deception in the importance of being earnest essay

Dramatic Irony and Truth in Wildes Social Commentary

How it works

• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Duality of Earnestness
• 3 Irony as Social Critique
• 4 Motivations Behind Deception
• 5 Marriage and Social Pressure
• 6 Conclusion

Introduction

Oscar Wilde’s play "The Importance of Being Earnest" presents a comedic exploration of sincerity through irony, as reflected in its title. The apparent contradiction between the notion of earnestness—being sincere and honest—and the characters' behaviors drives the central theme of the play. This essay will explore how Wilde uses irony to critique Victorian society, the social pressures that lead characters to adopt deceitful personas, and the outcomes of these actions. We will delve into the intricate dance of deception and societal expectations, ultimately arguing that Wilde's work offers a satirical lens on the absurdities of the social norms of his time. Need a custom essay on the same topic? Give us your paper requirements, choose a writer and we’ll deliver the highest-quality essay! Order now

The Duality of Earnestness

Irony as social critique, motivations behind deception, marriage and social pressure.

In "The Importance of Being Earnest," Wilde masterfully uses irony to expose the contradictions and absurdities of Victorian society. The characters' deceitful actions are both a reflection of personal desires and a response to the oppressive social norms of their time. Through humor and satire, Wilde encourages the audience to question the value of appearances over authenticity. The play remains a poignant critique of societal expectations, urging a reevaluation of what it truly means to be earnest. By unpacking these themes, the essay underscores Wilde’s enduring commentary on the complexities of sincerity and identity in a world driven by superficiality.

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Essay: Victorian Society and theme of deception in The Importance of Being Earnest

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Humans deceive one another through their actions, and through what they say. Oscar Wilde mocks Britain’s society and the rules it follows in the 1800s. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde uses satire throughout the play to show a truth about Victorian Society and the human condition. Wilde satirizes the upper class through paradoxes. He uses particular characters to demonstrate the techniques of satire through examples of paradox. Wilde explores the theme of deception The Importance of Being Earnest, through the conflicts that come up when the truth collides with their bunburying. Wilde uses paradox to poke fun at the upper class population and the way they deceive each other. Algernon shows deception through the use of satire to depict the attitudes of the upper class people in the Victorian Society. Algernon believes that the lower class has to have good morals in order for the upper class to also have good morals. In a paradoxical statement, Algernon says “Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility.” (Wilde 322). This paradoxical statement is humorous because Algernon is relying on a population that is less than he is to show him how to have good morals. Algernon relies on finding morality in lower class people because he can not find it in himself. Algernon believes that the only thing the lower class is good for is having good morals. According to the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the idea that Algernon, a person of luxury, land, and distinguished lineage, should require any refinement by his manservant, Lane, is utterly ridiculous, or intended to seem so, a paradox. In this statement by the Utah Shakespeare Festival, one would be able to tell how Algernon ultimately concludes how someone should act based on their class in society. Wilde portrays how the Victorian Society was acting because he wants to show the readers how crazed the upper class was. Algernon deceives the lower class people by wanting them to set a good example for the upper class, yet he believes they have no sense of moral responsibility. Wilde’s use of paradoxes helps depict the attitudes of upper class people through satire. Cecily and Algernon use satire through deception to make fun of the upper class people. Algernon is posing as Jack’s made-up brother Ernest, and he falls in love with Cecily. Cecily and Algernon have to part due to the fact that Jack does not want Algernon to talk to Cecily. In a paradoxical statement Cecily says “It is always painful to part from people whom one has known for a brief space of time” (356). This is a humorous paradox because Cecily and Algernon just met, and they were sad to leave each other, yet they had felt like they were together forever. The readers can see that Wilde is poking fun at the upper class because Algernon and Cecily barely even know each other. Wilde is trying to show how upper class women do not care about the personality of the man they are in love with, and that they mostly care about their name. Oscar Wilde is trying to show the readers that the upper class cared more about their image to society. Wilde shows deception by having Cecily device Algernon about how she feels towards him. The readers realize that Wilde shows how dramatic the Victorian society was especially when Cecily says “…seems to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection” ( 357). Cecily had just met Algernon, yet she already loved him because she loved the reputation attached to his name. Cecily and Algernon had just met each other, but they automatically fell in love. Cecily fell in love with Algernon because she was told he was her “Wicked cousin Ernest” (343). The readers can tell that at first Algernon and Cecily’s love was not real, and that they were only in love because of what they had heard about each other and because of their appearances. Wilde pokes fun of the upper class population through in The Importance of Being Earnest because he makes the people sound ridiculous. Gwendolen pokes fun at the upper class by being deceiving, which is shown using satire. Gwendolen and Cecily had just found out that their fiancés were bunburyists. Jack and Algernon had superficial names, and finally told Cecily and Gwendolen. Cecily and Gwendolen were furious, but Cecily wanted to know why Algernon faked his name. He gave her an answer and Cecily consulted Gwendolen about it. Gwendolen told her think about his answer, and that it is only good if she believes it. Cecily does not believe him, but she loves the way he said it. Cecily loves getting compliments, and she likes getting reassured that someone loves her. Gwendolen then responds in a paradoxical statement saying “True. In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing” (371). This is humorous because she is saying that the superficial things, and the appearance of things are the most important things is a relationship. She is deceiving Cecily, and is trivializing the importance of a relationship. The readers realize how Wilde is making fun of the upper class by showing how they trivialize important things. This is a paradox that portrays deception because Gwendolen is saying a completely invalid response to Cecily, and the readers can tell that the statement is the complete opposite of what it should be. Wilde makes fun of the upper class by demonstrating how gullible, and careless they are. Upper class people only cared about the appearance of their loved ones. Wilde uses paradox to portray how the upper class acts, and how they deceive one another. Wilde uses the theme of deception frequently throughout In the Importance of Being Earnest , by having the upper class characters deceive each other through the things they say, and through the secret bunburying Jack and Algernon do. The upper class portrays the techniques of satire, which helps the readers further understand the Victorian Society. 2019-2-27-1551226672

