The Importance of Being Earnest Analysis
The Importance of Being Earnest has been written by Oscar Wilde. In this article, we'll discuss its analysis. Some important points of The Importance of Being Earnest analysis are:
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The initial four-act version of the play:
Wilde wrote "The Importance of Being Earnest" as a four-act play in the beginning. When the producer, named George Alexander requested the writer to reduce it to a three-act play, then Wilde converted it into a smaller form. George Alexander was the same person who had to play one of the leading male parts. So, the three-act version of the play came into the printed form. Although, the four-act version also exists. Wilde removed a character. His name was Mr Grisby, and he was a solicitor's clerk. His action was to go down the countryside to serve a writ of attachment for that fictitious Ernest Worthing, and this incident had to affect the following conversation in the play.
A successful play:
George Alexander presented the drama, "The Importance of Being Earnest" at St. James's Theatre on the evening of 14th February.1895. The audience and critics appreciated it a lot. Wilde reached the top of his success as a writer by this play. He won the hearts of London citizens after a long struggle as an author. From everywhere, the managers of different theatres went to convince him writing plays for them. He had several ideas for many stories. On the passing of four days after the first dramatic presentation of The Importance of Being Earnest, he lost ideas about those unwritten plays due to an unknown incident for some time. That event also led towards his trial for homosexuality and conviction. Also, he got the punishment of two years in prison.
A comedy of conversation with little performance:
"The Importance of Being Earnest" is mainly a comedy of dialogue. There is little action within the play. Its plot is thin because of few activities by the characters. The readers find this play more interesting because of its dialogues in the three acts. Also, the entire action is that the three pairs of lovers get fixed for marriages, the unknown parentage of Jack gets discovered, and Algernon attempts to become the fake brother of Jack; but these actions are few for such a three-act play. The central point is that the characters matter more for their abundant dialogues and less for their short actions.
Wilde's quote about the play:
The author said that this play is ''a trivial comedy for serious people''. There can be two meanings of this phrase. Firstly, the writer may have meant that this comedy is of little importance for witty or people interested in critical matters to show courtesy for intelligent people. Then, another cause can be that he may have said it ironically because the play is full of witty and paradoxical quotations, so it is baseless to refer this story as a trivial one for intelligent people who cannot deny wisdom. For example, Algernon says in Act 1 that lower classes should set an example of moral responsibility for upper levels. This sentence is humorous and self-contradictory because it is necessary for upper-class people to perform moral duties rightly to set an example for lower-class people.
The foolishness of characters in the play:
- Algernon invents an ailing friend named Mr Bunbury in the countryside as an excuse for visiting that area for fun. In the same manner, Jack creates his younger and careless brother called Mr Ernest Worthing in London as a pretext to visit that city for enjoyment. Then, Jack and Algernon want and try to get christened with the name "Ernest" for their respective ladies' love. So, the similarity of conditions is an example of parallelism of situations between leading male characters.
- Also, Cecily accepts Algernon's marriage offer with the same haste and interest for the name of Ernest as Gwendolen does when proposed by Jack. So, this is an example of parallelism of states between female characters.
- In this way, the writer created comparable conditions of characters so that the readers can enjoy the wit of the play.
- Furthermore, the roles like Miss Prism and Lady Bracknell prove themselves more as caricatures than real-life characters through their dialogues.
The pun in the title of the play:
The writer has used a pun in the title of The Importance of Being Earnest. The pun is the humorous use of a word or phrase which has several meanings or which sounds like another word or phrase. The name of this story indicates that it is necessary for male characters to have Ernest as their first name for marrying their respective ladies. On the other hand, the title also shows that it is valuable for both men to be honest or earnest in love for uniting with their girlfriends. So, the word, "Earnest" has a pun in the title for readers.
Some food for thought for serious-minded people in the play:
- Wilde has suggested this play for witty people. It may be that he thought, even, serious-minded people can derive pleasure due to the use of witty dialogues in this play. There are a lot of real-life situations related to England society in this story.
- As an instance, Algernon says that it is a tradition that servants consume much wine at the bachelors' parties due to his servant or Lane's over-consumption of wine at his parties. He also says that whenever someone accepts a marriage proposal and with rapidity, the romance between a couple ends. Algernon also says that relatives are tedious people which is still a common observation in the world, and it was an ordinary observation in England during Wilde's period.
- Likewise, the portrayal of Lady Bracknell reflects the cruel society. She truly represents the wrong mentality of that era's society. It is through her lens that a reader comes to know that if Jack had not been a legal child, she would not have accepted him as his future son-in-law. If Jack had not emerged as a legitimate child in the play, he would have got that ill-treatment from the society as well which he received from Lady Bracknell for his birth mystery.
The paradoxes and epigrams:
- The play, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is full of paradoxical and epigrammatic quotations. There are many examples of paradoxes and epigrams in it.
- A paradox is a statement or situation which seems impossible or is difficult to understand due to having two opposite facts or features. For example, Lady Bracknell says to Jack that it is hardly possible for Gwendolen to live in a village for her being a simplistic and well-trained girl, and this remark is paradoxical because a plain and virtuous girl can hardly negate her staying in a countryside.
- Also, an epigram is a short saying or poem expressing an idea in a smart and amusing style. It can be paradoxical, funny, or witty. For example, Gwendolen says to Jack that if he does not take some too long time to return; she will wait for him till her last breath. This sentence is epigrammatic and paradoxical because she tells to wait for him till her last breath if he returns soon, but the condition of limited waiting is ironic here and creates some paradoxical and epigrammatic effect.
Farcical follies of the play:
- This play, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a farce. A farce is a funny play or film in which the characters become involved in improbable conditions. There are a lot of farcical stupidities in this play.
- For example, Cecily and Gwendolen both accept the marriage proposals by their respective lovers with rapidity and too much interest in Ernest as a name. They both foolishly say that they cannot love a man whose name is not Ernest. This statement of both ladies becomes a source of the same desire of getting christened as Ernest by Jack for Gwendolen and Algernon for Cecily.
- As another example, Miss Prism puts a baby (Jack) in a leather bag in her absent-mindedness. Then, she drops that bag at the Victoria railway station while completely forgetting about the baby on leaving that place. This instance of Miss Prism is a very significant folly in the play.