Another reason why the title suits the play very well is that for both Jack and Algy it is very important for them to be called Ernest. In Act 1 Jack declares that he loves Gwendolen and Gwendolen declares that she loves the name Ernest, so in total devotion to Gwendolen, Jack decides to get christened. He only seems to think about himself and just wants Gwendolen, but he does care otherwise he wouldn't be changing his name. Later in the play we see a mirrored pattern between Algernon and Cecily, these two relationships are very similar. Both the young men's action are the same and both the young lady's views on romance are identical. We see same patterns through out the play along with ironic misunderstandings, especially between Cecily and Gwendolen. Both men want to be called Ernest so they can love the woman that they want to be with, It is a strange thing for men to do but Oscar Wilde is ridiculing the upper class and it comes across at this moment.
Basically, he is expressing the young women’s views as ridiculous and beside the point. He makes the characters appear very stupid, but in Gwendolen’s case she comes across to others in the play as smart and intelligent. He pokes fun at all the characters. Oscar Wilde is mocking the upper classes lack of being serious. What they consider to be important are stupid pathetic things like, a persons name, the idea of a street having a fashionable and non-fashionable side, the thought making alliances with a package or of being married into a train station. The strange thing is that Oscar Wilde was an upper class man himself and effectively could get away with bantering and criticising his equals. Nobody knows the real reason why he did this, maybe simply because he could do it and get away with it or maybe it was to prove a point.
Within this play he has proved many points, most don’t relate to the title, but points such as how it is important to be Earnest, hard-working, determined, devoted and serious. We see that point come across many times, sometimes in a subliminal fashion. It is reflected in people’s actions throughout the duration of Act1, Act2 and the beginning of Act3. The way Oscar Widle creates characters that lie, don’t always care about others, aren’t attached to anything, can’t take things seriously or when they do have unfaithful and pointless thought’s.
As the words and name earnest and Ernest are homophones together, you can always look at the meanings of Earnest. The word earnest is a noun and has three meanings
- Being serious in mind or intention
- Characterised by sincerity of intentions
- Demanding or receiving serious attentions
The noun Earnest can be described with a list of other words
- Assiduous
- Committed
- Truthful
- Honest
- Dedicated
- Devoted
- Determined
- Hard-working
- Involved
- Grave
- Heartfelt
- Sincere
- Thoughtful
In general a lesson learnt by all of us throughout our lives is that to achieve the greatness, you have to be honest, determined and try your hardest. More than often lying gets people into trouble. This play shows us an exception to that rule where the lie was really the truth so everything Jack told throughout the play was mainly the truth and “All’s well that ends well”, as they say!
Jack and Algernon prove that it is important to be earnest but if they weren’t earnest they wouldn’t be getting married.
If Jack hadn’t created this lie, Ernest, to travel to town then he would never have met Gwendolen and even if he had, then she wouldn’t have ever loved him because he wouldn’t of been called Ernest. That was the only thing she wanted in a man! Algernon’s story is slightly different, he is generally mischievous and can’t be honest, likes to take risks and in order to get entertainment into his life he creates a false friend Mr Bunbury. When Jack and Algy’s true lives come out into the open they both discover what each one is doing. Algernon can’t resist finding out, a little more than Jack intends him to, about Jacks country life. Algernon goes to the country to find Jack young ward, Cecily Cardew. If he didn’t lie about who he was, saying he was Ernest then he would never of had a chance to be with Cecily.
Both of the men’s behaviour contrast against the title of the play and that is very humorous and ironic to see such a difference. There is a possibility that one of the things Oscar Widle was trying to produce in his work was Comedy.
There are many funny moments in the play, the misunderstandings between Gwendolen and Cecily and the way they politely argue, with Cecily doing or saying the complete opposite to Gwendolen’s requests and comments. What makes it even more funny is that each character is very one dimensional (I’ll be talking about that later.) The play has a lot of laughable and ludicrous moments. Each character has been perfected, using Oscar’s techniques. He devises a way of making each character not earnest so that they clash with the title.
Lady Bracknell is not earnest as she has the wrong intentions, she only cares about what and who is fashionable, she may appear earnest but really she isn’t. Miss Prism isn’t earnest, she misplaced a baby with her book and lost the baby by leaving it in a railway station, instead of being honest and devoted towards the child’s family she ran away and left the child there. She now seems honest with good intentions about Miss Cardew’s education and how Jack worries about her.
Merriman and Lane are both quite similar characters, as they are employed as servants they have to be what they are told, Lane lies and always agrees with Algernon, saying what he thinks Algy wants to hear. Merriman on the other hand does everything he is told but when Cecily and Gwendolen were arguing he should have stuck up for Cecily as he works for her and he shouldn’t have encouraged them by instead he is smirking and grinning at each of them.
Dr Chasuble would seem very devoted as he is a religious person but he isn’t really. He is very friendly and kind but not serious at all and goes around letting people get married with no problem at all. Cecily and Gwendolen both come across, even to the audience as sometimes, being true, pure and gentle. Yet they might be at times but they are both very rude towards each other at times and they only want somebody called Ernest. Their priorities aren’t quite in the right order so they aren’t very earnest.
Coming back to the point of what Oscar wanted to achieve with his play, he wanted to explain the reasons why it is important to and not to be earnest, why Ernest is such a nice name, with vibrations, ridiculing the upper classes and their views on society. There is one last point that is one of Oscar Wilde’s techniques in achieving all these points and that is ‘one-dimensional’ characters.
None of the characters in the play are three-dimensional. A three-dimensional person is somebody who evolves throughout life. When they listen to somebody, they take in what they have said and think about it. They learn lessons and their views (like anybody in real life would) change or develop. These are the sort of people we see in everyday life there is a high chance that you are one, I know I am a three-dimensional person. Jack may be two people and have two names, or two houses but his views on life are stuck rigid and he never changes throughout the play. He doesn’t evolves or listen to people he is purely a fictional character. We do see a hint of him learning something new and that is “The Vital Importance Of Being Earnest.”