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Deception In The Importance Of Being Earnest Essay

Oscar Wilde described his play as “a trivial comedy for serious people.” This is because, despite its light-hearted character, Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” is a critical satire of the falsity which characterized Victorian society in which he lived. One of the foremost characters in this incisive piece of social commentary is Jack, the unfortunate fellow who has mislead his fiance Gwendolen about his identity. Jack’s deception and the motives for his deception contribute to the meaning of the work by highlighting the superficiality, hypocrisy, and chicanery of contemporary society. The first way in which Jack’s deception adds to the play’s meaning as a critique of Victorian society by underscoring its superficiality. An example of this is the serious manner with which Jack treats insignificant issues at the expense of more pressing concerns. For example, Jack becomes quite agitated at the “heartless” manner in which Algernon is eating muffins in order to avoid the subject of his seemingly having lost his engagement with Gwendolen due to Algernon’s “Bunburying.” Another example is Jack’s …show more content…

For example, Jack refuses to allow Algernon to marry Cecily because of his “moral character.” However, Jack himself has been deceiving the lot of them about his own name and the existence of his brother in a manner not dissimilar from Algernon’s practice of “Bunburying.” Likewise, Jack also criticizes Algernon for inventing a friend to live a secret and dissolute lifestyle, while he at the same time has invented his brother Ernest so that he may have an excuse to go to town. Jack’s self-righteousness and double standards regarding Algernon is indicative of the hypocritical ways in which many in Victorian society were publicly puritanical while privately leading morally questionable

