The words “Bunbury” and “bunburying” ,meanwhile, which are used to imply Algernon’s double live, according to a letter from Aleister Crowley to Sir R. H. Bruce Lockhart, an in-joke conjunction that came about after Wilde boarded a train at Banbury on which he met a schoolboy. They got into conversation and subsequently arranged to meet again at Sunbury. Also the use of the word Bunbury may refer to a to a private, somewhat secretive, sensual, and homosexual need of the character of Algernon Moncrieff—or at least of Wilde.
Also it could mean that Wilde created Bunbury as Algernon’s imaginary friend because he could not have his homosexual issues openly admitted or acknowledged on the English stage.
On the other hand the name Ernest is quite the ironic name because of the character of Jack who opposes, by his actions, to the original meaning of the word earnest which is proven on numerous occasions throughout the play.
The women in the play seem also to be quite judgemental towards names as the audience finds out. Both Gwendolen and Cecily have been lied by Algernon and Jack that they will marry a person who goes by the name of Ernest. Both women have in common their singled-minded persistence in pursuing a husband named Ernest. They have strong opinions, are able to deal with unexpected situations, and are connected in many instances by dialogue that is repetitive and parallel. Gwendolen knows what she wants. She comes to the country to pursue her Ernest, thinking she will rescue him. She tells Cecily, “If the poor fellow has been entrapped into any foolish promise, I shall consider it my duty to rescue him at once, and with a firm hand.” From this scene where Gwendolen and Cecily first become friends then enemies and then bet friends again the audience can find out how Wilde is satirising not just the male part of the aristocratic society but the women in it as well. Wilde wanted to become more English than the English born themselves so that he is then able to ridicule the high classed English society.
In the play Canon Chasuble is the symbol of religious thought and Wilde uses him to show how little the Victorians concerned themselves with attitudes reflecting religious faith. Chasuble can christen and encourage at a moment’s notice with identical lectures filled with meaningless clichés. Jack and Algernon, for their parts, debate over who is a better candidate to be christened with the name Ernest, an argument that is just as absurd and fiction-based as the women’s which is who is right to get married to Ernest Worthing. Jack argues that he never was christened, so he has a perfect right to be. Algernon counters by saying the fact that he’s survived the experience indicates that his “constitution can stand it.” He reminds Jack that Jack’s brother almost died this week from a chill, as though this damns Jack’s own constitution—while, of course, that brother is the made-up Ernest.
While christening is supposed to be something holly and “cleansing and being welcomed into the house of God”, Dr. Chasuble is the opposite of these values. Being christened by him Algernon and Jack will just continue to live in a world where materialism has taken over. The act of christening for both the characters becomes like a way of escaping reality and who they are.
In general religion in the play doesn’t really exist as Wilde is trying to emphases during the Victorian era religion was something quite unimportant. Food and decadence have become like the characters religion.
On another level, food seems to be a stand-in for sex, as when Jack tucks into the bread and butter with too much delight and Algernon accuses him of behaving as though he were already married to Gwendolen. Food and greed suggest and substitute for other appetites and indulgences.
Religion is referred to as a matter of form and plan. The significance of a person’s baptism is not even a matter for concern when Jack and Algernon get the canon to agree to baptize them. A person’s rebirth is only a matter of a name on a piece of paper. It is a means to an end because it will get both men what they want: Cecily and Gwendolen.
Wilde created “The Importance of Being Earnest” to satirise and ridicule the upper class of the English society and also to show that aristocratic life is a life that is led and obsessed by materialism. Algernon and Jack both have double identities so that they are able to live two different lives. Both of the want to get christened only because they want to marry the women they think are in love with. Christening looses its meaning and becomes something totally demoralising. Wilde has emphasizes how degenerated the whole aristocratic society is by creating such comical characters and how pathetic and meaningless their actions and conversations are.
