Criticism Concerning the Title:
The satire starts with the title of the Drama. The title of Oscar Wilde's most successful
play “The Importance of Being Earnest” features a salient pun in the form of the word "earnest", which means "honest" and "truthful" and the name "Ernest" which is the name of the alter ego that main character Jack Worthing uses to slide away from responsibilities and do as he pleases.
The reality is, however, that nobody in the play seems to be very earnest.
Dualism:
In The Importance of Being Earnest, there are two principal male characters, Jack and
Algy, who have invented aliases that enable them to lead a double life. The dualistic
theme is not only displayed in the characters use of double identities but in the language of the play and the play as a whole.John Worthing, called Jack, is the protagonist of the play. Jack has a country estate in Hertfordshire where he is the Justice of Peace. He is a serious, responsible guardian to his adoptive father’s granddaughter Cecily and he stands for all the Victorian values of morality: duty, honor and respectability; “When one is placed in the position of guardian, one has to adopt a very high moral tone on all subjects. It’s one’s duty to do so” (Wilde 301).Wilde used the concepts of double identity as well as a dualistic theme in the play, revealed in the language and in the lying, in order to exploit the hypocrisy of the society, i.e. the ruling class, and in doing so he deconstructed Englishness. There is a
deconstruction of gender roles, the church, the family, the education and the legal
system in the play and these are exposed through the characters and their lying.
Wilde depicts a society 16 with manners and morals used as a façade, a society where people try to conceal their secret lives with the use of language itself as a mask.
Wilde’s Main Criticism in the Play Is with the Institution of Marriage:
The Importance of being Earnest by Oscar Wilde uses satire to ridicule the cultural
norms of marriage love and mind-set which were very rigid during the Victorian Age.
Because it uses satire to ridicule these institutions, it shows the deviance from the social order by making ridiculous the ideas of standards, morals and manners. By trying to correct the flaws of the characters in this play, this piece also serves as a great form of criticism."The play really owes something to the restoration comic tradition."Again, Wilde is satirizing the institution of marriage, as it is not based on love, but on more vain superficial criteria. Although in this case there is exaggeration used to satirize the vanity of the aristocrats, Wilde still brings across the point that both Gwendolen and Cecily may have refused to marry the 'men of their dreams' if their names weren't 'Ernest.'Furthermore, Algernon’s negative views on marriage in the opening scene, where he refers to it as 'demoralizing' seem to suddenly change when he meets Cecily.Gwendolen and Cecily both appear as ladies when they first meet, calling each other sisters, "My first impressions of people are never wrong." Yet when they believe that they're engaged to the same "Ernest”, there is immediate coldness between them. Gwendolen satirically says to Cecily, "I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different." (Wilde, 559) .This is called 'dissembling' as the characters aren't literally wearing masks, but metaphorically they are all pretending to be someone they aren't. There is the division between truth and identity and it shows that sometimes certain laws in society force people to lead double lives.Lady Bracknell is the driving force behind the plot of The Importance of Being Earnest.
She represents women of the Victorian upper class society and believes that those
of high class should be the ones in power. She has very little opinion of those with no
title, or money and views the upper class society as being a 'closed club'. In other words, most people don't deserve to be in it unless they were born into it. She appears
as a guardian of society in that she forcefully dictates who should marry who in the play. In the first scene, Gwendolen is unable to defend herself from wanting to marry Jack when he proposes to her. Lady Bracknell firmly steps in saying, "Pardon me, you are not engaged to anyone. When you do become engaged to someone, I, or your father, will inform you." Lady Bracknell is portrayed as a forceful character who leaves no room for opposition. Even though Gwendolen wants to oppose her, she hasn't the strength to do so. Wilde uses Lady Bracknell to show a typical aristocrat who bends no
rules of the upper class society. One example where he shows how values are inverted and emphasis is placed on more trivial matters is the scene where Lady Bracknell meets with Jack to discuss Gwendolen. In this scene we see that instead of asking Jack
if he loves Gwendolen (which would seem to be the most important question); Lady
Bracknell focuses on the materialistic side of it. She questions Jack about his money,
land, house and the area in which he lives. She makes it clear that it's important for
Jack to have a house in the town because Gwendolen cannot live in a country house. It is also seen here that Lady Bracknell treats the trivial things seriously, even though she's supposed to be an upholder of the values of society. However, little attention is paid to moral values. Instead, Lady Bracknell is displeased with the side of which Jack's town house is located- the unfashionable side. She thinks that
everyone's interest will be similar to hers and subtly tells him, "The unfashionable side. I thought there was something. However that could easily be altered." The entire way in which Lady Bracknell meets with Jack as though she is of a superior being than him. She takes down his answers to her questions in a notepad, as though it's an interview rather than a personal meeting with her daughter's love. The setting of the meeting reflects how Lady Bracknell views marriage. It's more like interviewing someone for the job of being Gwendolen's husband rather than getting to know the man her daughter is
interested in. Upon the shock that Jack was found and he doesn't know who his real
parents are, Lady Bracknell immediately dismisses him, especially when she finds out that he was found in a handbag. The farce continues when she tells Jack,
“I would strongly advise you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire some relations as
soon as possible, and make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of
either sex, before the season is quite over.”
This is an extremely impossible request of Lady Bracknell, as it is obvious that Jack has no knowledge about his real parents. Although he knows that he desperately wants to marry Gwendolen, he doesn't hide his amazement upon Lady Bracknell's request, "Well I don't see how I could possibly manage to do that. I can produce the hand-bag at any moment." This simply highlights how trivial the important things are to Lady Bracknell and how important the trivial things are to her. This is a major point Oscar Wilde focuses on, in this comedy of manners, values are totally reversed.Another example of Lady Bracknell's ignorance of the non-aristocrats is seen where she is ready to turn a blind eye to Cecily, when she hears that Algernon is engaged to her.
She immediately judges Cecily based on the fact that Jack is her guardian. However,
her views instantly change when Jack tells her that Cecily has a hundred and thirty
thousand pounds in funds, "A hundred and thirty thousand pounds! Miss.Cardew
seems to me a most attractive young lady, now that I look at her." Once again
emphasis is placed on a person's wealth rather than their personality, sincerity, or
compassion for the other. Marriage is viewed as an economic factor, whereby people marry for wealth or to conserve wealth in their families, especially Lady Bracknell who represents the guardian of an upper class society. She is however a hypocrite and uses social morals to her convenience. For example, she refuses to let Jack marry Gwendolen because of his social background, yet she tries to justify a broke Algernon marrying the wealthy Cecily. Her social hypocrisy is highlighted when she also confesses that she was not rich when she married her husband. "Never speak
disrespectfully of society, Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do that.
When I married to Lord Bracknell I had no fortune of any kind." She furthermore thinks that her status gives her the right to approve of the marriage between Cecily and Algernon without asking Jack what he thinks. Eventually, both sides come to an
agreement and Jack's name turns out to really be Ernest and he's really Lady
Bracknell's nephew. Wilde gives the typical happy ending where everyone lives happily ever after and the stern mask that Lady Bracknell wears slowly turns into a smile.
Work Citation
1]. Ahmed, M. (n.d.). " Criticism in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest ". Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/34774153/_Criticism_in_Oscar_Wildes_The_Importance_of_Being_Earnest_
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