Deception By Jack, Algernon, And Cecily

Jack illustrates the purpose of deception by using Earnest to escape his role of Cecily’s warden. When Algernon finds Jack’s cigarette case, he is shocked to find the name Jack graven inside. Jack attempts to explain by saying, “[M]y name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country” (Wilde Act I). As Jack, he has to be a responsible adult and take care of his niece Cecily but as Ernest he is able to live the wild life of a young bachelor. By pretending to be Ernest in town, Jack is freed from the restrictions of being a caretaker, yet he still fulfills the duties of one as he resides in the country. While explaining why he has two identities to Algernon, Jack states that being a guardian does not “conduce very much to either one’s health or one’s happiness” (Wilde Act I). Jack has to take care of Cecily, be responsible for her, and set rules and guidelines for her to follow. In his role of guardian, he finds himself unable to have fun, so he creates an irresponsible, carefree

"The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde: Algernon Montcrieff - A Character Analysis

Jack does not admit to being a Bunburyist, even after he is exposed as such, while Algernon not only admits his wrongdoings but also takes pleasure in it. Algernon's enjoyment stems from his own cleverness and ingenuity with his philosophy on life being blatantly apparent in his statement, "one must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life. I happen to be serious about Bunburying..." (Wilde, 40) Still, Jack takes the idea of Bunburrying too far, and even though Algernon states to him, "I naturally want to talk to you about Bunburrying. I want to tell you the rules," Jack has no interest in hearing about these rules and thus acts as a prime example of the consequences of the general hypocrisy of the Victorian mindset which Wilde seems to comment on in this case.

Compare and Contrast How Gender Roles Are Presented in the Importance of Being Earnest and a Doll’s House in Light of Ibsen’s Statement That “There Are Two Kinds of Moral Laws, Two Kinds of Conscience, One for Men and

It was highly moral for a man to have a family and to be current in marriage; it boosts up his image and role in society. A man, who has been out of marriage for too long, is seen as idle. Wilde presents two characters, Algernon and Jack, who have a dispute whether marriage is silly or not. It suggests that not every Victorian man were keen on the idea of marriage. In the Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde displays a

Algernon Selfishness

Algernon’s stances on marriage, relationships, and self accurately describe his selfishness. Not only does Algernon destroy his own sense of reality, he destroys everyone else’s concept of the truth. The Importance of Being Earnest is meant to make people laugh; unfortunately, Wilde’s characters are so rude and condescending that the reader can have trouble finding the humor. This play is so full of unhealthy relationships that one has to assume that nothing will work out in the end. Algernon is an egomaniac, and there is no doubt that his attitude will rub off on Cecily, Jack, and

Marxist View On The Importance Of Being Ernest

While those of the Victorian upper class were usually the most refined and intelligent, Wilde portrays them as ignorant and dense. One of the most well described ladies, Miss Prism, is shown to be the least aware. “The most cultivated of ladies, and the very picture of respectability”(63). She is ultimately the most absent minded and leaves baby Jack in a handbag in a cloak room of a major railway station. Through Miss Prism, Wilde is able to propagandize the intelligence the aristocrats usually embody. In addition to this, Wilde refutes the morality of the Victorian elite. The main two characters, Jack and Algernon, are deceptive and are rarely seen to have any morals. Reviewing this play with a sociological/Marxist perspective provides insight on how Wilde wants others to perceive the elite of

The Importance of Being Earnest - Act 1

“A trivial comedy for serious people” – List words/phrases where trivial events are treated with overblown seriousness:

The Importance of Being Earnest Essay

• 3 Works Cited

One thing that Jack and Algernon have in common is that they both have these false faces. Algernon’s alter ego Bunbury is a version of himself used in the country but he uses Ernest to marry Cecily. The story deals with Ernest, this immorally imaginary man that both Cecily and Gwendolyn become engaged to, it exemplifies the irony within the name. Most of the irony comes from this character. One of Wilde's satiric targets is romantic and sentimental love, which he ridicules by having the women fall in love with a man because of his name rather than more personal attributes. Gwendolyn said “No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces

Oscar Wilde's the Importance of "Escape"

