Themes Flashcards
social etiquette hypocrisy
Lane: “I didn’t…”
“I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir.” (1, 2)
This quote is a double entendre meant to satisfy Victorian etiquette while also jabbing at Jack’s poor piano abilities. Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest pokes fun at a rigid Victorian society obsessed with strict social conduct. What made Wilde’s play so well loved was the hypocrisy of the characters that tried to live by these constructs.
For example, in the opening scene of the play, Algernon plays the piano horribly. He asks Lane if he heard him playing and Lane pointedly replies “I didn’t think it was polite to listen, sir” (1, 2). Algernon, obviously offended, retorts back “I’m sorry for that, for your sake.” (1, 3). Already we can see that the cast speaks in an overly grand way that drips with formality. In reality, these sugar-coated words are used to sling insults at each other without breaking social etiquette. In act 1, we see Algernon as a polite and perfect nephew in front of his aunt and a cold liar behind her back. His true thoughts on family are revealed when he tells Jack “[r]elations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die” (1, 613-615). We see in Algernon that the upper class is willing to put up a facade in front of important people to play the long con. For Algernon, this seems to be an inheritance of some sort when his aunt passes.
Algernon: “The truth…
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it was either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!” (1, 214-216)
Gwendolen: “In matters of…
“In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.” (3, 28-29)
Jack: “I’ve now realized…
“I’ve now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.” (3, 487-488)
ambivalent views on marriage
Algernon, Jack, and Lady Bracknell all have differing views on marriage. Jack views marriage and proposal as romantic, unlike Algernon. Although Jack lies to his lover, he justifies it by saying “the truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl” (1, 641-642). When Jack tells Algernon of his plan to propose, Algernon says “I thought you had come up for pleasure? … I call that business.” (1, 70-71). It is ironic that Algernon believes Lane, a person of the lower class, to have “lax” views on marriage that lack “moral responsibility” when Algernon is quite immoral himself (1, 33-36). He often makes dark jokes relating to relationships such as “in married life three is company and two is none”. Lady Bracknell views marriage strictly as a way to further one’s social status and fortune. For example, she doesn’t view Cecily as a possible suitor for Algernon until she finds out how much money Cecily has to her name. Unbeknownst to her, she as a character perpetuates the standards of a society living in, ironically in her own words “an age of surfaces” (3, 165).
The layers of deceit between characters and its effect on their relationships
In The Importance of Being Earnest, we see that by the end, being genuine isn’t that important at all. Jack, who has invented a younger brother named Earnest in order to visit the town, is cornered into spilling the truth to his friend Algernon. Rather than feeling, at the very least, betrayed by Jack’s double life, Algernon reveals to Jack that he has invented a man named Bunbury in order to “go down into the country whenever I choose” (1, 228-230). He has even used his “friend” Bunbury to get out of engagements with his own aunt. Both men eventually become engaged to different women who both believe their fiance’s name is Ernest. To both ladies, the fact that their engaged to-be’s name is Ernest is a major reason why they are in love with them. Gwendolen, one of the ladies herself, even says that she has always wanted “to love some one of the name of Ernest” (1, 395). When the truth comes out, both women are equally horrified but are quick to forgive their fiances as long as they change their Christian names. When the men reveal that was already their plan, both women fawn over Jack and Algernon for their bravery in facing “this fearful ordeal” (3, 56). Although Jack and Algernon were deceitful from the start to their lovers, the story ends happily with both men still engaged to Gwendolen and Cecily without any lasting effects on their relationship.
This comical love story serves as a vehicle to poke fun at a rigid Victorian society obsessed with strict social constructs. We can see this in one of the lines uttered by Gwendolen, when she tells Cecily, “[i]n matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.” (3, 28-29). Oscar Wilde uses his characters and their situation to comment on current society and their obsession with the superficial through witty dialogue packed with epigrams and puns.
quick summary of the story
“The Importance of Being Earnest” is a play starring Jack, a man who falls in love with a woman named Gwendolen who believes his name is actually Ernest. Jack’s best friend, Algernon, Gwendolen’s cousin and Jack’s friend, falls in love with Jack’s ward, Cecily.
