Importance of Being Earnest
Thinking Activity
This blog is a task given by Dr. Barad sir H.O.D. of English Department M.K.B.U. In this blog I am going to write about the play 'Importance of Being Earnest' as a social critique.
About this play-
The importance of being Earnest, A trivial comedy for serious people is a play written by Oscar wilde, divided into three parts. This play was first performed on 14 February 1895, at the St James Theatre in London. This plays major themes are the with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Vuctorian ways.
In this play Jack Worthing is a fashionable young man who lives in the country with his ward, Cecily Cardew. Jack has created a racist brother who is Earnest, who's supposed to exploit and give Jack an excuse to travel to London periodically to rescue him. Jack is in love with Gwendolen Fairfax, the cousin of his friend Algernon Mocrieff.
About the Author
Oscar Wilde whose full name is Oscar Fingal O'flahertie Wills Wilde. He was born on 16 October 1854,Dublin, Ireland, and died on 30 November 1900, Paris, France.
Oscar Wilde was Irish Wit, poet and dramatist whose reputation rests on his novel, like
The picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)
The importance of Being Earnest(1895)
He was also spokesman for the late 19th century Aesthetic movement in England. This was advocated the famous line-
"Art for arts sake"
He was born of professional literary parents. His father Sir William Wilde was Ireland's leading ear and eye surgeon, he also published books on archaeology, folklore, and satirist Jonathan Swift. His mother who wrote his writing as Speranza, she was a revolutionary poet and an authority on celtic Myth and Folklore.
' Importance of Being Earnest ' as a social critique-
Here is definition of criticism and criticism may include some of the following elements in order to support an idea that -
Definition of criticism
Criticism is not a plot summary, an author's biography, simply finding fault with the work.
The Aristocratic victorians mostly valued duty, and respectability, those two things are most important for them, they took these two things above all. That was the time when appearance is everything for humans, and also style was much more important than substance. So a person has a secret life, and carries on affairs without marriage. Then society looks at them in other ways. For this thing Wilde questions what is more important, to avoid such a serious question behind appearance, which is not a permanent thing in human life. In this play Gwendolen is the paragon of this value. Her marriage proposal must be performed correctly, and her brother even practices correct proposals. Gwendolen's aristocratic attitude is
"In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing."
Here the trivial is important; the serious is avoided.
Title of the play
In this play, satire starts with the title of the drama. Oscar Wilde's most famous and successful work 'The importance of Being Earnest ' title indicate the word "Earnest'' which actually means "honest" and "truthful", this is the name of main character of the play Jack Worthing, he uses this name to slight away from his all responsibilities. In this play there was nobody who was Earnest in real sense.
Dualism in the play
In this play there were two main characters Jack and Algernon, who created double life characters, they live double life, this theme of dualism not only points out their double identities but also their languages.
John Worthing, who is 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 morality: duty, honor and respectability, here is a quote indicate this this -
“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”
Here Wilde uses double identity as well as he uses the theme of Dualism to show the hypocrisy of the society of that time. In this play there were deconstruction of several things like gender roles , the class, the church, the family , the education system and also the legal system. These all things are exposed by characters and their lies. In this play most of the characters are lying to each other and hiding their real identity.
Institution of marriage
In this play Wilde's main creationism is with the institution of marriage. In this play wilde criticize and satire ridicule the institution of marriage and their minds are very rigid during Victorian society. They make these serious morals and manners ideas like the idea of marriage as ridiculous ideas, and also represent it in a ridiculous way. In this play there is line which serve a great form of criticism-
"The play really owes something to the restoration of comic tradition."
Wilde points out that in this marriage is not all about love but more vain supernatural criteria. Cecily and Gwendolen refused to marry a man of their dreams if his name is not Earnest. in the beginning of the play the character of Algernon had negative thoughts about marriage but when he saw Cecely he changed his mind. When Cecely and Gwendolen first meet, they call each other sister, but when they come to know that they are going to engage with the same person named "Earnest '' they fight each other. Gwendolen satirically says to Cecily that -
"I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different."
This thing is called " Disassembling" when the character doesn't actually wear any mast but they are pretending that they are someone else but they are not. They are pretending their double life is a double identity, maybe it is forced by society.
Conclusion-
To conclude we could say that this play reveals the reality of aristocratic Victorian society, how they pretend to have a double life to escape their responsibility, and they pretend that they are someone else. In this play both Algernon and Jack assume the identity of "Ernest" Yet ironically, they both are beginning their marital lives based on deception and lies.
Here i embeded youtube video about ' Importance of Being Earnest' as social satire.
Thank you.🦋✨
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Video-1
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