Oscar Wilde’s play entitled “The Importance of Being Earnest” illustrates the concept of dual personality, fantasy, love, and lies. Jack, Algernon, Gwendolyn, and Cecily all live in lies. They are manipulated by their fantasies and desire for perfect relationship and love. Jack, the protagonist in the play, is the root of lies because of his imaginary brother named Earnest. Algernon uses the name to win Cecily, while Gwendolyn and Cecily are both fascinated by this name because it expresses strength and perfection of manhood. Due to their search and desire to have Earnest, the male and female characters escape from the reality. Therefore, Wilde in The Importance of Being Earnest portrays a gender doubled

Shakespeare 's As You Like It And Oscar Wilde 's The Importance Of Being Earnest

Gender fluidity through the characters’ personalities and actions is subtly utilized in both plays to comment on the social traits expected of both sexes. In The Importance of Being Earnest, Jack and Algernon exhibit immature personalities through their Bunburying. When Algy says to Jack, "I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose" (Wilde, 301), it demonstrates Algernon’s yearning for an aesthetic life free from the social correctness. The same behaviour is seen in Jack through his creation of Ernest, and Algy’s comment on Jack being “one of the most advanced Bunburyists I know” (|Wilde ?301). Their desire to escape the monotonous routine of their daily lives reveals their

The Importance Of Being Earnest Literary Analysis

This idea of superficiality is later magnified by the evidence that Wilde gives proving Algernon and Jack to not be at all earnest. Wilde takes advantage of the name Ernest and makes it a pun, as both women have the logic that a man named Ernest must be earnest. Wilde ensures the audience knows this and uses this pun to create irony, as many times Algernon and Jack are presented as morally askew, and not at all earnest. On the subject of Bunburying, Algernon says “in married life. Three is company and two is none.” Which states his view on having two different lives, and this is seemingly how he justifies him lying, as he sees cheating as a normal part of married life. There is also the matter of Jack and Algernon’s acceptance of them having to change their names to be able to marry Gwendolen and Cecily. Of course, lying about their names in the first place is a clear indication that Jack and Algernon are not very honourable, but their acceptance of the fact that Gwendolen and Cecily would not have accepted their proposals if their real names had been revealed presents Jack and Algernon as characters who aren’t bothered by the prospect of lying to their wives for their entire lives.

Deception In The Importance Of Being Ernest

While defining the term “Bunburyist,” Algernon comments to Jack that, “If it wasn’t for Bunbury’s extraordinary bad health [. . .] I wouldn’t be able to dine with you at Willis’s to-night” (Wilde 9). Bunbury, Algernon’s fake sick friend, allows him to be himself and enjoy time with his friends instead of entertaining his aunt. Algernon tells Jack that he created Bunbury to “be able to go down into the country whenever [he] choose[s]” (Wilde 9). Being of his high standing, Algernon was expected to stay in the city with his aunt as well as go to balls, dinner parties and other events on the social calendar; however, having a sick friend with a perpetual sickness allows him to go to the country, pretend to be Earnest, and eventually meet his future wife Cecily. When Jack tries to get Algy to leave Hertfordshire by asserting that his “duty as a gentleman” was calling him back to town, Algy responds with, “My duty as a gentleman has never interfered with my pleasures” (Wilde 33) Because of his fake friend Bunbury, Algernon is able to evade the obligations of being a gentleman. He can enjoy life and have fun without offending his aunt or

