately, the aristocracy does not see marriage as an organ of love, but rather as a tool for achieving or sustaining social stature. This is the major theme of the play. Because of the plays profound success, both immediate and enduring, The Importance of Being Earnest has come to represent Oscar Wildes late-Victorian view of the aristocracy, marriage, wit, and social life; the play is often seen as providing a deep insight into London society at both its finest and its most absurd before the dawn of the twentieth century.
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest opened at the St. Jamess Theatre in London on Feb. 14, 1895, on the month-old heels of Wildes previous success, An Ideal Husband. The packed audience dressed to the nines in the dandified fashion of the playwright and rollicked with laughter at the on-stage caricatures that resembled them. Nevertheless, the play has proved a timeless hit beyond its primary demographic; considered Wildes best play, many hail it as the greatest stage comedy of all time. Part of that success comes from Wildes seemingly infinite supply of piquant epigrams. Though some of the concise, often paradoxical statements refer to contemporary events (the state of 19th-century French drama, for instance), most are universal, hilarious reflections on beauty, art, men, women, and class; they are endlessly quotable and continue to delight audiences with their blend of sophistication and absurdity. One feature of the epigram that ensures the plays durability is that it can be separated from the plays narrative. In other words, epigrams have little effect on the story. This is because epigrams encapsulate many of Wilde's beliefs on what art should do; above all, art should be beautiful and serve little social functionit should be useless, as he has written. The epigram is the epitome of this ideal; beautiful in its elegant construction, it is also dramatically useless to the play. Beyond pontificating on beauty, the play is also a masterful send-up of Victorian manners, especially in regards to marriage and morality. Marriage had long been an important issue in English literature, and Wilde exposed its manipulative use as a social tool of advancement; except for Miss Prism, all the women in the play have ulterior motives when it comes to romance. As for morality, Wilde critiqued the starchy faade of politeness he observed in society; he details the shallow mask of manner, as Cecily calls it, that aristocratic Victorians wore. Chief among the delights of the play is the characters' confused sense of values. Wilde described the play as exquisitely trivial, a delicate bubble of fancy, and it has its philosophy that we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality. Wilde also directed his actors to speak all their lines in earnest, without a wink to the audience that they were in on the joke. Though the Victorian characters are usually anything but earnest, they wholeheartedly
believe they are. While a comedy of manners, the play also uses overtly farcical techniques to downplay its seriousness, and the audience is willing to forgive the characters irresponsibility and various indiscretions. Within the plays framework of false identities, Wilde also planted several possible allusions to the male characters homosexuality. Whether or not one believes this argument, Wilde was leading dual lives as a married man and an active homosexual. Moreover, much of the contemporary audience for the play is reputed to have howled at all the inside references to Londons homosexual subculture. Unfortunately, Wildes heady success with Earnest was short-lived; the Marquess of Queensbury, father of Wildes young lover, Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie), showed up to the opening night. Though he was barred entrance, Wildes infamous trial began soon after, and his life and career began to unravel. Perhaps the conspicuous reason that Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest has endured as one of the greatest and most popular works of literature to emerge from Victorian England is its brilliant wit, which conveys both humour and social satire. This wit is the key to Wildes own aesthetic style, which simultaneously scoffs at the uselessness of art and trumpets that uselessness as arts greatest value; as an aesthete influenced by such men as Walter Pater, Wilde believed in art for arts own sake, and it was only in being useless that art could exist for no sake other than its own. In this independence, Wilde believed art was free to be beautiful, and the artist is free to occupy his role as the maker of beautiful things. With his emphasis on beauty, Wilde spent little time cataloguing the gritty details of industrializing England, as did so many of his contemporaries. The Importance of Being Earnest, like so many of his works, focused on the elite, and while making fun of their absurdities and excesses, it also revelled in their witty banter and rambunctious lives. Wilde was undoubtedly an astute social critic, but it is his irrepressible wit that sets him apart. One of the ways Wildes wit manifests itself is in puns. Running throughout the entire play is the double meaning behind the word earnest, which functions both as a male name and as an adjective describing seriousness. The plays twists and turns around this theme, its characters lying in order to be Ernest, and then discovering that because of a number of remarkable circumstances they had not in fact been lying at all. In claiming to be Ernest, both Algernon and Jack had, unbeknownst to themselves, been earnest. Yet even as he played with his theme for laughs,
Wilde saw earnestness as being a key ideal in Victorian culture. Much of British 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 Algernon, Jack, Cecily, and Gwendolyn have been the earnest ones all along; unwilling to act earnestly according to social status and convention, willing to lie to get what they want, and never completely able to escape their own delusions, they at least act honestly with themselves. Their earnestness is not one of telling the truth and fitting in, it is an earnestness of going after what they wanted. There are other smaller puns throughout the text, some of which are admittedly bad. The line about the dentist and the construction of false impressions in Act I is one example of such a pun, as is the joke about being exploded in Act III. On one level, these puns demonstrate an interest in playing games with the English language. However, it is also important to remember that this is a play and is therefore meant to be performed live before an actual audience. Puns are a means of engaging that audience by keeping them alert and interested, and also perhaps by making them groan from time to time (particularly with the pun about the dentist). Also fundamental to Wildes wit is his use of epigrams--short, witty sayings--to shed light on a given situation. Oftentimes, these epigrams express ironic views contrary to what we would expect characters to believe. We see this type of humour at work, for instance, in Algernons pontifications on marriage in Act I. Jack announces that he has come to town to ask Gwendolen to marry him; Algernon responds, I thought you had come up for pleasure? I call that business. He goes on to say, I really dont 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 uncertainty. If I ever get married, Ill certainly try to forget the fact. Lines such as these are what make the play truly memorable because they mock our own preconceived ideas about marriage, which is generally
viewed as a sacrosanct institution. But the criticism is layered in humour. Algernon is being totally absurd; one cannot forget that one is married. Algernon is a perfect example of a Wildean character; sketched out to be a rebel, speaking against the fundaments of society, including marriage, and yet doing so in such a flamboyant, humorous way that the criticism itself becomes embedded in a matchless web of humour. Algernons clever, witty humour, and by extension Wildes own, has never been successfully matched in English theatre. Overall, The Importance of Being Earnest has many goals. It pokes fun at the aristocracy, the literary world, marriage, English manners and customs, women, men, love, religion and all sorts of other staples in modern society. Furthermore, it does so in a light-hearted fashion while creating some of the most memorable characters in the history of English theatre. It has always been a huge commercial success, in large part because both its humour and its themes are as timely today as they have ever been. MAJOR THEMES MASKS OF MANNERS The major target of Wildes scathing social wit is the hypocritical mask of society. Frequently in Victorian society, its participants comported themselves in overly sincere, polite ways while they harboured conversely manipulative, cruel attitudes. Wilde exposes this divide in scenes such as when Gwendolen and Cecily behave themselves in front of the servants or when Lady Bracknell warms to Cecily upon discovering she is rich, but the play truly pivots around the word earnest. Both women want to marry someone named Ernest, as the name inspires absolute confidence; in other words, the name implies that its bearer truly is earnest, honest, and responsible. However, Jack and Algernon have lied about their names, so they are not truly earnest. But it also turns out that they were both inadvertently telling the truth (or most of it, at least). The rapid flip-flopping of truths and lies, of earnestness and duplicity, shows how truly muddled the Victorian values of honesty and responsibility were; its characters don and take off their masks of manners whenever it is convenient. DUAL IDENTITIES A subset of the Mask of manners theme (see above), Wilde explores in depth what it means to have a dual identity in Victorian society. This duality is most apparent in Algernon and Jacks episodes of Bunburying, or their creation of an alter ego to allow their own evasion of responsibility.
