Brilliant author Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” published in 1899 is a satirical, dramatic, and witty play that often takes jabs at Victorian morals, aristocracy, and social expectations of its time, questioning everything from that era with its absurd storyline and characters that get more complex as you think on. Wilde takes us on a comedic tour of the lives of some of the privileged 19th-century citizens. The story is about Ernest, representing multiple people, the two main characters John “Jack” Worthing, Algernon Moncrieff, and Jack’s imaginary brother. The two men deceive women they love about being named Ernest, making them fall for an idealized version of themselves but as the story unfolds, they get tangled in the mess that they created. I will be discussing several messages and parts of the story: What the characters represent in the ideal Victorian society, the concepts of marriage, lying, hypocrisy, morals, and lastly, the story and Victorian society in the light of earnestness.
To start with which roles the characters impersonate in society, Jack Worthing is a serious man, inadequate in his regard for courtesy and reputation. To stay away from his rural duties, he made up a brother named Ernest. This depicts how the upper class wants to appear respectable, responsible, and sacrificing while still having the freedom to pursue their interests. He tries to keep up the all-honest image while being shallow and deceiving “in the name of love”. He wants to court Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolen.
Algernon Moncrieff, on the other hand, is a gluttonous and lazy individual whom I would call good for nothing. He disregards social or moral obligations. His hedonistic hunger for pleasure stands in contrast to his disregard for societal standards. Wilde criticizes the self-indulgence, shallowness, and sloth that were frequently connected to the wealthy at the time.
He makes up “Banbury” to escape endless social interactions and conversations. He creates the term “banburyism”, meaning the act of making an imaginary excuse, lying. In that form, he’s a true banburyist, as he lies to Jack’s ward Cecily Cardew about being Jack’s brother Ernest, to try and make a move on her.
Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen are the love interests of the play, depicting an image of the average Victorian woman, naive and dependant, hopelessly romantic and shallow. They have almost-empty personalities, with their only purpose being absorbed in the idea of marriage. They both fall for Ernests, not knowing the suitors are actually far away from the adjective, anything but earnest. They both trust easily and play into the roles available to women at that time. Lastly, there is Lady Bracknell, Gwendolen’s mother. The main concern of her character is wealth, searching for a wealthy suitor for her daughter. She views marriage as a social contract rather than two people being in love. She famously forbids Gwendolyn from marrying Jack when she learns about his family background. She is a mockery of the class-conscious and shallow nature of Victorian society. In her own words, “Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.”
Moving onto the concepts of marriage, lying, hypocrisy, and morals, the idea of marriage is reflected by being a social agreement rather than being a union of two people crazy about each other. The attitude is based on being status-driven, materialistic, and a transaction of reputation and wealth. It’s all about playing the roles of husband and wife with selfish ulterior motives. Wilde does a good job of reflecting on how surface-level-deep and fake relationships were in that era. Cecily and Gwendolyn are hollow women, willing to court men they don’t know properly with a desire to make a societally acceptable marriage with men who are feigning to be morally upright. Morality in the play is shown as a flexible factor for the rich, being able to bend what’s right or wrong, acceptable or not just by the power they hold socially. Morality for them is driven by reputation and appearance, and societal anticipation rather than actual truthfulness. To be deemed as right, you need to be standing in the right place, knowing the right people, and wearing the right mask. It’s all about following social constructs to maintain the status quo between the rich and the poor rather than being based on ethical principles. Some of the other main themes in The Importance of Being Earnest are lying and hypocrisy, which is undeniably tied to the concept of morality. It’s a thorough representation of how performative society is in nature where keeping a responsible appearance is rigidly more important than living your truth.
Lastly, there is how the story and Victorian society are discussed in the light of earnestness. The name Ernest in itself becomes an irony, representing characters far away from earnestness in any meaningful sense. The idealized version of Jack and Algy in Gwendolen and Cecily’s minds is an example of the absurdity of what makes a reputable man, falling in love with a name rather than a soul, a concept that shows their understanding of earnestness is twisted and distorted. The sarcasm in the title lies in the fact that no one in the book is truly earnest and the ones who claim to be are the farthest away from it. Wilde critiques this facade and emptiness in Victorian ideals by showing that true earnestness is not by surrendering to societal norms but by living your authentic life and being genuine in the energy and grace you carry, embodying a daring and gentle persona, as in the book the closest Jack ever got to being earnest was when everything about him and his past was revealed.
In conclusion, it seems like Mr. Wilde can be counted on to make you smile and think at the same time. This play shows us the duality of people and how two-faced society can be when it comes to actions, messing with our moral compass using depiction and false pretenses just to be able to breathe without any expectations. The messages in the book are given through exaggerated typecasting and humor. It’s a shame that Oscar Wilde himself, never got to live his authentic self as his double life unraveled in front of his eyes and led the way to conviction. Perhaps, as the book itself states, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”