The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde Essay

• 1 Works Cited

By stating that he did not know anyone by the name of Cecily, Jack initiates his own debacle. He has to clarify that Cecily is actual his ward. Nonetheless, Jack bears no anguish to dissembling to his closest companion. Jack’s morality has been impaired by his lies and it implies that his animalistic qualities control him. Yet, he falls in love and he must tell Gwendolen, his sweetheart, of his morally wrong character. In order to do so Jack has to disclose that Ernest was not in fact his real name but a mere alias created to cover up his dastardly ways. He can think of no other way than to “kill” his brother. Wilde shows how Jack’s urbane nature begins to be marred by his animalism since he was willing to kill a man, fictional or not. Ensuing in the play Jack is speaking with Algernon and he begins to ponder on how to commit the murder. He states “My poor brother Ernest is carried off suddenly in Paris, by a severe chill. That gets rid of him” (Wilde 16). Though fictional, Jack’s murder of Ernest still seems to carry the same implications further into the book. This murder eventually skews his reputation once his lies become known. Wilde proves how Jack’s lies soon catch up to him and flaw his esteemed moral persona. Later in the play Algernon sets off on a trip to Jack’s country estate and claims he is Ernest Worthing. Later when Jack arrives Cecily informs her caretaker that his brother Ernest is in his room. Jack replies

The Double Life in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

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

The Importance Of Being Earnest, By William Shakespeare

Jack and Algernon start their friendship with deception and lies. In the beginning of the play, they are alone in the morning-room and the lies, between the two friends, is are brought to the table. They have both been great friends for some time now. Jack visits with Algernon in the city where he goes by the name “Ernest”. He feels that going by a different name will let him live and experience a different lifestyle. When visiting with Algernon, Jack has become very interested in Gwendolen. Jack is expressing his love for Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen, and tells how he wishes to marry her. Before Algernon gives his consent, he wants to know who Cecily is. Cecily is the name engraved on the cigarette

Social Class In The Importance Of Being Earnest By Oscar Wilde

Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff are both high-class protagonists in society but are lying about their lives to preserve their reputations. “You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to town . . . I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury . . . ” (Wilde 1498). Ernest is Jack’s fictional brother, who always gets into mischief and uses him an excuse to go into town. Likewise, Algernon uses Bunbury, his fictitious and ill friend, to allow him to go to the country. These characters enable these gentlemen to retreat from their social obligations. Missing an essential reception to aid their “brother” or “friend,” gives the appearance that they are caring men, which is an admirable trait among the rich, but they are not. The name “Bunbury” is an interesting name

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“The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde

Welcome to our The Importance of Being Earnest essay sample! Here, you’ll find the analysis of the story’s main themes and comedy elements. Get ideas for your essay on The Importance of Being Earnest with our essay sample.

The Importance of Being Earnest Essay Thesis Statement

The importance of being earnest essay introduction, morality and marriage, why a comedy, the importance of being earnest essay conclusion, works cited.

Oscar Wilde had written during the Victorian time which was an era that laid much emphasis on moral values. It can be contended that The Importance of Being Earnest is in essence a play on morality since the major argument surfacing after its reading relates to honesty as being the best policy.

Although the learning from the play strengthens the values as prevailing during the period, there is quite a lot in the play that is not as per convention. The primary reason for Wilde’s success was that he was able to narrate an appealing story that further strengthened the prevailing social values. This he was able to do by making use of the untraditional relationships and images.

The Importance of Being Earnest was the last play written by Oscar Wilde and it undoubtedly became the most celebrated. George Bernard Shaw and H G Wells considered the play amongst the funniest that were ever written and to this day the play continues to absorb and entertain theatre lovers through out the world.

The play makes fun of the literary world, the aristocratic society and the customs and mannerisms of the British, while at the same time questions the concept of identity. The plans of the different characters in the play are seen to be going topsy-turvy due to the occurrence of unexpected developments. Wilde has skilfully taken up the issues of romantic gamesmanship, social ambitions and class pretensions through wit sharpened dialogues.

A major reason for the play’s success is the large number of spicy epigrams used by Wilde. Although some of the succinct and inconsistent statements relate to contemporary happenings, most of them are general manifestations of beauty, classes, women and men.

Most of the statements are being quoted to this day and keep on delighting the audience with their mix of absurdities and sophistication. Other than revealing the beauty, the play is a masterpiece in depicting Victorian styles as prevalent during the time, especially in relation to morality and marriage.