Wilde drops some hints that Bunburying may describe homosexual liaisons, or at the very least is an escape from the oppression of marriage. As a closeted homosexual most of his life who was also married, Wilde was well aware of the dual identities of sexual orientation. But other characters go beyond this; just as Algernon and Jack seemingly write their fictional personae of Bunbury and Ernest, so does Cecily literally write correspondence between herself and Ernest (before she has ever met him). Unlike the men who are free to come and go as they please, she must be mentally satisfied with this fictional identity. That Jack truly has been unwittingly leading a life of dual identities shows that our alter egos are not as far from our real identities as we would think. CRITIQUE OF MARRIAGE AS A SOCIAL TOOL Wildes most concrete critique in the play is of the manipulative desires revolving around marriage. Gwendolen and Cecily are interested in their mates, it appears, only because they have disreputable backgrounds (Gwendolen is aroused by learning that Jack was an orphan; Cecily is excited by Algernons wicked reputation). Their desires to marry someone named Ernest demonstrates how their romantic dreams hinge upon titles, not character. The men are better, though not by muchAlgernon proposes to the young and pretty Cecily within minutes of meeting her. Only Jack seems to have earnest romantic desires, though why he would love the selfabsorbed Gwendolen is questionable. However, these ulterior motives are dwarfed by those of Lady Bracknell, who epitomizes the Victorian tendency to view marriage as a financial arrangement. She does not consent to Gwendolen's marriage to Jack on the basis of his being an orphan, and she snubs Cecily until she discovers she has a large personal fortune. IDLENESS OF LEISURE CLASS AND THE AESTHETE Wilde good-naturedly exposes the empty, trivial lives of the aristocracy good-naturedly, for Wilde also indulged in the aristocratic bounty of the day. Algernon is the greatest example of a hedonist who likes nothing better than to eat, gambol, and gossip without consequence. Wilde has described the play as about characters who trivialize serious matters and solemnize trivial matters; we can see these conditions, for example, in the way that Algernon is aghast by the absence of cucumber sandwiches (ones he ate), or by the serious class conflicts that are quickly smoothed over by wit. But Wilde has a more serious intent: he subscribes to the late-19th-century philosophy of aestheticism espoused by Walter Pater and others that argues for the necessity of arts primary relationship with beauty, not with reality. Art
should not mirror reality; rather, Wilde has said, it should be useless (in the sense of not serving a social purpose; it is useful for our appreciation of beauty). Therefore, Algernons idleness is not merely laziness, but the product of someone who has cultivated an esteemed sense of aesthetic uselessness. COMEDY OF MANNERS AND FARCE When people think of Oscar Wilde, they invariably think of his epigrams, his compact, witty maxims that often paradoxically expose the absurdities of society. Frequently he takes an established clich and alters it to make its illogic somehow more logical (in married life three is company and two is none). While these gems are in place for sophisticated critiques of society, Wilde also employs several comic tools of low comedy, specifically those of farce. He echoes dialogue and actions, uses comic reversals, and explodes a fast-paced, absurd ending whose implausibility we overlook because it is so ridiculous. This tone of wit and farce is distinctively Wildean; only someone so skilled in both genres could combine them so successfully.
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DETAILED SUMMARY WITH CRITICAL REMARKS ACT I - PART 1 SUMMARY In Algernon Moncrieffs stylish and artistic London flat in 1895, his butler, Lane, arranges afternoon tea. After playing piano in an adjoining room, Algernon enters. He says that while he does not play with accuracy, he plays with wonderful expression. He asks Lane if he has prepared the cucumber sandwiches for Lady Bracknell's arrival, then takes two of the finished sandwiches and sits on the sofa. They discuss marriage a littleAlgernon thinks it is demoralising--before Algernon excuses Lane. After he muses on the lower classs inability to set a good example for the upper class, Lane brings in Ernest Worthing (who is listed as John Worthing in the cast list and Jack in the body of the play, although both Lane and Algernon believe his name is Ernest), who has just returned from the country. When Jack discovers that Lady BracknellAlgernons auntand Gwendolen, her daughter, are coming to tea, he reveals he has come to London to propose to her. Algernon ridicules the notion of marriage, vowing he will never marry, while fending off from the cucumber sandwiches (which Algernon gladly eats). Jack joins him on the sofa, and Algernon says before Jack can marry Gwendolen, he has to clear up the issue of Cecily. Algernon calls Lane to bring in Jack's cigarette case; he shows that the inscription is from someone named Cecily. Jack says she is his aunt, and he wants the case back. Algernon is doubtful, since she has written From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack. Jack says his name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country. Algernon says he has always suspected Jack was a Bunburyist, and now he has proof. Jack explains that Thomas Cardew, who adopted him, willed Jack to be guardian to his granddaughter, Cecily. Cecily now lives at Jacks place in the country under the guidance of her governess, Miss Prism. Since Jack must maintain a high level of morality to set an example, he needs an excuse to get into town. Therefore, he has invented a neer-do-well younger brother named Ernest who lives in Albany. Ernests constant problems frequently require Jacks attendance. Algernon confesses that he has created an invalid in the country he tends to, Bunbury, for when he needs to get out of town.
Jack insists that he is through with Ernest, but Algernon maintains that he will need him more than ever if he marries.
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ANALYSIS Algernons throwaway quip to Lane that anyone can play [piano] accurately but I play with wonder expression is a good thumbnail of Wildes philosophy of art. Wilde was heavily influenced by Walter Pater and the other aesthetes of the Victorian age. They believed art should concern itself only with its aesthetic qualities that art should exist for arts sake. Therefore, art should not be a straightforward representation of realityit should not be accurate, as Algernon would saybut it should be an extension of its creators artistic stylesit should have wonderful expression. Wilde, through the sceptical Algernon, makes an immediate critique of marriage as demoralising, and throughout the scene the best bon mots are reserved for mocking that most traditional romantic covenant. Wilde is undoubtedly the master of the epigram, a concise, typically witty or paradoxical saying. His skill lies not only in coining wholly new epigrams, but in subverting established ones. For instance, in married life, three is company and two is none wittily captures the monotony of monogamy by playing it against the conventional two is company, threes a crowd. The pleasure in his epigrams comes not only from the wordplay or ideas, but from teasing out the logic in his seemingly illogical claims. That Wilde chose Bunbury as the name for double identities may prove telling. Wilde is one of historys more (in) famous homosexuals, convicted in 1895 for homosexual sodomy with Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie). Prior to that, Wilde made greater attempts to hide his sexual orientation, even marrying. Is Wilde connecting his characters' need to Bunbury to his own dual identitieshis public, heterosexual one (he was married) and his private, homosexual one? Some critical attention has been given to the word Bunbury. Separating bun and bury, some read it as a description of male-to-male intercourse. Indeed, it has been confirmed that there are several allusions to Londons homosexual world intended for Wildes contemporary, homosexual audience. However, we can read a homosexual subtext into many of the lines now: Nothing will induce me to part with Bunbury. A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it. Aside from continuing the motif of intercourse with the word part, Algernon clearly relates the need for an alter ego to the oppressive sexuality of marriage.
