The play “The Importance of being Earnest” was written by Oscar Wilde, and was first seen in a theater in 1895. The play is a comedy which uses various literary techniques to bring out various themes in the Victorian era. Irony is a major literary technique in the play in which the protagonist named Jack uses the name Earnest as an alibi whenever he wishes to escape from his reality. He has created an imaginary character in his head in which he has a younger brother by the name Earnest (Wilde 15). In his real world, he is however just an adopted child. Later in the play, he comes to the realization that his birth name is Earnest, and he has younger brother, who has been his friend his entire life. The purpose of the play was to bring out the hypocrisy which was rampant among the elite in the society during the Victorian era, and the importance of the institution of marriage during that era. Wilde uses various literary techniques such as puns, irony, paradox and satire to bring humor to the play and criticize marriage norms in the Victorian era.
Young men in the play seem to associate marriage with misery, and they consider divorce as a necessity in the society. “I have often observed in married households the champagne is rarely of a first-rate brand.” Wilde uses irony to compare the quality of an alcoholic beverage with married households. The audience would expect that Wilde would use factors such as happiness to analyze the institution of marriage. Algernon responds to the comment by his friend lane in shock, “Good heavens, Is marriage so demoralizing as that?” according to Lane marriage is makes people miserable and strips them of all the pleasure of life, and even things that bring merry to others fail to do so in married households. He explains to Algernon that he had only been married once, a state he blames on a misunderstanding between himself and a younger version of himself. Algernon is however displeased on his friend’s perception of marriage and orders him to stop talking about his marriage life, which according to him lacks morality.
Irony later sets in when his friend Algernon finds his cigarette packet addressed to Uncle Jack by a young lady by the name Cecily. The practice of living a double life is common among the elite in the society, and Algernon himself has an imaginary friend by the name “Bunburyist.” While Jack uses his alibi to chase the pleasures of life, Algernon uses his imaginary friend to escape from social obligations (Wilde 18). Algernon mentions to Jack that he had always suspected him to be a Burnburyist, “I may mention that I have always suspected you of being a confirmed and secret burnburyist.” When Algernon confronts him, Jack comes clean and tells his friend that he is real name is Jack and not Earnest. It now becomes Algernon’s turn to deny him of his real name. He produces a name card with the name Earnest Worthing and tells him that he will keep it so as to remind him that he is Earnest and not Jack.
Marriage is given a lot of importance in the play. Marriage in the play brings out the double life that Jack has been living while posing a problem for Jack at the same time. When Algernon demands the reason for his visit, Jack tells his friend that he is in town for pleasure. Later when Algernon learns that he is in town to propose to his cousin, Algernon says to Jack, “I thought you had come up for pleasure? I call that business.” (Wilde 15). Jack has fallen in love with Algernon’s cousin, a young lady by the name Gwendolen. Jack discloses to his friend his intentions to marry his cousin and Algernon confronts him about Cecily. “My dear fellow, Gwendolen is my first cousin and before I allow you to marry her, you will have to clear the whole question of Cecily.” He explains keenly to his friend that Cecily is his ward.
Cecily is one of the reasons why Jack intends to drop the character Earnest since Cecily had been showing a lot of interest in the imaginary brother. Jack on proposing to Gwendolen realizes that their feelings are mutual, but he also learns that most of this affection is based on the fake name Earnest. She explicitly informs him that he is an earnest man, and she could never marry anyone whose name was not Earnest. Gwendolen’s mother later tells the two that Gwendolen should not consider herself engaged yet, and a proposal should come to a girl as a surprise (Wilde 24). Gwendolen’s mother has a long list of eligible bachelors whom she intends to interview. “I feel bound to tell you that you are not down on my list of eligible young men” She later interviews Jack keenly, and it is during the interview that she learns of his background and his real name. Gwendolen's mother disapproves of the engagement after she learns the truth about Jack. One’s character, their position in the society and income were considered highly during a marriage proposal. “A man should always have an occupation of some kind.” This explains the obsession by the two ladies with name Earnest. Algernon has gained interest in Cecily and secretly plans to pose as Jack’s imaginary brother to woo Cecily. By doing so, Algernon plans to behave in a manner nor different from Jack, which is a paradox since he had just confronted him on the same.
In Act III of the play, Jack has finally come to the decision that the character Earnest is no longer useful, and he is concerned that the character is beginning to cause him problems. Jack comes up with a story that his younger brother has passed on. Jack tries to make his story believable by arriving at the estate in great sorrow dressed in mourning clothes. His plans are ruined when he finds Algernon at the estate posing as his younger brother. Jack is forced to drop his act and play along or else his deceptions will be revealed. Things take a different turn when Algernon falls in love with Cecily and asks for her hand in marriage, a request she openly obliges (Wilde 45). Algernon later learns that Cecily had built a romantic fantasy with her Uncle Jack’s brother and just like Gwendolen the affection was built around the name Earnest. “There is no other name safer than Earnest.” This is irony since Earnest is not Jack’s real name and he has been deceiving her all along.
