Importance of Being Earnest

 

Importance of Being Earnest

                     _  By   Oscar Wilde

               Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde  was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s.  

              The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae to escape burdensome social obligations. 

                 Working within the social conventions of late Victorian London, the play's major themes are the triviality with which it treats institutions as serious as marriage, and the resulting satire of Victorian ways. Some contemporary reviews praised the play's humour and the culmination of Wilde's artistic career, while others were cautious about its lack of social messages. Its high farce and witty dialogue have helped make The Importance of Being Earnest Wilde's most enduringly popular play.

 ★ Thinking activity on Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde : 

[1].  Can you find any autobiographical element in this play if Yes thean illustrate ?

               The  "Importance of Being Earnest"  the play by Oscar Wilde. It is a story of courtships, betrothals and confused identities in which two young men – Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff – pursue two young women who are both determined to marry someone called Ernest. Set in fashionable London society, the play is characterised by its wit, artifice and highly polished surfaces. First performed on St Valentine’s Day in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest was to be Wilde’s last play. 

                 Oscar Wilde was the Victorian novelist, who creates episodes in which his characters live secret life or create false impression to express who they really are.Wilde kept his homosexuality a secret. He married and had two sons. But in 1891, wilde began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, a young British poet and aristocrat 16 years his junior. Douglas' father, the Marquess of Queens berry, was outraged by the relationship and sought to expose Wilde. 

                The Importance of Being Earnest was an artistic breakthrough for Wilde, something between self-parody and a deceptively flippant commentary on the dramatic genre in which Wilde had already had so much success.  In Wilde’s hands, the form of Victorian melodrama became something else entirely. Wilde introduced a new character to the genre, the figure of the “dandy” (a man who pays excessive attention to his appearance). This figure added a moral texture the form had never before possessed. The character of the dandy was heavily autobiographical and often a stand-in for Wilde himself, a witty, overdressed, self-styled philosopher who speaks in epigrams and paradoxes, ridicules the cant and hypocrisy of society’s moral arbiters, and self-deprecatingly presents himself as trivial, shallow, and ineffectual. In fact, the dandy in these plays always proves to be deeply moral and essential to the happy resolution of the plot.

                 Though, we can find that these autobiographical element is thoroughly connected with the play 'importance of being earnest.' This play written in Victoria Era, and it is connected with the rules of that Era.The characters of this play, Jack and Algernon change their identity. wilde present here his own marriage life with the rules of Victoria age.and it is connected with the characters of this story.

[2]. Did Lady Bracknell representation of Victorian society ? 

            Lady Bracknell is first and foremost a symbol of Victorian earnestness and the unhappiness it brings as a result. She is powerful, arrogant, ruthless to the extreme, conservative, and proper. In many ways, she represents Wilde's opinion of Victorian upper-class negativity, conservative and repressive values, and power. 

                 Lady Augusta Bracknell, fictional character, the mother of Gwendolen Fairfax in Oscar Wilde ’s The Impotance of being Earnest (1895).She is very imperious. She has a strong presence and strong opinions about almost every- thing. She is the epitome of the domineering mother-in-law and the priggish society maven. 

               Lady Bracknell is first and foremost a symbol of Victorian earnestness and the unhappiness it brings as a result. She is powerful, arrogant, ruthless to the extreme, conservative, and proper. In many ways, she represents Wilde's opinion of Victorian upper-class negativity, conservative and repressive values, and power. 

             Her opinions and mannerisms betray a careful and calculated speaking pattern. She is able to go round for round with the other characters on witty epigrams and social repartee. Despite her current position, Lady Bracknell was not always a member of the upper class; she was a social climber bent on marrying into the aristocracy. As a former member of the lower class, she represents the righteousness of the formerly excluded. Because she is now Lady Bracknell, she has opinions on society, marriage, religion, money, illness, death, and respectability. She is another of Wilde's inventions to present his satire on these subjects. 

               It represents by one example is that, when Gwendolen tells about her marriage with Jack. At that time, lady Bracknell said that," I want to know about Jack's family background, economical status, and their parents. After knowing, she find that Jack is orphan.And second example is that, she doesn't want Algernon's marriage with Cecily. But when she find out that Cecily is rich. She accepts that marriage.

               So, lady Bracknell represents class conflict in the play,and she is cunning, narrow minded, authoritarian and possibly the most suitable character in the play and that's why Oscar Wilde put this character in this story.

[3].According to your reading what are the leading different find in this to Victoria work Importance of being earnest and Jude the Obscure ?

 [ Note:- this both literary work talks about marriage ]

                 Importance  of being earnest" is written by Oscar Wilde and" Jude the obscure" is written by Thomas Hardy. These works were written in Victorian age. Main concept of both the work is the same and that is the theme of marriage.and other are class conflict .

                  Marriage obviously plays a central role in the both plays; importance of being earnest and Jude the obscure. But their characters have difference idea about marriage. Even, Wilde explores the idea of marriage in three broad ways: how it relates to love, how it is viewed among the upper class, and how people choose their mates.  

                    The play importance of being earnest focuses on two man, Algernon and Jack, who ate both leading double lives.Algernon and Jack both the members of England's upper class and therefore under social pressure to behave themselves in public.In order to escape this pressure from time to time, each has created another identity in another community. Things becomes complicated when ,Jack and Algernon falls in love; Jack with Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen;. Algernon with Jack's ward , Cecily. Gwendolen believes Jack is named Earnest , and Cecily believes Algernon is named Earnest.