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Another staple of the play is its humorous depiction of class tensions. Lane, the butler, is given his fair share of droll sayings, and even Algernon seems to recognize that the lower class has more power than they seem to: if the lower orders dont set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? But this is not a serious play, and all the conflicts are quickly resolved through humour; when Algernon is upset over his depleted supply of champagne, Lanes wit deflates the discussion of class and turns the topic to marriage. We see two great symbols of the upper class here. The sofa is the centre of the leisure classs idleness, a comfortable place to while away the afternoon without work. Wilde himself would spend hours in deep thought upon his sofa, but here he makes the sofa a place for social chatter. The cucumber sandwiches also become a motif for the hedonism of rich. Algernon supposedly saves them for Lady Bracknell, but he cannot resist devouring them himself. He is foremost a relentless consumer who cannot resist pleasure, and his compulsion sets up many humorous sight gags. ACT I - PART 2 SUMMARY Lane introduces Lady Bracknell and Gwendolen. Algernon express horror that there are no cucumber sandwiches. He tells Lady Bracknell that he will be unable to attend her dinner tonight, as Bunbury is ill. He promises to be present to arrange music at her reception next Saturday. He goes with her into the music room. Jack confesses to Gwendolen that he likes her, and she admits that she likes him, too especially since she has always wanted to love someone named Ernest. Jack is happy, but he asks her if she would still love him if his name were not Ernestif it were Jack, for instance. She would not, she maintains. He proposes to her, and she accepts. Lady Bracknell comes in, and Gwendolen informs her of their engagement. Lady Bracknell says that only she or her father can engage Gwendolen, and orders her to wait in the carriage. After she leaves, Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack, asking about his habits, his income, his background, and so on. He admits that he was an orphan, found in a handbag on a train. She is aghast at this disclosure and says she will not allow her daughter to marry him. She leaves and Algernon enters. Jack tells Algernon what happened, and also says he will kill off his brother Ernest later in the week. Algernon expresses interest in meeting Cecily, but Jack does not want this to happen, as she is young and pretty. He
has no doubt, however, that she and Gwendolen will become good friends. They debate what to do tonight and settle on doing nothing. Lane introduces Gwendolen. She tells Algernon to turn his back, and expresses her fear to Jack that her mother will not let them marry. She asks for his address in the country, and Algernon slyly writes this down and checks a train timetable. She promises to write him daily when he returns there, and Jack escorts her out. Lane comes in, and Algernon tells him he will be going Bunburying tomorrow. Jack returns, glowing over Gwendolen, but Algernon expresses some anxiety over Bunbury. Jack warns him that Bunbury will only get him in trouble. ANALYSIS The main conflict of the play, Lady Bracknells snobbery over Jacks disreputable background, is presented here. The conventional parental conflict over love maintains our interest in the love story, but the secondary conflict is far more original and engaging: Gwendolen will only marry someone named Ernest, which she believes Jacks real name to be. Jacks warning to Algernon that Bunbury will get him into trouble some day is a projection of his own anxietieshe has already gotten himself into a fine mess with his own dual identity. While the play is, foremost, a farce, and we are not expected to take the relationships too seriously, we can read more into Gwendolens desire to marry someone named Ernest. She calls it her ideal, and this word resounds with Wildes aesthetic philosophy. He believes art should strive to attain an ideal beauty and not mirror a dull reality. In the same sense, Gwendolens idea of marriageand most peoplesrevolves around an ideal romance that does not exist. The many epigrammatic critiques of marriage in the play, on the other hand, demonstrate the cruel reality of marriage. Romance, Wilde shows, is the only kind of art most people can practice; it is the one field in which they can project ideals, like an artist. Marriage, however, frequently falls short of its ideal, whereas artat least good artcan survive in the rarefied atmosphere of the ideal. Lady Bracknell is a remarkable comic creation, the paragon of the highfalutin Victorian lady who stresses good breeding above all other matters. But she is far from a boring stereotype. Wilde gives her some of his wittiest lines to bring out her quirky way of seeing the world, as in one of her most famous quotes: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. But these lines are always linked to her character; when Jack informs her that he was
found in a handbag on the Brighton line, she replies The line is immaterial. That he was found in a handbag on a train is enough of a black mark on his record, and even the word immaterial reminds us that it is Jacks very lack of a material background that disturbs her so greatly. When Jack and Algernon debate what do at night, we get a glimpse into their social world ballet, theatre, restaurants. They live the life of Victorian dandies, indulging in art and pleasure. Algernon states that It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I dont mind hard work where there is no definite object of mind. He swiftly diagnose the problem of the leisure class, that maintaining their idleness is work itself, but he also further explores Wildes aesthetic goals. Art (which, it is clear, does require hard work) should have no point, no definite object of mind. Prefacing his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray with a series of maxims about art, Wilde ends with All art is quite useless. He does not suggest that art has no place in societyquite the contrarybut that it should not be used as a social tool. Wilde is the opposite of Charles Dickens; a writer who used his art to galvanize reform for Englands oppressed working class. Jack and Algernon, then, are two social aesthetes who recognize that their lives, like art, are quite useless and have little effect on reality. If anything, they appreciate their lives as works of art, playgrounds which they can manipulate to their pleasing. Their creation of alter egos makes them virtual playwrights, authors of not only their own destinies, but of fictional lives. ACT II - PART 1 SUMMARY In the garden at Jacks country house, Miss Prism and Cecily discuss Jacks serious nature; Miss Prism believes it is due to his anxiety over his brother. Dr. Chasuble enters the garden. He and Miss Prism leave for a walk together. Merriman, their butler, announces the arrival of Ernest Worthing. Cecily, excited to meet Jack's brother, tells Merriman to bring him to her. Algernon enters, pretending to be Ernest. He and Cecily briefly discuss his wicked reputation. When he learns that Jack will be back Monday afternoon, Algernon announces that he must leave Monday morning. Cecily also discloses that Jack has decided to send Ernest to Australia. He flirts with Cecily and they exit into the house. Miss Prism and Chasuble return. She urges him to get married, especially to a mature lady. Jack enters the garden, dressed in black. He tells Miss Prism he has returned earlier than expected, and explains that he is
