ADSactly Literature: Benchmark Theater - The Importance of Being Earnest

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Algernon’s aunt, Lady Bracknell, arrives for a visit, with her daughter, Gwendolen. Jack is conveniently left alone with Gwendolen and proposes marriage. The girl accepts, but Lady Bracknell disapproves. She questions Jack on his income and family and when she learns that he was discovered, as a baby, abandoned in a handbag at Victoria Station, she is furious and demands he produce a parent.

Lady Bracknell. I would strongly advise you, Mr. Worthing, to try and acquire some relations as soon as possible, and to make a definite effort to produce at any rate one parent, of either sex, before the season is quite over.
Jack. Well, I don’t see how I could possibly manage to do that. I can produce the hand-bag at any moment. It is in my dressing-room at home. I really think that should satisfy you, Lady Bracknell.
Lady Bracknell. Me, sir! What has it to do with me? You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter—a girl brought up with the utmost care—to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?

Later, we find Jack has come home to his country house and is mourning the death of the fictional ‘Ernest’. But just then, Algernon surprises him with a visit, masquerading, of course, as Ernest Worthing. Jack is forced to play along, otherwise his own cover will be blown.
We learn that young Cecily has always been fascinated by this Ernest and has been imagining a romance with him for months. When Algernon arrives as Ernest, the two quickly become engaged, much to Jack’s dismay.
Soon afterwards, Gwendolen arrives, wishing to surprise Jack. Obviously, chaos ensues when she learns from Cecily that they’re both engaged to one ‘Ernest Worthing’. The men arrive and are forced to admit to their lies. Cecily and Gwendolen stomp off, angry, but the couples quickly reconcile when the men assure them they’ve both arranged to be christened ‘Ernest’.

_{Judi Dench as Lady Bracknell and Frances O'Conor as Gwendolen - source}

Of course, Lady Bracknell arrives also, having followed Gwendolen, and is shocked to learn of Algernon’s engagement to Cecily. She disapproves, at first, but when she learns Cecily is heiress to a large fortune, she changes her mind.
Jack tries to make a deal that he approves Cecily’s marriage to Algy, if Lady Bracknell approves his marriage to Gwendolen. She refuses.

The play culminates with the arrival of Miss Prism, Cecily’s governess, whom we learn used to work for the Bracknell family and disappeared from their home, almost thirty years ago, with a baby. She admits to having lost the baby, misplacing him in a handbag. Evidently, it is revealed the baby was none other than Jack Worthing, who, as it turns out, is the son of Lady Bracknell’s sister, and thus Algernon’s older brother. Incredibly, he was actually christened Ernest John. Obviously, the play has a happy end, with the couples embracing.

_{Frances O'Conor, Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Reese Witherspoon - source}

Let’s start with the word ‘earnest’ or ‘Ernest, if you will. It’s clear Wilde’s title has a double meaning, referring to the quality of being earnest (honest), and the obsession throughout the play of being called Ernest. Indeed, both Gwendolen and Cecily admit to having long dreamed of being married to a man named Ernest. Gwendolen even tells Jack that she can’t see herself marrying someone with any other name.

Ernest is, as the play suggests, an ideal husband – sincere, trustworthy, “safe”, and thus a desirable man. However, the characters themselves, are the opposite of Ernest. Or earnest. Both Algernon and Jack are cultivating double lives and making-up stories to escape the rigid values and etiquette of Victorian society. Being earnest, in their eyes, is not desirable, it’s dull.

‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, while riddled with comedy and hilarious double entendres, is a biting commentary on the duplicity and utter boredom and smugness of Victorian society. Note how the two male characters both pretend to be Ernest while in truth, they’re both lying and bending the truth to suit their own interests and desires. It shows how trivial society’s opinion really is. Just because society considers Jack to be Ernest/earnest, does not make him so.

_{Adaptation at the National Arts Centre in Canada - source}

Another interesting part of the play is the comment on marriage and the happiness/unhappiness of it. Indeed, the play begins with an exchange between Algernon and his servant, Lane, on the topic.

Algernon. Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralising as that?
Lane. I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience of it myself up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person.

A short while later, we are presented with two opposing views – that of the cynical Algernon, who regards marriage as “business” and claims that

A man who marries without knowing Bunbury has a very tedious time of it.

Suggesting marriage is so horrendous one must regularly escape it. And then, there is Jack, who plays the romantic here, idolizing Gwendolen and the happiness of marriage.

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But Oscar Wilde goes to excessive lengths to prove that marriage is shallow and often, just as duplicitous as the characters themselves. We must remember that in Victorian society, marriage was a much different affair than what it is today – it was rarely a matter of love and it was usually the duty of the parents of a young lady to choose her a suitable husband, based on a number of things, such as wealth and assets, social standing and character.

Lady Bracknell. An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be.

Pleasant or unpleasant… And as was the case in those times, arranged marriages were mostly unpleasant and dull, although nobody would’ve admitted that. It must’ve been interesting (not to mention irritating) to Oscar Wilde to observe the double standards of a society that sent him to prison for being a homosexual.

‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is a delightfully written play about the falseness of society and it’s applicable both in Victorian times, as well as today. It’s a play about appearances and shallowness, what with several characters adopting characteristics of ‘the dandy’ figure, so modern in those times. The dandy pretends to be all about appearances and what he displays on the surface, which in turn makes him appear shallow, trivial and lacking substance. Obviously, in making the characters appear so superficial, Wilde is taking yet another shot at the upper classes, who are unaware of their own tedium.

By now, I hope I have awakened your interest in the play and I would encourage you to go see it in theaters, if that’s available to you. If not, there is a really good movie adaptation starring Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, from 2002.

So, have you seen/read ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’? Are you a Wilde fan?

Authored by @honeydue

References: 12 3 4
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