For long, marriage had been a significant issue and Wilde had depicted its scheming use as a social instrument of progression. Other than Miss Prism, all the ladies in the play are seen as having hidden motives in regard to romance. Wilde has convincingly criticized the superficial ways of politeness as practiced by society and has outlined the nature of the shallow masks that were worn by aristocratic Victorians.

A major source of humour in the play is the confused source of values as displayed by the characters. In this regard, Wilde had commented about the play as being “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,” (Oscar Wilde, 2005).

Wilde had impressed upon his actors to speak out their words very seriously so that the audience did not think that they were joking. Although in essence the play is a comedy that relates to protocol, it has openly used ridiculous means to minimize its significance. Fortunately the audience is ever willing to ignore the inconsistency and indiscretions in the play.

Within the structure of the play one can feel the allusions of homosexuality implied in the male characters. It is known that while he was writing this play, Wilde was leading a twin life of a married man as also of a homosexual.

The original audiences of the play were utterly shocked at the reference of such a culture in the play and unfortunately for Wilde, the success of the play was not carried too further as his well known trial began after the opening night of the play and his career began to get loose.

There are two major issues forming the critique of The Importance of Being Earnest. Firstly, although the play was very well received by audiences when it opened for the first time, critics during the time openly questioned the moral aspects pertinent in the play.

The play was attacked by George Bernard Shaw for its “real degeneracy” (Bob Nelson, 1993), and described the playwright’s word play as being rather hateful and sinister. The second issue relates to the dramatic framework of the play in exhibiting aspects of parody, comedy of manners and mockery. Critics have been unable to come to a conclusion in regard to what category the play belongs to.

Critics are divided on the issue of morality in The Importance of Being Earnest. According to Edouard Roditi, who wrote the book Oscar Wilde, the playwright’s comedy did not rise higher than “the incomplete or the trivial” (Edouard Roditi, 1947).

Roditi felt that the play did not have ethical perspectives since no character saw through other characters nor criticized their values. Eric Bentley also felt the same way and concluded that “because of its ridiculous action, the play fails to break… into bitter criticism of serious issues” (Eric Bentley, 1987).

Otto Reinert has opined that Wilde’s comedy has had the effect of “an exposure both of hypocrisy and of the unnatural convention that necessitates hypocrisy” (Otto Reinert, 1956). Consequently there was a superficial cover up of the white lies that maintained politeness in the so called polite society, which alone was able to give the plot a moral meaning.

This is exemplified by the instance in the play when Algernon is criticized by Lady Bracknell for having taken care of his make believe friend, Bunberry who was supposed to make a decision whether he was going to die or live. In criticizing him she voices her conservative belief that “illness in others is always faked [and]… consequently sympathy with invalids is faked also” (Oscar Wilde, 2005)

Although Lady Bracknell is portrayed as respecting convention she is believed to have had no illusions about “the reality her professed convention is supposed to conceal” (Otto Reinert, 1956). She presumes that both Bunberry and Algeron are “bubburying” and she behaves in a way that “exposes the polite cynicism that negates all values save personal convenience and salon decorum” (Otto Reinert, 1956).

The lady’s behaviour is in the nature of exposing the polite cynicism in negating all desired values except salon decorum and personal convenience. Lady Bracknell is not protected from her own shortcomings in being extra earnest.

She disapproves of marriages amongst mercenaries and admits that when she had married Lord Bracknell she did not have any fortune, which implied that she was opposed to marrying for money, and that she was not in possession of much wealth at the time she married a wealthy man.

According to Reinert, “this position is neither cynical nor funny. It represents… [a] compromise between practical hardheadedness and conventional morality” (Otto Reinert, 1956).

In all, the play has not endorsed social dishonesty and for some time it makes a mockery of respectability. The use of paradoxical morality by Wilde has served as an evaluation of the “the problem of manners.”

This is so because Algeron, in trying to escape the pretence of conventions, becomes a hypocrite himself when he pretends to be a person that he actually is not. Wilde has conveyed that the so called Victorian morality forced people to lead a life of double standards, one that was frolicsome and another that was respectable, none of them being solemn.