dressed in black for his brother, who died in Paris last night. Chasuble suggests he will discuss it in his sermon next Sunday, and Jack asks him if he would christen him this afternoon. He agrees, and Cecily emerges from the house. She tells him his brother is in the dining room; Jack says he doesnt have a brother. She tells him not to disown his own brother, and runs into the house and brings out Algernon. Jack refuses to shake Algernons hand, but Cecily says that Ernest has been telling him about his friend Bunbury, and that someone who takes care of an invalid must have some good in him. Under pressure from Cecily, Jack shakes his hand. Everyone but Jack and Algernon leaves. Merriman enters and says he has put up Ernest in the room next to Jacks. Jack orders the dogcart, as Ernest has been called back to town. Merriman leaves. Jack tells Algernon he must leave, while Algernon expresses an interest in Cecily. ANALYSIS Cecily explicitly states the major theme of the play to Algernon: I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy. Of course, Wilde's main interest is in those who pretend to be good but are really wicked all the time. His point is that everyone in Victorian society wears some kind of social mask; while his happens to revolve around his sexual orientation, others are constantly engaged in varying games of deception that are no less important and hypocritical. Even though who are seemingly pure Gwendolen and Cecily are clearly aroused by the purportedly wicked, disreputable backgrounds of Jack and Algernon, and care less for who they really are. The plot thickens in this sceneJack needs to get the fake Ernest out before he is christened in the early evening. That names play such a big role in the plot furthers the theme of masks. A name is but a label; the infant does not choose his own name, and is at the mercy of his parents. Likewise, the unsuspecting infant also inherits his familys money and is destined from birth to be a prince or a pauper. In the same way, people are forced into labelled expectations of society; Cecily, for instance, must learn to behave like a lady, much as Lady Bracknell insists others accord to the conventions of Victorian society. It is precisely these societal restraints that Algernon rebels against; he cannot stand letting others label him, so he creates his own mischievous persona in Bunbury. As before, we see the characters treat solemn matters with carefree abandon Ernests (Algernons) death and amazing resurrection is hardly
given a second thoughtbut they obsess over small problems. Wilde himself described the play as holding the philosophy that we should treat all the trivial things of life very seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality. The plays original subtitle was A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, and Wilde also directed his actors before the plays first production to deliver their lines with full-blown sincerity. This seriocomic tone of sincerity not only keeps the laughs coming as the characters trivialize or solemnize the solemn and trivial, respectively, but further develops one of Wildes major themes: everyone whole-heartedly believes he or she is leading an earnest lifethey may just be earnestly flouting convention, like Algernon. We also see hints that Miss Prism wants to marry Chasuble. They are a more rational counterpoint to the rash romances of the younger couples. While Miss Prism also mocks many of marriage's effects, she also seems to care genuinely about Chasuble, they share an interest in scholarly pursuits, and she is not interested in him solely because of his supposedly wicked background, as Cecily and Gwendolen are for Algernon and Jack. Miss Prism suggests a solution to the problems of so many marriages: one should marry only when one has gained some maturity. ACT II - PART 2 SUMMARY Cecily enters the garden to water the flowers, and Algernon tells her that Jack has ordered him to leave. Merriman tells him the dogcart is ready, but Cecily says it can wait. Algernon compliments Cecily to her great delight, and then tells Merriman on his reappearance that the dogcart can come back next week. He asks Cecily to marry him, and she points out that they have been engaged for three monthsever since she heard of Jacks wicked brother Ernest, she has loved him. She shows him the box of letters he wrote to her (which she really wrote to herself). She also admits that she loves him because his name is Ernest; when Ernest asks her, she says she doubts she would be able to love him were his name Algernon. He says he needs to see Chasuble quickly about christening I mean on most important business, then leaves. Merriman announces that Gwendolen has asked to see Mr. Worthing (Jack). Cecily informs him that he has gone off to see Chasuble some time ago, but invites her in. Gwendolen immediately takes to Cecily, but is put off when she learns that Cecily is Mr. Worthings ward. She wishes Cecily
were not so young and alluring, as Ernest, despite his moral nature, is still susceptible to temptation. Cecily tells her that she is not Ernests ward, but his brother Jacksrather, she is going to marry Ernest. They compare diary entries. Gwendolen feels she has the claim, since Ernest asked to marry her yesterday. The girls argue and insult each other. Merriman enters with another servant to set out tea. Cecily and Gwendolen assume coldly polite manners, adding insults at every turn. Merriman and the servant leave, and the women launch full-blown verbal attacks. Jack enters the garden, and he and Gwendolen kiss. She asks if he is engaged to Cecily; he laughs and denies it. Cecily says she knew there was a misunderstanding, as the man before them is her Uncle Jack. As Gwendolen goes into shock, Algernon enters, and Cecily calls him Ernest and they kiss. She asks if he is married to Gwendolen; he denies it. Gwendolen says that his name is Algernon. Cecily is shocked, and she and Gwendolen hold each other for protection and make up. They ask Jack to explain. He confesses he has neither brother Ernest, nor any brother at all. The women retire to the house. Jack is angry at Algernon for what his Bunburying has gotten them into, and for deceiving Cecily. Algernon thinks that Jack has deceived Gwendolen. They both simply want to marry their loves, though the possibility of that now occurring seems unlikely. They bicker greedily over the muffins that have been laid out, and it is revealed that they have both arranged for Chasuble to christen them Ernest later that evening. Jack repeatedly tells Algernon to go, but he refuses. ANALYSIS This scene provides the ultimate demonstration of Wildes view of marriage as a sham and a device purely for social standing. Cecilys acceptance of Algernons proposal is anything but an act of true love; she had accepted before she even met him, solely on the basis of his wicked reputation. Ironically, she has arranged her own marriage. But with 21stcentury hindsight, we can sympathize with her decision. While the men in the play are free to gambol about, inventing fictional personae to unburden their responsibilities, the women are far more restricted. Cecily, like Jack and Algernon, has created a characterthat of Jack's brother Ernestand she has taken the motif of the character-as-author a step further by literally writing correspondence between herself and Ernest.
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As one might expect, Cecily holds the same feelings for the name Ernest as Gwendolen: both believe it inspires absolute confidence. The name, sounding like earnest, seems to show only uprightness and honesty. Of course, this is the great irony of the play, as Jack and Algernon have both falsified the name. The significance of names is made more ridiculous when Gwendolen says she likes Cecily's name and can tell immediately they will be great friends; we can already sense the conflict that will arise over the confusion of their respective Ernests. Gwendolen later says she knew from the start that she disliked Cecily; the belief in names as a signifier of a persons worth is ill-founded. Wilde relies less on epigrams in this scene but utilizes more classic comic devices. Repetition of dialogue and action is the main tool. Certain phrases, such as Cecilys idea of Earnest as a name that inspires absolute confidence, echo prior phrases (Gwendolen same words), and Algernons slip when he says he must be christened repeats Jacks earlier words. When Algernon asks Cecily if she would still love him were his name not Ernest, it mirrors Jacks previous question to Gwendolen. The dialogue when all four characters are present and revelations are made relies most heavily on repetition, as the two couples mimic each other almost perfectly. Wilde also uses visual contrasts to produce humour; Cecily and Gwendolen sit and rise several times as they speak to show their various agitated states, and Algernon and Jack wrestle over the muffins. While most of The Importance of Being Earnestwith its persistently biting social critiquescomes straight from the tradition of the comedy of manners, these hyperkinetic, blunt devices of repetition and contrast are more in line with the rollicking genre of French farce. Still, it is foremost a comedy of manners, and the postured manners are where Wilde finds most of the humour. As Wilde points out in his stage directions, the presence of servants exercises a restraining influence, under which both girls chafe. Reminded of their social standing, the arguing girls put on all the cold airs of noblesse oblige Wilde has ridiculed throughout (though previously Cecily indignantly states: This is no time for the shallow mask of manners!) Even Jack and Algernons fight over the muffins reminds us of how absurd the idle rich can be. Rather than focus on the Ernest problem at hand, both men, especially Algernon, are slavishly reduced to their insatiable hedonism (as Algernon was with the cucumber sandwiches). Once again, they trivialize the solemn and solemnize the trivial.