Algernon seeks to be christened as Earnest by the rector. While Algernon is away, Gwendolen arrives at the estate to visit Jack who she recognizes by the name Earnest. She is welcomed by Cecily and the two fail to recognize the role of the other in the life of “Earnest.” Over tea, the two of them get to know each other, and when Cecily introduces herself as Jack's ward and fiancée to Earnest, the two ladies enter into a disagreement (Wilde 50). Gwendolen is appalled by this information, as she is engaged to Earnest Worthing. Jack and Algernon arrive amidst this confrontation and both ladies realize that they have both been deceived. They demand on the whereabouts of Earnest, and when they learn that they had been deceived, they leave the two men stranded while they seek comfort in each other creating irony.
Satire is used in the play on various occasions. The setup is in the Victorian era where morality was held highly. However, the morality of the characters in the play is in question as most of these characters go against the virtues of the Victorian era. Gwendolen’s mother dismisses Jack as a suitable suitor for her daughter when she learns that he is not from a wealthy background. She only approves of Jack when she discovers that Jack is the lost son to her sister, which gives him a wealthy birthright (Wilde 65). Hypocrisy is evident among most of the characters, and some of them go to great lengths to hide their deceptions. Algernon criticizes Jack for using a fake alibi and immediately borrows the same alibi to woo Jack’s ward. Jack and Algernon are willing to change their names so that they can continue being suitable suitors to both Gwendolen and Cecily. Algernon also has an imaginary friend who lies on a death bed where Algernon escapes from his social responsibilities.
Wilde also uses irony to a large extent to bring humor to the play. In Act II of the play, when Gwendolen first meets with Cecily at the ranch, she tells her that she really likes her, and she is almost sure that the two of them would become great friends. After the realization that they are both engaged to Earnest, Gwendolen takes back her words. She changes her previous statement and tells her that when she first met her she was of the idea that she was deceitful and could not be trusted, retaining that her first impression on people was always right (Wilde 52).
Wilde has used various techniques in the play which have assisted the play to achieve its purpose. The purpose of the play was to reveal the hypocrisy which was a common aspect in the Victorian era. Being earnest was held highly during this era and in an attempt to remain as such as most people led a double life. Jack is seen leading a double life for a long period, and he fits in with his newly created character to an extent that it eventually begins to cause him and those around him problems. Hypocrisy is also seen when most of the characters in the play fail to accept the real character of Jack and are more receptive to his imaginary and non-existent character. Gwendolen’s mother dismisses Jack when he comes clean about his background. The ladies are also keen on finding the real Earnest whom they both intend to marry. Humor is further shown when the two ladies confront each other claiming that they are both engaged to Earnest Worthing. The play also gives hope to the audience when Earnest fantasy where he is Earnest, and he has a younger comes true. This happens when he finds his real mother who had lost him as a young baby (Wilde 69). Wilde also rewards Gwendolen by allowing her to marry a man by the name Earnest since she had chosen to remain loyal to him, even when her mother refused her.
Wilde takes his dramatic context too far on some occasions. In a society where virtues and morality are held highly, we would expect that the ladies would be more careful before falling in love with a man. Contrary to this, the ladies seem to fall in love with a man based on his name. Gwendolen admits that she first fell for Jack as Earnest the moment she learned from his cousin that he had a friend by the name Earnest (Wilde 47). Cecily also starts forming romantic fantasies with Jacks brother even before she meets him. The ladies are so keen on the name Earnest that they overlook the men they had earlier on proclaimed their love to. In the Victorian society, it would be impossible for a young lady to defy the wishes of their mother especially on matters concerning a suitor.
In conclusion, the importance of being earnest is a comic play in which humor is used to expose hypocrisy which was rampant during the Victorian era. The play prompts the audience to ponder on the reality of our ideal situations. It is common for most people to accept lies and disregard what is real. On a few occasions, Wilde takes the dramatic context in the play a notch too high, and the play fails to reflect the ideal society during the Victorian era. Most people tend to build first impressions of those around them based on lies or what they would wish were true about them. The play ends with fulfillment of the wishes by Jack in which he finds out his real mother and also finds out that is longtime friend is also his younger brother. He also learns that his birth name is Earnest, giving hope to the audience. By judging Jack using his adopted status, Gwendolen’s mother was a little too harsh on Jack. I recommend this play to anyone with a good sense of humor and with the aspirations to gain a new perspective on life.
Works Cited
Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of being Earnest. Clayton: Prestwick house, 2005. Print.
