Themes of Importance of Being Earnest

IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
THEMES
ASSIGMENT TO MAM SAIQA
BY: MARYAM, SHEHLA, MAIMOONA,BUSHRA, HUSNA
BS ENGLISH SEMESTER VI
SUBJECT COMEDY OF MANNERS
Themes
1. Fact v Fiction
As a leader of the Aesthetic movement, Wilde was especially interested in the relationship between
life and art. Wilde explores this relationship in The Importance of Being Earnest through the
conflict that arises when fact collides with fiction. The conflict between fact and fiction is driven
by Algernon and Jack’s lies about their respective identities, specifically the fictional personas
they create in order to mask their doings, shirk their duties, and deceive their loved ones. Jack
invents his brother “Ernest” so that he can excuse himself from the country, where he serves as
Cecily’s guardian. Similarly, Algernon invents his invalid friend “Bunbury,” so that he has an
excuse to escape from the city when he does not care to dine with his relations.
2. The triviality of Marriage:

From the very beginning of the play, we realize that marriage has no importance in the society,
which has been presented by the dramatist. Lady Bracknell has a list of wealthy persons and she
is going to interview them one by one in order to choose a life partner for Gwendoline. This act of
lady Bracknell shows that marriage is just a contract instead of a serious love relationship. Mutual
understanding of the partners has nothing to do with marriage in this society. Likewise,
Gwendoline and Cecily want to marry a person whose name is “Earnest”. For them, name
“Earnest” is enough to spend whole life instead of love. They found charm and music in that name.
Algernon and Jack want to live bachelor life. They do not support marriage . Oscar Wilde instead
of focusing on the importance of marriage has focused on its unimportance in order to show the
thinking of society. In short, “The Triviality of Marriage” is one of the most important themes of
“Importance of Being Earnest”.
3. Victorian Society
The Victorian society in which Wilde lived was concerned with wealth, family status, and moral
character, especially when it came to marriage. Oscar Wilde describes Victorian manners to aware
the people about their absurdities. Lady Bracknell presents the usual old ladies of the upper class.
Algernon presents young bachelors. Gwendoline and Cecily are representatives of young ladies.
We witness manner and rules of Victorian class in the whole play. In that society: old ladies want
money; young men want to remain bachelors and want to enjoy life without doing any work;
Gwendoline and Cicely are fashion conscious ladies. Similarly, ladies like Miss Prism are careless
as reveals from his act of forgetting Jack at the railway station. It is definitely foolishness to replace
a baby with the novel. Through all these characters, Oscar Wilde spreads light on the lifestyle of
these people. This play does not depict both sides of Victorian society; rather, it shows us only the
negative side.
4. Idleness of the Leisure Class

Jack does not do anything to live. Algernon is in debt but does not care about it. He is a bachelor
and enjoying luxurious life. He wants money but does not want to work. We rarely find any
character in this play, who works for a living. It seems that the Victorian class wants a life of
leisure. They want respect but without doing anything good for themselves and for the society.
5. Name and Identity/ Earnestness

The name of “Ernest” comes to symbolize different things for different people. For Gwendolen
and Cecily it symbolizes the ideal husband/ lover. For Jack, “Ernest” is an alter ego, an identity
through which he can marry Gwendolen and cavort in the pleasures of city life. The name holds
similar meaning to Algernon, who masquerades as “Ernest” to escape to the country to meet
Cecily. While the name of “Ernest” holds different values for each character, Wilde shows that a
name, in of itself, is quite meaningless in comparison to the person who holds that name.
Contrary to the play’s title, in this dramatic world, being “earnest” is not nearly as important as
being named “Ernest.” Gwendolen does not accept Jack’s proposal because he is earnestly in
love with her, but she believes him to be named “Ernest,”
6. Men and Women in Love

In the game of love that Wilde plays throughout The Importance of Being Earnest, Jack and
Algernon strive for love. Jack and Algernon are suave dandies, while Cecily and Gwendolen are
vapid beauties—when it comes to marriage and love, he places women in a position of power
because they are able to actively choose their mates and influence their partners’ behaviors. In
the Victorian world women were rarely afforded this influence, as their male elders—fathers,
brothers, uncles, etc.—had tight control over the men with whom they interacted, even dated.
Yet Gwendolen and Cecily wield a great deal of power over their suitors. For instance, Jack and
Algernon strive to christen themselves “Ernest” precisely because Gwendolen and Cecily
threaten to withhold their affections from any man who does not hold this name. In doing so,
they effectively compel Jack and Algernon to change their names.
7. Secret Lives
Because Victorian norms were so repressive and suffocating, Wilde creates episodes in which his
characters live secret lives or create false impressions to express who they really are. Jack and
Algernon both create personas to be free. These other lives allow them to neglect their duties to
seek pleasure. Algy invents his invalid named “Bunbury” in the countryside and Jack creates his
fictional brother Earnest in London. Algy has told everybody that he goes to the countryside in
order to meet his friend Bunbury who is quite ill while Jack tells everybody in the countryside
that he has his brother namely Earnest in the city and he goes there to meet him. The other reason
for this double standard is that Algy goes to the countryside in order to meet Cecily his beloved,
(Jack’s cousin) while Jack visits London in order to meet Gwendolen, Algy’s cousin.
Sources
• https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/i/the-importance-of-being-earnest/critical-
essays/themes-in-the-importance-of-being-earnest
• https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/earnest/themes/#:~:text=Morality%20and%20the%20constra
ints%20it,standard%20for%20the%20upper%20classes.&text=The%20play's%20central%20
plot%E2%80%94the,earnest%E2%80%94presents%20a%20moral%20paradox.
• https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-importance-of-being-earnest/themes
• http://www.askliterature.com/drama/the-importance-of-being-earnest-themes/
• https://www.gradesaver.com/the-importance-of-being-earnest/study-guide/themes

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IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST

2. The triviality of Marriage:

4. Idleness of the Leisure Class

5. Name and Identity/ Earnestness

6. Men and Women in Love

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