ACT III SUMMARY Inside the country house, Gwendolen and Cecily stare into the window to the garden. Jack and Algernon enter. After asking the men to explain themselves, the women decide to forgive them, then quickly change their mindstheir Christian names are still an insuperable barrier. The men reveal that they are to be re-christened this afternoon, and the couples hug. Lady Bracknell arrives, and Gwendolen informs her of her engagement. Lady Bracknell tells Jack that he may not speak any more to her daughter. Lady Bracknell asks Algernon about his friend Bunbury; he says that Bunbury died that afternoon. Jack introduces Cecily to Lady Bracknell, and Algernon says that he is engaged to her. To Jacks increasing frustration, Lady Bracknell continually doubts the reputability of Cecilys background. Only when Lady Bracknell discovers Cecily has a large personal fortune does she warm to her and give her consent. Jack, however, says that as his ward, Cecily may not marry without his consent, and he declines to give it. He says that he suspects Algernon of being untruthful. He recounts this afternoons events, in which Algernon impersonated Jacks brother. He reveals that Cecily is under his guardianship until she turns 35. Cecily feels she cannot wait this long to be married. Jack tells Lady Bracknell that if she consents to his marriage with Gwendolen, he will consent to Cecilys with Algernon. Lady Bracknell refuses and tells Gwendolen to get ready for the train. Chasuble enters and announces that the christenings are ready. Lady Bracknell refuses to allow Algernon to be baptized, and Jack tells Chasuble that the christenings will not be necessary any more. Chasuble says he will leave, and mentions that Miss Prism is waiting for him. Lady Bracknell knows of Miss Prism and says she needs to meet her. Miss Prism enters and, upon seeing Lady Bracknell, goes pale. Lady Bracknell accuses her of kidnapping a baby boy from her house 28 years ago. Under Jacks questioning, Miss Prism reveals she accidentally left the baby in a handbag on the Brighton railway line. Jack leaves excitedly. Jack returns with the handbag. Miss Prism recognizes it as her own. Jack tells her he was the baby. Lady Bracknell informs Jack that he is the son of her sistermaking him Algernons older brother. Jack asks Lady Bracknell what his original name was. She says he was named after his father, but she cannot remember his name, nor can Algernon. They locate his
name under the Army Lists, as he was a General: Ernest John Moncrieff. Gwendolen is ecstatic. All three couplesChasuble and Miss Prism, Algernon and Cecily, and Jack and Gwendolenembrace. Jack tells Lady Bracknell that he has realized, for the first time in his life, the vital Importance of Being Earnest. ANALYSIS The ironies explode in the whirlwind last-minute revelations. As Jack (or Ernest) says, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. The various conflicts from lies are resolved since they turn out (for the most part) not to be lies after all Jack truly is Ernest, Algernon truly is his mischievous brother. But if the lies in the play are true, then what can we make of the supposed truths? On the flip side, we see that so many of these truths especially the social truths are lies. For instance, Lady Bracknells sudden liking to Cecily, after hearing of her personal fortune, is a lie; she puts on her shallow mask of manners to hide her obvious materialism. Wildes most concrete attack throughout the play is on marriage as a social tool, and he provides even more absurd obstacles in the final act Jack holds Cecily under his guardianship until she is 35, Gwendolen still refuses to marry Jack until she has proof his real name is Ernestto show how absurd the more conventional obstacle of class is. Wildes structural craftsmanship emerges. What was previously a throwaway jokethat the railway line Jack was abandoned on was immaterial, as Lady Bracknell dismissedturns out to be crucial information in Jacks revelation of his true origins. Tight dramatic structure like this allows the audience to forgive the even sillier coincidence that Jack happens to have the Army Lists at hand (made even more hilarious by his explanation that These delightful records should have been my constant study). As The Importance of Being Earnest is a farce whose aim is a social critique, the audience overlooks, or even revels in, these absurdities so long as they have some real underpinnings. Even Chasuble and Miss Prisms union at the end delights us; Wilde has portrayed them in enough serious light as perfect matches that we ignore their over-the-top embrace. It is also worthwhile to note Wildes continued use of rapid contrasts and shifts. Gwendolen and Cecily change their minds repeatedly at the start of the act, vowing not to speak to the men before immediately doing just that. This is summed up no better than when Gwendolen asks Cecily if they
should forgive them; Cecily replies Yes. I mean, no. Wilde is not merely using these reversals for humour; he shows how absurd romantic decisions of the heart become when entwined with even more absurd social conventions.
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MOST EXPECTED QUESTIONS Q: GIVE AN AUTHENTIC APPRAISAL THAT WILDE WAS A TRUE FOLLOWWER OF ART FOR ART SAKE SCOOL OF THOUGHT. Q: GIVE A DEFENCE OF BERNARD SHAWS REMARKS Unless a comedy touches one as well as amuses one, it leaves me with a sense of having wasted my evening. Q: AS A COMEDY OF MANNERS. Q: A CRITIQUE OF THE PLAY. Q: AS A SOCIAL SATIRE. Q: ACOUNT FOR THE POPULARITY OF THE PLAY? Ans: The Importance of Being Earnest is a delightful comedy, which has in it a large number of elements mixed together. Satire, wit, humour, farcical absurdity and sentimental comedy, all are welded together in one unit in this play of Oscar Wilde. Mainly it is concerned with comedy of manners in the tradition of Sheridan in the eighteenth century. Wilde has handled with consummate artistry and skill. The comedy of manners, as its names implies, concentrates upon the depiction of men and women in social world ruled by tradition. Its manners are not simply the behaviour of humanity in general but the affections and cultured veneer of a highly developed and self conscious group. In the Whitehall which was ruled by Charles II, intellectual refinement, epigrammatic wit, and easy dalliance had been made the prime qualities which are reflected in the comedy of manners. The comedy of manners, moreover stresses deeply that tendency in all high comedy, the artificiality of theme and personality. This comedy is realistic, but not in the way that Johnsons plays were realistic. It utilized far more what Johnson knew as wit. It is essentially intellectual. It permits the introduction and expression of practically no emotion whatsoever. It therefore does not play upon our feelings in any way but appeals primarily and always to our reason. In this play playwright has provided all major forms of satire beautifully. Here epicurean meets with the cynical and has an under current of the stoical in it. The main themes that have been selected for ridicule or criticism are the usual one found in a comedy of manners, i.e. vain
pretension, hypocrisy, humbug in education, politics, religion, and social relationships. Of course love and marriage are the dominant themes. Oscar Wild has chosen to ridicule these and exposes them by means of pungent dialogues and witty remarks, which are full of retort. The characters behave and talk in languid, pointed, and conscious manners of the day. They are witty cultured ideal and wealthy. Everybody is solemn correct and polite. Questions are asked and replied in epigrams uttered in tones of deferential gravity. The whole play presents perfectly realistic picture of high-class life of Victorian age. Still we find that there are certain things, which very clearly indicate that Oscar Wilde was trying to expose them so as to make fun of them. He is trying to make fun of the general tendency that prevails in his time. Similarly, Algernon highlights the usual tendency among women of that age. He tells Jack, Well, in the first place, girls never marry the man they flirt with. It accounts for the extraordinary number of the bachelors that one sees all over the place. Later on, he goes on to tell Jack about one Marry Farquahar: Who always flirt with her husband across the dinner table. He thinks that is not very pleasant. Indeed it is not even decent. But all the same: Those sorts of things are enormously on the increase. The men and women in London who flirt with their own husbands are scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing ones clean Lenin in public. There is also a very bitter satire on truthfulness in the play. Algernon thinks, More than half of modern literature depends on what one should not read. He openly tells Jack; The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either and modern literature a complete impossibility. Another important subject taken up for satire is the literary criticism and the new reading material that was coming at that time. In that age, threevolume novels were being printed and a taste was being developed for them.
