Paper 104 :The Importance of Being Earnest
Paper 104 :The Importance of Being Earnest
Academic Details
- Name: Jay p. Vaghani
- Roll No.: 6
- Enrollment No.: 5108240035
- Sem.: 1
- Batch: 2024 - 2026
- E-mail: vaghanijay77@gmail.com
Assignment Details
Paper Name: Literature of the Victorians
- Paper No.: 104
- Paper Code: : 22395
Unit:2 : The Importance of Being Earnest
- Topic: The Importance of Being Earnest
- Submitted To: Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
- Submitted Date: November 20, 2024
Introduction to The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is, on the surface, a satire comedy that comments on Victorian social mores and values. The two main characters, Jack and Algernon, create fake personas to escape social obligations and indulge in love. For instance, in comedies of manners like marriage, identity, and class, Wilde employed witty dialogue and absurd situations coupled with intelligent humor to lampoon serious social issues.
Symbols of The Importance of Being Earnest
1. The Name "Earnest"
Symbols: The name "Earnest" means sincerity and honesty, traits that irony is lacking in the two principal characters of the play. Jack and Algernon lie and backbite while masquerading as "earnest" men, providing humorous contradictions.
Deeper Meaning: The play mocks Victorian fetishization of appearances. It shows how people seem to focus on surface-level qualities instead of going for sound character.
2. The Double Lives
Literally: The two lives Jack and Algernon lead represent the double life of Victorian society. People wear a decent and proper mask outside; but inside, they indulge in their selfish desires.
Example: Jack pretends to have a rowdy brother named "Ernest" to avoid responsibilities, and Algernon fabricates "Bunbury," an imaginary friend, to escape social obligation.
Deeper Meaning: This signifies Wilde's criticism of hypocrisy in Victorian culture, where people hide themselves to follow very strict social norms.
Step 3
Food
Symbolism: Food in this play is symbolism for indulgence, selfishness, and triviality. In the play, the characters quarrel mainly over food with their concern stuck in the immediate pleasure rather than the serious matters.
Example: Algernon’s obsession with cucumber sandwiches highlights his carefree attitude, while Gwendolen and Cecily bond over tea but fight over sugar and cake when their rivalry surfaces.
Deeper Meaning: Wilde uses food to show how Victorian society was more concerned with trivial luxuries than with meaningful values.
4. The Handbags and Diaries
Symbolism: A handbag symbolizes identity and social standing. Finding Jack in a handbag as a baby is a comical symbol of the absurdity of Victorian values about birth and class. Diaries, however, symbolize how personal life becomes dramatic and theatrical.
Deeper Meaning: Wilde uses these things to mock the emphasis that Victorian society placed upon background and material evidence of worth.
5. Marriage
Symbolism: Marriage is symbolic of social contracts and expectations rather than love or connection. Characters in this play regard marriage as being able to attain status or fulfill the role of society.
Example : In Lady Bracknell, marriage is treated like a business affair wherein wealth and lineage outweigh the considerations of love.
Deeper Meaning: Wilde here criticizes the Victorian view of marriage in which personal happiness is often sacrificed.
1. Social Expectations: The Absurdity
Wilde unmasks the Victorian absurdity, which is found more in class, gender, and etiquette-based social expectations. All these brought out through extreme characters depicting how seriously shallow rules were taken.
Example: When interrogating Jack about his wealth and background, Lady Bracknell displays how Victorian society looked at status as important compared to character.
Relevance Today: This theme reminds us to question social norms and look at genuine qualities rather than shallow expectations.
2. The Hypocrisy of the Elite
The play depicts a double-sided Victorian aristocracy, where people pretend to be ethically aggressive while secretly breaking rules.
Example: The double life led by Jack and Algernon is an example of how the elite class manipulates rules for personal convenience behind the mask of respectability.
Relevance Today: Wilde's warning against hypocrisy holds quite valid in today's time, when double faces pretend to exist behind the face value, thereby hiding the real intentions.
3. Identity and Self Discovery
The characters of the play are encountered with identity questions, both literal and metaphorical. Jack's search for his true parentage works as a mini-microcosm for the greater quest to discover who we are in a society obsessed with tags.
Example: Jack discovers that he is actually named Ernest, and so every single one of his early lies is ironically true. It is a comedic aspect that reflects how identity can be both constructed and accidental.
Relevance Today: The theme promotes introspection and attacks the notion that societal tags define us.
4. The Seriousness of Triviality
Wilde satirizes how Victorian society took the most trivial affairs seriously, and vice versa. The characters fuss over unimportant things (like names or cucumber sandwiches) and pay scant attention to important things.
Illustration: Gwendolen and Cecily are more disturbed by the name "Ernest" than by the personalities of Jack and Algernon.
Relevance Today: This theme goes to call for not taking too many superficial things to heart and focusing on what really matters.
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5. Marriage as a Social Contract
Marriage in the play is portrayed as a means of enhancing one's social status rather than being a result of love. Wilde criticizes how Victorian society handled marriage - more so as a transactional arrangement.
Example: Lady Bracknell approves of Jack's engagement to Gwendolen only after discovering his wealthy and noble heritage.
Relevance Today: This theme highlights the importance of choosing relationships based on personal happiness rather than societal pressure.
6. Love and Romance
Wilde loves to always show love jokingly and in an over-exaggerated manner to mock the idealized thoughts of love. The characters tend to fall in love so quickly and for the shallowest of reasons; it is shown that love often comes with fantasy rather than reality.
Example: Both Gwendolen and Cecily fell in love with the name "Ernest" rather than the actual person.
Relevance Today: The theme talks about the idealism of unrealized expectations between relationships and reminds one and all of being genuine about love.
7. Rebellion Against Authority
Subtle rebellion against the constraints of the rules of Victorian society is reflected in the actions of Jack as well as Algernon. They forged their identities to elope from responsibilities and submit to their desires.
Example: How Algernon invents "Bunburying" to get away from dull social engagements to symbolise a playfully heeded expectation of society.
Relevance Today: Any reader, who feels shackled by the rules of society and longs for the freedom to be himself or herself, would identify with that theme.
8. The Power of Wit and Humor
The play is itself a tribute to the power of wit and humor as tools for social comment. Wilde's play in it exposes the weaknesses of Victorian society with witty dialogue and absurd situations.
Example: The witty dialogue often betrays the contradiction, such as when the utterly ridiculous standards Lady Bracknell poses to marriage are given an airing.
Relevance Today: This theme reminds us about solving important issues through humor and how one should raise a challenge against authority.
Timeless Relevance: The play was written for Victorian England; however, the themes it tackles – hypocrisy, identity, and expectations by society – make it as pertinent today.
Wilde's Message: Let us laugh at our absurdities, and at life's and society's, and look deeper, after all, to their truth. He urges us to live authentically rather than exist in the barred walls of shallow norms.
Conclusion
It is a comedy that goes far beyond the genre. It is a good satire of the Victorian society and an exciting tribute to individuality and wit. The use of symbols like the name "Ernest," food, and double lives; themes like marriage, hypocrisy, and identity are what make Wilde create an entertaining and exciting play worth reading for a modern audience. The play reminds people to be honest in words and acts, to question the rules of society, and to laugh at the ableness of life when necessary.
References :
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “The Importance of Being Earnest | Comedy, Satire, Farce.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Sept. 2024, www.britannica.com/topic/The-Importance-of-Being-Earnest.
Words Count : 1515
I Images : 1
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