Critique of The Victorian Society by study "The importance of being Earnest

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest: A Critique of The Victorian Society

• The plot of the play is overwhelmingly funny: Algernon Mon￾crieff creates a fictitious sick friend named “Bunbury” whose name and condition he uses to leave London when he finds his aunt, Lady Bracknell, too domineering. On the other hand, Algernon’s friend, John (Jack) Worthing, also invents an equally fictitious brother, Ernest, a reprobate who always goes into some scrapes. Jack poses as Ernest to win the hand of Algernon’s cousin, Miss Gwendolen Fairfax. Later, in the country house of Jack, Algernon impersonates the non￾existent Ernest, in order to woo Cecily Cardew, Jack’s ward. Thus the lynchpin of the plot is Bunburyism—an ingenious technique for impersonating false identities.

• The sub-title of the play, “A Trivial Comedy for Serious Peo￾ple”, captures the essence of the play is a nutshell. Here Wilde plays with the words, “trivial” and “serious” which be￾come complimentary to each other in the play. Truly, it is the trivialization of earnestness that Wilde actually celebrates in this play. 

• LANE: I believe it is a very pleasant state, Sir. I have had very little experience of it myself up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in consequence of a misunder￾standing between myself and a young person. (pp.1-2)

• The concept of marriage as an ideal institution is mocked in good humour in the above conversation between Algernon and his manservant Lane. Marriage is conceived as a mis￾understanding between the young couple and the first mar￾riage cannot provide any experience! When Jack arrives, Al￾gernon comments that women never marry the men they flirt with. Like all other issues, marriage too is treated paradoxi￾cally in this play. Algernon’s remark that divorces are made in heaven, directly contradicts the divine saying, “Marriages are made in heaven.” All these comments hint at the moral laxity of the time. 

• Next, the class issue. Victorian period saw the rise of the mid￾dle class which often posed a threat to the aristocrats. The exploitation of the poor in this age of industrialization became a serious concern for the social reformers and some legal ac￾tions were taken to protect the lower class. This lower class often features is the contemporary literary works. Wilde’s dra￾mas are no exceptions. After discussing with Lane the views on marriage, Algernon comments:

• ALGERNON: Lane’s views on marriage seem somewhat lax. 

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. (p.2)

• Without any harsh satire, by using the device of paradox, Wilde pinpoints the irresponsibility and lasciviousness of the upper class.

• Both the young ladies, Gwendolen and Cecily are interested in the name “Ernest” which Wilde uses as a pun on “earnest”. Gwendolen reveals that her “ideal has always been to love someone of the name of Ernest” (p.13). To love a person named Ernest is the “girlish dream” of Cecily too. They are not interested in the quality of earnestness but the name Ernest. This highlights their reliance on superficiality and artificiality. They are guided by “first impressions”. They fall in love, make engagements, break off form that relation and again fall in love with the same person. Their “first impressions” change in no time.

• Wilde also captures the contemporary vogue of sentimental novels in this play. The young ladies of the time were ob￾sessed with the three-volume novels. Miss Prism, the prude lady, was so engrossed in composing such a novel in her younger days that she had forgotten the baby (later Jack) which was in her charge and put the manuscript of the novel in the perambulator and the baby in a large hand bag and left it (the baby) in the cloak-room of a station! Gwendolen and Cecily are also interested in the tear-jerking novels full of excessive emotion. Regarding this, we may quote Algernon’s words: “More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn’t read” (p.5).

Work Citation

1].    Worth, K. (1983). ‘The Importance of Being Earnest.’ Oscar Wilde, 152–182. doi: 10.1007/978-1-349-17157-6_8