The people in society were all interested in parties, receptions, meeting people, visiting them and music and conversation were usually regarded as the most important items of entertainment. The false idealism that made both Gwendolen and Cecile fall in love merely with the name of Ernest, shows the hypocrisy and the hollow morals of upper-class society at that time. The Importance of Being Earnest has no doubt a very pungent element of satire in it. But it is not dissecting or bitter satire that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. It is definitely not apparent. Clothed in the garb of wit and touched with a good deal of humour, it comes out in the shape of remarks made by the different characters with all seriousness and gravity. But the way, they are uttered and the places, where they are uttered, make us feel the irony involved in it and we see at once the satirical purpose of the dramatist as well as the main intention to which he wanted to subdue his picture of the upper-class manners. Satire in Oscar Wildes hands is not a driving motive but all the same, he satirizes and satirizes cunningly and abundantly. Satire is one of the channels down which his wit, the fountainhead of his art trickles. The characters are all witty so much so that even Lane, the man-servant of Algernon, has caught some of his masters wit and whenever he replies to his masters questions, we find a good deal of wit in them. All the characters behave with a deadly seriousness but still we feel in them an inner consciousness of fun, The fun with which one plays seriously a very elaborate practical joke. In this play nobody is nervous or impatient or catty or ill natured. It is agreeable in every respect. There are sparkles in all its lines. To Oscar Wilde, as it was to Congreve, wit was a form of wisdom and inherent prerogative of an able man and not a means to find social shelters. But there are certain places where we find his characters using wit so as to find some sort of shelter from an awkward situation. In the use of wit, Oscar Wilde shows a strong passion for beauty, which he symbolizes in spotless refinement. He loved beauty in every shape and form and, therefore, his wit was a form of aspiration for beauty. After all, what is wit? It is another name for beauty of phrase. He wanted to polish his language and make it most attractive. Algernon is satisfied with an answer if it perfectly phrased. Jack is sick to death of cleverness.
Everybody is clever now a day. You cannot go anywhere without meeting clever people. Even Cecile and Gwendolen find the answer satisfactory when they are beautifully phrased. The more we read between the lines the more we come to the conclusion that the dialogue in the Importance of Being Earnest is the highest model of comic dialogue. Every sentence is replete with sense and satire, covered in the most polished and printed terms. Every page presents a shower of brilliant conceits; everywhere we find a tissue of epigrams in prose. The result is that when we close the play, we feel a new triumph of wit, a new conquest over dullness. The whole play is agog with the fire of artful raillery. This play of Oscar Wilde is also full of romantic elements. Its theme is absolutely unconventional and non-traditional. The trivial aspects of social life are treated seriously while the, traditionally serious aspects are ridiculed and made fun of. The story of Jacks birth is highly romantic. Ceciles love is also highly romantic Jacks pretence and Algernons Bunburying has an air of romanticism about it. The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy and its incidents move by means of errors. The whole story and plot of the drama virtually revolves round the mistakes committed by the characters at different stages in the story. Miss Prism had committed the greatest mistake. The love of the two young women is also marked with serious error. Even Algernon and Jack commit mistakes by attempting to make a fool of each other. Lady Bracknell commits the error of thought. The Importance of Being Earnest is nothing but a fabric of errors, big and small. These errors bring about complication and funny situation. In this play improbabilities are heaped sky high and atmosphere soared beyond artificiality into the realms of fantasy. The initial absurdity of the baby deposited in a handbag in the cloakroom of Victoria Station, the mock mourning of Jack, his interview with Lady Bracknell, the Quarrel and misunderstanding between Cecile and Gwendolen, and last but not least the marriage bond of Dr. Chasuble and Miss Prism are all every amusing situations. The fact is that the play means to provide great fun. Oscar Wilde was an artist in sheer nonsense. He wanted his play to be a somewhat farcical comedy and in that he has succeeded quite well.
Q: JUSTIFY THE TITLE OF THE PLAY, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST? Q: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNES HAS ANY PHILOSOPHY? IF THERE IS ANY, WHAT IS THAT? Ans: The Importance of Being Earnest is Wildes masterpiece. It is exquisitely trivial; a delicate bubble of fancy and it has its philosophy. Wilde explained the philosophy we should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality. In this satire, being earnest is made as superficial a trait as possible; it means simply having the name Earnest. The characters are motivated and controlled by a hollow and artificial set of social standards that have little substance but are used to maintain social distinctions and social class privileges. Against this rigid system of controls the young lovers pursue their dreams of romance. The play is structured as a series of verbal fencing matches in which showing the right form is as important as making ones point. The plot is nonsensical, a mere excuse for causing the lovers some temporary setbacks before the inevitable comic happy ending. The tone is brightly serious; none of the characters have any inkling that they are speaking absurdities. Even the self-indulgent Algernon is earnest in his selfindulgence. It is a fair judgment, though, of course, there is much more to it than that. Set in the elegant and luxurious world of English manor houses and Mayfair in the nineteenth century, it is the most light-hearted and highspirited of comedies. Its nine characters are as enjoyable as they are altogether impossible. In spite of improbabilities and absurdities The Importance of Being earnest is not without any theme or message. It has a philosophy and message, which is prominent in the very title of the play. Right from the very beginning, we find the trivial behaviour of the characters towards serious things and non serious things are the preoccupation and fundamental concern of the characters, especially Jack .He has lost his cigarette case and he takes this loss so seriously that he writes to the Scotland Yard and even declares a large reward. Lady Bracknell gives no doubt importance to the distinct social possibilities. Algernon proclaims everywhere that eating of muffins is a sure cure of melancholy moods and psychological outbursts.