                While, Thomas Hardy' s work Jude the obscure consist of critique of institutions of marriage, which Hardy saw as flawed and unjust. The Nobel's plot is designed to wring all the possible tragedy out of an unhappy marriage,as Jude is first guilted into marrying,Arabella , by her feigned pregnancy, and Sue marries Phillotson mostly to make Jude jealous. Both protagonist immediately regret their decision, and realised how a single impulsive decision can affect their entire lives.

                 So, We can say that both the work discuss about same thing of marriage but somethings are differents between both plays.

[4]. This play talk about class or marriage or dual identity according to your reading , Can you identify the main themes of play discriminate with some sapportive argument.

               The Victorian society,in which Wilde lived was concerned with wealth, family status, and moral characters, especially when it came to marriage.but here, dual identity is a very important theme.

                  Because, the name of "Earnest" comes to symbolise different things for different people. For Gwendolen and Cecily, it ' inspires absolute confidence' but also symbolise the ideal husband or lover. For Jack ,' Earnest' is an alter ego, an identity through which he can court Gwendolen .

                    The play repeatedly mocks Victorian traditions and social customs, marriage and the pursuit of love in particular. In Victorian times earnestness was considered to be the over-riding societal value, originating in religious attempts to reform the lower classes, it spread to the upper ones too throughout the century. The play's very title, with its mocking paradox (serious people are so because they do not see trivial comedies), introduces the theme, it continues in the drawing room discussion, "Yes, but you must be serious about it. I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them," says Algernon in Act 1; allusions are quick and from multiple angles.

                   According to the theme of identity, Gwendolen doesn't accept Jack's proposal because he is earnestly in love with her,but she believes him to be named 'Earnest' , a name she find melodious . Cecily in a similar manner commits to Algernon not because he is earnest but because she believes him to be 'Earnest'. So, the theme of identity play a vital role in this play.

                  The second important theme is the marriage. By this story Oscar Wilde explain the Victorian marriage institutions.and lady Bracknell was a Victorian woman. She want to her daughter married with wealthy and upper class man .and that's why she ask Jack about their family. At that time identity also plays a vital role.

[5].Can you make compare and contrast between two characters Jack and Dr.Jekyll ( Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)

             Here, we take two characters to make compare and contrast and they are Jack and Dr Jekyll. Jack is the character of the" importance of being earnest" which is written by Oscar Wilde and Mr.jekyll is the character of strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Which is written by Thomas Hardy. But both the characters play the role of double life in the play.

★ Dr. Jekyll :

             In,  Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In the story, he is a good friend of main protagonist Gabriel John Utterson. Jekyll is a kind and respected English doctor who has repressed evil urges inside of him.[1] In an attempt to hide this, he develops a type of serum that he believes will effectively mask his dark side. Instead, Jekyll transforms into Edward Hyde, the physical and mental manifestation of his evil personality.[2] This process happens more regularly until Jekyll becomes unable to control when the transformations occur.

                 He is well respected and intelligent scientist. He is a wealthy man. He believes that man has two identify "good " and " evil". Dr. Jekyll is a physician who, feels that he is battling between the good and evil within himself, thus leading to struggle with his alter ego, Hyde. Jekyll has a friendly personality, but as Hyde, he becomes mysterious and violent. So, Dr. Jekyll's second identity as Mr. Hyde made him evil person in the society.

★ Jack Worthing : 

                        Character jack Worthing, the play’s protagonist, was discovered as an infant by the late Mr. Thomas Cardew in a handbag in the cloakroom of a railway station in London. Jack has grown up to be a seemingly responsible and respectable young man, a major landowner and Justice of the Peace in Hertfordshire, where he has a country estate. In Hertfordshire, where he is known by what he imagines to be his real name, Jack, he is a pillar of the community. He is guardian to Mr. Cardew’s granddaughter, Cecily, and has other duties and people who depend on him, including servants, tenants, farmers, and the local clergyman. For years, he has also pretended to have an irresponsible younger brother named Ernest, whom he is always having to bail out of some mischief. In fact, he himself is the reprobate brother Ernest. Ernest is the name Jack goes by in London, where he really goes on these occasions. The fictional brother is Jack’s alibi, his excuse for disappearing from Hertfordshire and going off to London to escape his responsibilities and indulge in exactly the sort of behavior he pretends to disapprove of in his brother. 

                In Hertfordshire, Jack is known as Jack and in London, he is known as Earnest. Jack is in love with his friend Algernon's cousin Gwendolen. but her aunt lady Bracknell want to know about family of Earnest. When she found that Earnest is orphan man. She doesn't like this marriage. But Gwendolen like the name"Earnest".so,we can see the double identity of Jack in this story. 

                   The double identity is the similar theme between Jack and Dr. Jekyll but Jack's second identity as Earnest made him good man to marriage. And Jekyll's second identity as Hyde made him evil person because as Hyde he was murdered.

[6].See this 3 video and after that give your point of view and your thoughts. 

                    By this videos, we can say that it is about the homosexuality,and which is not crime. The judgement section 377 wad given by a five judges bench comprising the then chief justic of India, Dipak Mishra, R.F. Nariman,D.Y. chandrachud, A.M. khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra. section 377 of the Indian penal code is introduced in1861 during the British rule of India. The section 377 tells that homosexual relationship is the criminal act. Ans it remains in force relating to sex with minors, non- consensual sexual act, and bestiality. 

                        As same as the "importance of being earnest" present the idea of homosexualality. The writer of the story Oscar Wilde kept his homosexuality a secret . He married and had two sons. But in 1891, Wilde began an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, a young British poet and aristocrat 16 years his junior. Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queens berry, was outraged by relationship and sought to expose Wilde. So, this play closely connected with that three videos.

   

Thank you .....✨