The Importance of Being Earnest (Essay Sample)

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Importance of Being Earnest
The play under scrutiny is a prominent literary work by illustrious playwright Oscar Wilde. The dramatist builds a narrative around the protagonist, Jack Worthing, and other characters close to him; painting a vivid mental picture of the prevalent pretext, condescension and arrogance that characterized the early Victorian society (Lalonde 660-663). The characters in the play all seem to be living a lie and are barely honest with themselves or those around them. Eventually, when the truth about each character comes to light, there is some semblance of relief and harmonious co-existence. In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, the author utilizes the satirical elements of mockery and pun to convince the reader that it is important to be earnest and avoid conceit or snobbery.
The protagonist in Wilde’s play, Jack Worthing, is a respected member of the Hertfordshire community. In addition to taking care of Cecily Cardew, the teenage granddaughter of his deceased adoptive parents, Jack is a noble landowner who is deemed reliable by the many farmers, tenants, servants and employees that depend on him. In an effort to get some time to himself, Jack occasionally pretends to rush off to help his scandalous brother, who he calls Earnest. However, Algernon, Jack’s best friend and cousin to Gwendolen, who is also the protagonist’s love interest, knows that this is just a guise. When he learns that Jack is the guardian to a pretty young lady, he adopts the name Earnest and tries to win her over. However, Gwendolen and Cecily both fall in love with the fictitious Earnest since they perceive him as the perfect representation of absolute confidence. The play unravels, as Jack and Algernon pursue Gwendolen and Cecily respectively; encountering social barriers placed by other characters along the way.
Throughout the play Wilde uses Horatian satire, for which he is famous, to present social commentary, while imparting vital moral lessons. This form of satire is characterized by a comical focus on life’s events, however crazy or irrational they might be (Hodgart n.pg). Wilde’s satire, therefore, features pun and mockery of characters’ behavior and decisions. The author makes use of these satirical elements to expose societal follies in a funny manner and, at the same time, to try and improve the environs in which we exist. The whole play is an amusing mockery, as shown by both language and characters’ situation. The playwright illustrates how affluent people in the early Victorian culture do not marry for happiness or love, but for elevated social status and convenience. Wilde also draws the reader’s attention to the difference between the older and the upcoming nobility (Bristow 54-56).
Examples of satire are evident throughout The Importance of Being Earnest. For example, in the first act Jack makes a snide remark about people’s cleverness. The protagonist laments, “I am sick to death of cleverness; everybody is clever nowadays…the thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to God we still had a few fools left” (Wilde 28). This is an assertion that people in Jack’s society are filled with a heightened feeling of self-importance and absolute knowledge, yet this is not necessarily the case. Wilde also satirizes the pretentious lives of the upper class. For instance, Jack poses as Earnest, a fabricated character, whereas Algernon excuses himself from social obligations by citing a non-existent invalid friend who constantly summons him to his bedside. Algernon actually considers the idea of living a double life, to be normal. This shows the extent of pretense pervasion in society. The other laughable aspect to which Wilde draws significant attention is the fact that Gwendolen wants to marry Jack, solely based on the idea that his name is Earnest. She even threatens to break the engagement, when she realizes that Earnest is not Jack’s real name (Jordan 102).
Gwendolen’s mother, Lady Bracknell is opposed to the union between Jack and her daughter. However, this is not because she finds it irrational to marry a person for their name. She is primarily concerned that Jack does not have a high social standing and he is, therefore, not socially fit to marry Gwendolen. Lady Bracknell is clearly a representation of the Victorian nobility that Wilde is keen on ridiculing. This becomes even more evident when Algernon informs her of his marriage proposal to Cecily. The Lady embarks on a series of questions, meant to examine Cecily’s social connections. Her patronizing demeanor infuriates Jack, who gives her civil, but sarcastic answers, waiting until the last moment to inform her about Cecily’s immense fortune inherited from her grandparents. It is only after this discovery that Lady Bracknell develops genuine interest in Cecily, revealing her pretentious and condescending side.
The trivial perceptions of marriage depicted by the different characters are clearly laughable (Balsega 2). For instance, Algernon seems to consider champagne to be more essential than companionship and love offered by marriage. This is apparent when he exclaims “Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralizing as that?” (Wilde 29), after a servant, Lane, indicates that champagne is of low quality in households of married people. Gwendolen and Cecily also seem ready to get married, simply on the basis of their prospective grooms’ names. Lady Bracknell, on the other hand, is not afraid to reveal that she got married to her husband because of his wealth and social status. She ...