Moreover, it is not the case with any single individual rather every one in the play is following the Wildes dictum. Heroines of the play are also romantic by nature and they give very much importance to unimportant things of life. Both Gwendolen and Cecily keep diaries to record trivialities of their life and they are quite grave in their attitude. Commenting over the importance of diaries Cecily declares: I keep a diary in order to enter the wonderful secrets of my life. If I didnt write them down, I should probably forget all about them. These ladies do not love the qualities and character of man they love the name of Ernest. They would marry the young men if their name is Ernest otherwise they would not marry. Even a trifling like the handbag has been taken very seriously. Had there been no handbag, we would not have got the rejection of Jack by Lady Bracknell and if this rejection would not have been there, Gwendolen would not have gone to the country-house of Jack and also Algernon would not have known the address of Jacks country house so as to visit Cecily under the assumed name of Ernest. Ultimately also, the handbag is responsible for revealing the identity of Jack and telling everybody that he belonged to a respectable family. But when we look at these characters talking so seriously about those things which we regard most insignificant, we think for a while that they are all misguided but ultimately Jack declares at the close of the play that he has well realized the importance of being earnest. If he had not been earnest about those little things, which appeared to be quite insignificant and unimportant, he would have never been able to prove that he belongs to a respectable family, which he is the brother of Algernon, that his name is Earnest and that he can marry the girl he loved so intensely. All this shows the importance of being earnest. Then there is another side to the question also. Oscar Wilde has shown that one should be earnest about those things, which this society considers as trivial while one should not give any attention to those things, which are really significant and conventional in the eyes of the people. In this play, birth, baptism, love, marriage, death, burial, illegitimacy and respectability are all ridiculed. Jack is said to be born and brought up in the handbag. Baptism is dismissed as a fashion, and a luxury. Love is brought to ridicule by making the two girls in love with the name of Ernest. Marriage is fixed and approved on the basis of social possibilities. In this way, we find that all those things that the society regards as serious and hence and conventionally respectable, are dismissed as trivial. But on the other hand, these things, which are otherwise recognized as very ordinary and to which the people in
general do not give any attention, are revealed as worth all the attention and all the earnestness. Then the whole play revolves round the name of Ernest only. Jack is known as Ernest in town. He has told everybody that he has a brother, Ernest living in London about whom he has to take great care. He finds great satisfaction in maintaining this pretence. Then he declares this Ernest, dead. The two girls Gwendolen and Cecily are so much in Love with the name of Ernest that they would not marry anybody else but one who has the name of Ernest. Finding their beloveds so adamant about the name of Ernest, the two young men decide to change their names and in the process, they are exposed. But ultimately, they do get the name of Ernest. It is revealed in the course of lady Bracknells cross-examination of Miss Prism that both Jack and Algernon are real brothers being the sons of Lady Bracknells sister and brother-in-law, Gen. Ernest John Moncrieff so both of them are Ernest. So the two girls have their wish fulfilment. They both get their lovers after it has been proved that they are Ernest. That shows very clearly, how great the importance of being Ernest is. Had it not been proved that both Algernon and Jack were christened as Ernest by their father, most probably, their marriage with Gwendolen and Cecily would not have been possible. Ernest is also the basis of all pretexts and understandings. In the way Ernest dominates the whole play. Ernest serves as pretext for jack and then serves another pretext for Algernon visiting Cecily. It creates complications and makes Gwendolen and Cecily quarrel with each other. Each has the misunderstanding that the other is the rival. The two young men who love these two girls are two different individuals. But they have made love under their assumed name of earnest and so the girls are in a great quandary. None of the rivals is really Ernest by name and, they want to be christened. But as luck could have it the secret of the handbag resolves all complications and difficulties. They are proved to be Ernest. Had the girls not been so earnest about the name of Ernest; had the two young men not been so earnest about assuming the name of Ernest; had jack not been so earnest about himself being proved to be to a good family and to verify whether he had been christened and about his own Christian name, there would have been no such play that we have in the shape of the three-act comedy. Therefore, it is really the Importance of Being Earnest. Ernest plays a great part in framing and forming this drama and, therefore, the title of play is not only significant but also very interesting.
Q: DISCUSS THE THEME OF LOVE AND MARRIAGE IN THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST? Ans: The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy of manners and its main theme like all comedies of that time, has been love and marriage. Right in the beginning of the play, we are introduced to this theme, when Algernon enquires why the servants in the house of bachelors drink champagne, Lane, his man-servant, tells the master that the wine in married households is never of first-rate quality and Algernon immediately quips Good Heaven, is marriage so demoralizing as that? Algernon thinks that the people of the lower classes must set an example in love and marriage to the upper classes. Both Algernon and Jack are in love with Gwendolen, the daughter of Lady Bracknell. Gwendolen is in love with the name of Ernest. Right from the day, she had heard about him, from her cousin, Algernon. Cecily has already fallen in love and has also engaged herself for marriage to Ernest without seeing that man. Algernon is enticed by the description of the beauty and youth of Cecile. He moves on to Jacks country-house in his absence and falls in love with Cecily. Miss Prism, the governess, also talks of marriage to Dr. Chasuble who is again a bachelor. Dr. Chasuble and Miss Prism love each other. Thus we see that throughout the play, love is the chief motive guiding the actions of the characters and it ultimately ends in marriage. Most of the characters talk about love and marriage and their views are very strange. Algernon thinks that there is nothing in proposing marriage. It is more romantic to be in love because the essence of romance is uncertainty. He thinks that the only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty and to some one else if she is plain. Algernon represents a very practical approach to love. There is another formal and very serious approach in the love of Gwendolen and Jack. Jack is in love with Gwendolen and he is so serious in doing everything to make her happy that he is prepared to end his pretence, to take up the name of Ernest by getting re-christened and any difficulty in his way makes him furious. He would not allow Cecily to be married to Algernon unless he is allowed to marry Gwendolen. When Lady Bracknell refuses to agree to this condition, he tells everybody: That passionate celibacy is all that anyone of us can look forward to.
Gwendolen loves in bookish fashionable manner. She has taken most of her ideals from fashionable magazines and she loves the name of Ernest. It has music of its own. It produces vibrations. She wants the demonstration of love. She wants Jack to propose to her in formal way like the Knights of the middle Ages. When she is told about the origin of Jack, she finds it very romantic and the deeper fibres of her nature are naturally stirred by that story. She even decides to flee to her lover because her mother does not allow her to be engaged for marriage to the person of her own choice. As against this, the love of Cecily is girlish and childlike. It is like that of a fairy tale and is highly romantic. She had not even seen the lover but had fallen in love with him. She had engaged herself to him, in her imagination. She had written letter to him and for him, she had bought the engagement ring and the bangle with the real lovers knot on behalf of her lover. She is full of emotion in her love. Her ways are very imaginative but they are full of intensity and childlike frankness. The love of Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble is of a different order altogether. Both Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble are in love. They like to be in each others company but they seldom talk of love except that Miss Prism tries to convince Dr. Chasuble that he must give up his bachelor-hood and marry because: By remaining persistently single a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation. Their love is more of intellectual type because they delight in the company of each other. Dr. Chasuble no doubt loves Miss Prism, no doubt wants to take her on a stroll but he cannot marry her because: The precept as well as the practice of the primitive church was distinctly against matrimony. Finally, Lady Bracknell represents the conservative social attitude of the upper class London society towards love and marriage. She did agree to the flirtations of young men and women but the question of engagement and settlement of marriage was to be done by the parents. She believes that engagement must come to a girl as a surprise and that it should not continue for long. The eligibility of a young man depended on his having a good social status and the eligibility of a young girl depended on her fortune and the social possibilities of her profile. She knew that if a girl possessed these two things, other things can be taken care of by experienced French maids.
