The Importance of Being Earnest Themes
Oscar Wilde wrote the play, The Importance of Being Earnest. In this article, various themes of The Importance of Being Earnest are discussed that are:
Dishonesty:
The play is a comedy which revolves around the name, Ernest. However, this comedy is full of lies and deceits. Likewise, Algernon tells a lie that his name is Ernest for getting close to Cecily. Also, Jack deceits everybody including Gwendolen that his name is Ernest, and he also gets worried for maintaining this lie for Gwendolen’s affection. It happens because both Gwendolen and Cecily are too passionate about the name, Ernest. They both admire this name too much for its meaning related to honesty. Both of them declare that they cannot love a person whose name is not Ernest. Wilde showed the real face of Victorian society through the females’ declaration which always preferred the appearance over the reality of anyone’s character. So, the girls’ condition forces Jack and Algernon to get christened as Ernest for marring their respective girlfriends.
Absence of compassion:
In this play, upper-class society has no sympathy for general people, and this gets revealed through the character of Lady Bracknell. As an instance, she rejects Jack Worthing as her future son-in-law for being an orphan or having an unknown parentage. Nevertheless, when Jack gets proved as her nephew at the end of the play, then he gets approval from her for becoming Gwendolen’s husband. Victorian society was that society who had a firm belief in behaviour differences among various classes of people. So, those people with the unknown parentage had no right to marry women of noble families in Victorian era as indicated by Lady Bracknell’s behaviour with Jack.
Religion:
In the story, Wilde shows the hypocrisy of the church people related to Victorian age. For example, Dr Chasuble who is a priest expresses his sexual love for Miss Prism through his double meaning language. She cannot understand his real meaning, not even after questioning him about the intention for his statement. Being a priest, it is not fair for him to do such ridiculous action despite being so knowledgeable about the limits between men and women in Christianity. However, he does so for being a hypocrite person. In this way, Wilde shows the hypocrisy of the clergy members through the character of Dr Chasuble.
Love:
The play circles around love. Both Algernon and Jack struggle for getting the love of their respective girlfriends. Also, Lady Bracknell, a lover of high status, does not allow her daughter to cross the limits of Victorian rich people. She does not let Gwendolen marry a poor orphan (Jack). When Jack gets proved as her nephew, then he gets accepted as her future son-in-law. Also, Lady Bracknell is greedy for money. Consequently, she allows Jack’s ward or Cecily to marry Algernon (her nephew) for Cecily’s great fatherly legacy. So, various people in the play have different approaches toward love.
Gender roles:
In Victorian era, women had to obey men. The lives of women centred around men in that era. However, in the play, Victorian gender roles get reversed. Lady Bracknell is the dominant person in the story despite being a woman. Also, Algernon and Jack are submissive in front of her despite being men in case of their marriages. Algernon cannot deny his aunt’s orders. So, he creates an invalid friend (Bunbury) in the countryside. Then, he regularly reports his aunt about Bunbury’s sickness and his need to visit the village to avoid her boring dinner parties. So, this story reveals the opposite condition of roles for different genders.
Falsehood:
The characters like Jack and Algernon display misrepresentation in the play. Jack lies about having the name of Ernest in London. Also, he lies in front of Cecily and Miss Prism of having an irresponsible and troubled brother named Ernest in London. Jack lies for escaping his duties as a guardian of Cecily in the village. Then, Algernon lies to his Aunt Augusta (Lady Bracknell) and other people (friends and relatives) of having a friend called Bunbury. He says to them that Bunbury who is invalid and lives in the countryside remains ill regularly. Therefore, he has to visit him for the sake of friendship. Algernon lies for avoiding his aunt’s dinner functions and for having pleasure in the village. So, Algernon and Jack represent falsehood for escaping their duties.
Marriages:
Marriage is a dominant theme in this story. The purpose of this play is marriage-fixing of main characters. Both Jack and Algernon struggle to fix their marriages with Gwendolen and Cecily respectively. When they get their goal in the end, then Miss Prism and Dr Chasuble also appear as lovers. So, the play ends after the fixing of three marriages.
Conclusion:
So, The Importance of Being Earnest, is a play that reflects some social issues of Victorian era like unequal gender roles, and such issues are responsible for the main problems of major characters in the story.
Relevant pages:
The Importance of Being Earnest Analysis
The Importance of Being Earnest (farce)