A critical issue in the play relates to the categorization of the play. It has been described as a “farce that represents the reality that Victorian convention pretends to ignore” (Otto Reinert, 1956). The characters have not been ironic enough by way of saying something but meaning something else.

In fact they really mean what ever they state, which is evident from the fact that Algernon does not wish to attend lady Bracknell’s dinner party since she will invariably make him sit near Mary Farquhar who is in the habit of flirting while sitting with her own husband.

Reinert has written in this regard that, “Algernon is indignant with a woman who spoils the fun of extramarital flirtation and who parades her virtue. He is shocked at convention. And his tone implies that he is elevating break of convention into a moral norm,” (Otto Reinert, 1956). This makes things conventional out of unconventional situations.

Wilde’s comedy is seen as working through a caricature in transforming the techniques of comedy, plot situations and the characters.

The play has been defended against the charge that it was just a mockery because mockery “depends for its effects upon extremely simplified characters tangling themselves up in incongruous situations, as in Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors or Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer.

Instead, the comedy of Earnest subsists, for the most part, not in action or situation but in dialogue, which is too witty and intellectual to be described simply as a farce,”(Forster, 1956).

Instead of being a comedy of manners or a mockery, Forster believed that Wilde used characters and familiar plot devices satirizing the Victorian community. The relationship that Jack has with Gwendolen symbolizes the problems faced by lovers in being forced to stay away from getting married due to class differences.

Wilde found a novel solution by establishing Jack’s patrimony in being the child at the railway station. A common feature of romantic literature pertains to falling in love at first sight which too is demonstrated by Wilde in total contrast when Cecily falls in love with Algernon, not at first sight but simply because she is under the impression that his name is Everest.

Although Algernon is depicted as being cynical, but there is evidence in indicating that such cynicism is shallow since after he met Cecily, “Algernon is engaged to be married and reconciled to getting christened,” (Forster, 1956).

In appearing to be innocent and protected, Cecily conveys that it would become a hypocritical situation if Algernon tries to be good while trying to project himself as being fiendish. According to Forster, “The moral of Wilde’s parody: the rake is a fake, girlish innocence is the bait of a monstrous mantrap, the wages of sin in matrimony,” (Forster, 1956).

In essence the dramatic troubles as identified by some critics in the play, are seen as being its strengths. Forster emphasizes that the whole point of the play lies in the machinations of its plot and the convenience outlined behind the numerous coincidences that are neatly placed in its resolutions.

Bob Nelson, The Importance of Being Earnest , A study Guide.

Edouard Roditi, Oscar Wilde, 1947, Norfolk: New Directions

Eric Bentley, The Playwright as Thinker, 1987, Harvest Books Foster, Richard. “Wilde as Parodist: A Second Look at The Importance Of Being Earnest.” October, 1956, College English

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 2005, Prestwick House Inc

Reinert, Otto. “Satiric Strategy in The Importance Of Being Earnest.” October, 1956, College English

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Importance of Being Earnest — The Importance of Being Earnest: A Comprehensive Summary and Analysis

The Importance of Being Earnest: a Comprehensive Summary and Analysis

• Categories: Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

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Words: 768 |

Published: Dec 16, 2024

Words: 768 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Table of contents

A glimpse into the plot, the characters: more than just archetypes, wilde's satirical lens, the theme of identity: who are we really, cultural relevance today, a final reflection.

• Kendall, Mary W., “The Significance Of Names In 'The Importance Of Being Earnest'” Modern Drama Journal
• Moran, Joe., “Oscar Wilde: Wit And Deception” Literary Review Magazine
• Parker,, Tony., “A Study Of Dual Identities In Victorian Literature" Journal Cultural Studies
• Taylor,, Simon., "Oscar Wildes Last Play – A Satire Still Relevant Today" Theatre Analysis Quarterly
• Silliman,, Judith., "A Feminist Reading Of ‘The Importance Of Being Earnest’“ Gender Studies Review Journal

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