Thus we find that the play deals with the theme of love and marriage and it present before us the different aspects of love and marriage. The different characters show to us the different objectives with which they can carry on love for the sake of marriage. Q: USE OF WIT IN THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST? Q: DISCUSS THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST AS A COMEDY OF DIALOGUES? Q: OSCAR WILDE IS FAMOUS FOR HIS USE OF EPIGRAMS, WHAT IS PECULARITY IN HIS LANGUAGE? Ans: Wit is for the most part an intellectual quality and is articulated in ingenious phraseology, brilliant epigrams clever comparisons etc. the most common present use of the term derives form its 17th century application to a brilliant and paradoxical style. Wit that is, now, denotes a kind of verbal expression, which is brief, deft and intentionally contrived to produce a shock of comic surprise. The surprise is usually the result of an unforeseen connection or distinction between words or concepts, which frustrates the listeners expectation only to satisfy it in a different way. The importance of being Earnest is a witty play. Each of the characters gives evidence of brilliant wit in whatever he or she says. As all the characters are well educated (even the governess Miss Prism has written a three-volume novel), the humour and the wit in the speeches of each one is not of the unconscious variety. In other words, each character is conscious of his or her wit. But it must be kept in mind that none of the characters give any sign of being aware that he or she is speaking in a witty manner is another point to note that the wit is not laboured but spontaneous and effortless. Witty remarks, statements, and comments flow from the lips of various characters actually. In fact, it is impossible for us, on a closer view to believe that all the characters can possess such a fertile wit: but in the theatre, or even in the study, we hardly stop to question the talent for making witty remarks of which every character provides ample evidence. And, in any case, we know that we are reading what is known as an artificial comedy, and so it does not matter whether the possession of his gift of wit by so many characters is something convincing or not. There is a profuse flow of wit in the remarks of Algernon and Jack. Even Algernons servant Lane amuses us by his remark that bachelors keep superior wines in their homes and that in married households the wine is
rarely of a first-rate brand. Lanes remark about marriage leads Algernon to make a paradoxical statement, which also amuses us. Algernon says that the lower orders of society should set a good example by showing a sense of moral responsibility so that the upper classes can learn something from them. Algernon displays his wit in dialogue with Jack regarding the inscription on Jacks cigarette case. One of the witty remarks that Algernon makes here is that girls never marry the men they flirt with. Jack makes a witty remark when he says that some aunt may be allowed to decide for herself. Algernon makes another paradoxical and witty remark when he says that literary criticism should be left to people who have never been at a university. He makes yet another witty remark by saying that the number of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. Another witty remark comes from Algernon when he gives a twist to a wellknown saying and modifies it by saying that in married life three is a company and two is none. Another paradoxical remark from Algernon is that people who are not serious about meals are shallow-minded. Witty remarks by Lady Bracknell and her daughter delight us much. Jack tells Gwendolen that she is perfect being. She replies that she does not like to be perfect because perfection leaves no room for development. Lady Bracknell makes a very witty remark when she says that Mr. Bunbury should make-up his mind whether he is going to live or to die. Moreover, she says that she does not like the modern sympathy with invalids. Gwendolen reaction to the name Ernest is highly amusing. Lady Bracknell makes a very witty remarks when, on seeing Jack kneeling before Gwendolen, she says to him: Raise, sir, from this semi-recumbent posture; it is most indecorous. Lady Bracknell makes a witty remark, which is also paradoxical, when she says that she does not approve of anything that interferes with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate, exotic fruit which should not be touched but should be allowed to remain intact. She thinks it fortunate that education in England produces no effect; it would prove to be a serious danger to the upper classes. One of Lady Bracknells wittiest remarks is that to be born or bred in handbag shows contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life reminding her of the worst excesses of the French Revolution. This remark is amusing because of the extreme exaggeration implied worst excesses of French Revolution. But, perhaps, the most hilarious remark that Lady Bracknell makes is that she and her husband cannot allow their only daughter to marry into a cloakroom and form an alliance with a parcel.
She is a monster without being a myth. Jack makes another witty remark when, on being asked by Algernon if he has told Gwendolen the truth about his being Ernest in town and Jack in the country, Jack says that truth is not quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, and refined girl like Gwendolen. To this, Algernon replies wittily that the only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty and to make love to some other woman if the first one is unattractive. There is something comic in the very invention of an ailing friend by the name of Bunbury and a younger brother by the name Ernest. Referring to the invention of Bunbury, Algernon says that, if he had not have been able to escape from his dinnerengagement with Lady Bracknell. Towards the end of Act I we again meet Lane who, on being told that he is a perfect pessimist, replies that he does his best to give satisfaction to his master, implying paradoxical that his pessimism should be cause of satisfaction to his employer. Act I ends with Jack telling Algernon that the latter always talks nonsense and with Algernon replying that everybody talks nonsense and nothing but nonsense. Act II is full of witty remarks. Cecily says, Memory records the things that have never happened and could not possibly have happened. At another occasion she says that she does not like novels that end happily because such novels depress her much. Miss Prism makes a witty remark when, talking to Dr. Chasuble, she says that by remaining unmarried a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation public temptation. We are greatly amused also when Dr. Chasuble claims that his sermon on the meaning of the manna in the wilderness can be adapted to almost any occasion, joyful or distressing. He has preached this sermon at harvest celebrations, christenings, and confirmations, on days of humiliation and festivals days. Gwendolen makes a sarcastic remark to Cecily when, after Cecily has mentioned a spade, Gwendolen says: I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different. Act II closes with Algernon again indulging in banter at the cost of Jack, and Jack ultimately groaning and sinking into a chair while Algernon continues to eat muffins. We come across many witty remarks in the Act III. For example Lady Bracknell says that hesitation is a sign of mental decay in the youth and of physical weakness in the old age Lady Bracknell amuses us at her own cost
when she says that she does not approve mercenary marriage. She says that her own husband has no fortune of any kind. She says that thirty-five is an attractive age for marriage. Her refusal for marriage to her daughter and latter dialogue with Miss Prism amuses us much.
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OSCAR WILDES EPIGRAMS JACK WORTHING When one is in town, one always amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isnt a dentist. It produces a false impression. ALGERNON MONCRIEF The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If I ever get married, Ill certainly try to forget the fact. The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It is bad. It is simply washing ones clean linen in public. If one plays good music, people dont listen, and if one plays bad music, people dont talk. All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. Thats his. The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her, if she is pretty, and to some one else, if she is plain. GWENDOLEN FAIRFAX In matter s of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing. The home seems to me to be the proper sphere for man. And certainly once a man begins to neglect his domestic duties he becomes painfully effeminate, does he not? DR. CHASUBLE What seem to us bitter trials are often blessing in disguise.
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Oscar Wilde S The Importance of Being Earnest A Critical Analysis by Qaisar Iqbal Janjua

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THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

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